Behind the independent bottler Living Souls from Scotland is a team from Glasgow, with extensive expertise and experience in the whisky industry. We’ve tried their Blended Scotch 40 Years a while ago and now we’re having five new single malts at once.
Imperial 27 yo 1998 (42,2%, Living Souls 2025, refill bourbon barrels)
Nose: a great mix of bananas, ripe apples and natural vanilla, with wet limestone and waxy hints. Gorse bushes. Some barley grist and subtle floral notes. Over time it becomes warm and grassy, with a light whiff of sandalwood.
Mouth: now more tropical fruits, in the direction of papaya and banana, even guavas. Tinned pineapple. Then mild ginger and wild pepper to spice things up a little, along with citrus zest. A hint of dark honey in the end, along with some toffee, prickly pears and oaky notes.
Finish: medium length, with the bourbon spice coming out more. Minty notes, gorse and warming fruits.
A very mature and balanced Imperial, missing some of the very brighter passion fruits that you sometimes get, but nonetheless showing a rich fruity core.
Speyburn 18 yo (46,5%, Living Souls 2025, first-fill bourbon barrels)
Nose: Speyburn is a bit of a middle-of-the-road spirit. We’re getting yellow apples and plenty of pears, creamy vanilla and a lot of stewed banana. However this is overtaken by active woody notes. Some fresh wood shavings, pencils and carpenter’s workshops.
Mouth: more creamy sweetness mixed with youngish oak. Vanilla ice cream, biscuits, grape juice and more (green) banana, along with a coppery note and white pepper. The sweetness is a little too much for me, as it flattens out the profile. Then light floral honey, mild nutmeg and caramel.
Finish: medium length, with more vanilla sweetness, a hint of ginger and fresh oak.
Vanilla and bourbon oak often makes a dram easy-going, but here it’s a little too much for my taste. Quite a mono-dimensional, cask-driven Speyburn. Score: 83/100
Glen Garioch 19 yo (48%, Living Souls 2025, first-fill sherry butts)
Nose: rich and autumnal. I’m picking up prunes, plenty of tobacco leaves and cinnamon candy. I like that combo. Then cocoa powder, roasted peanuts and chestnuts and freshly sawn cedar, with hints of old leather. On top there is a whiff of orange blossom. While it’s a dark and fairly dry style, there’s plenty to like.
Mouth: some sweetness (dried figs, treacle and chocolate) but quickly drifting off towards rich savoury notes and wood, with a firm earthy side. Moss and leaves. Caramelized nuts. Mid-palate also flinty notes, with cigar leaves, rye bread, clove oil and nutmeg. A few drops of orange bitters too.
Finish: medium to long, on black peppercorns, walnuts, worn leather and ginger.
The distillery is anecdotal here, this is all about savoury sherry. Especially on the palate the cask takes over and limits the complexity. I like my sherry a little more bright and fruity, but not a bad whisky at all. Available from Master of Malt or Royal Mile Whiskies for instance. Score: 85/100
Tamnavulin 10 yo (48%, Living Souls 2025, Chianti wine cask)
Nose: like a rosé wine. Some strawberries and redcurrants, along with fragrant flower petals. Rather wine-y, with a hint of clove oil, gingery notes and light sawdust. The cask takes center stage.
Mouth: the wine takes over. There’s a fruitiness but also tangy alcohol, with a lot of oak spice and wine tannin. That means black pepper, clove and wood. Then back to strawberries, mixed with gingerbread and cinnamon dusting. A firm bitterness sets in.
Finish: bittersweet, with some forest fruit and dark cocoa but mostly spiced wine.
Not my style, the Chianti is quite dominant. The dark fruitiness may be an asset, but it brings too much spice and wine to the party. Red wine rarely works for me. Score: 80/100
Bowmore 7 yo (50%, Living Souls 2025, second fill bourbon barrel)
Nose: rather chalky, with wet pebblestones, sea spray and dried shrubbery on the beach. Distant smoky notes. Then some wet newspaper and hints of hay, along with sourdough bread, whiffs of chlorine and grapefruit peels. After some time there’s also unripe pineapple. I’m not picking up the other tropical fruits that some people seem to find.
Mouth: a slightly more tropical flash, including mango, but it quickly moves back towards mineral notes and wet chalk. Then back to (bittersweet) grapefruit and lemon zest, cold smoke, burnt heather, salt and white pepper. Really naked, even a little rough and austere.
Finish: not too long, in fact. More minerals and drying citrus zest.
I really like modern Bowmore but this one seems to be a little sharper and zestier than I expected. Already good, but I think it could have improved with a little more maturity. Lots of character though. Score: 87/100