Auchroisk 22 YO (D/T Rare Auld)

This is the second of three Duncan Taylor Rare Auld samples that I bought from smwhisky.com.au a little while back. The first, an Aultmore (reviewed here), was an eye-opener for me, not having tried a dram from that distillery before.
This one is also a first for me - two in a row!

The Rare Auld series are all single cask (#30453 for this Auchroisk), non-chill filtered and natural coloured.

Auchroisk 1988, 22 Year Old, 48.1%, Duncan Taylor Rare Auld

Colour: Oxidised white wine.

Nose: Nuts first up - brazil, almonds. Then honey and malt. Lemon kicks in next, coupled with a slight brininess too. The (relatively low) booze seems to poke out a bit here. Paint strippers develop after even more time in the glass.

Palate: A nice oily mouthfeel. It slips around the upper palate nicely, coating the back of the tongue.
Oak. Lots of it here. It's also quite spicy first up. Some chocolate notes next, a little honeyed fruit, but too little perhaps. Drowned in oak.

Finish: Not a super long malt, but long enough for bitterness to set in. It finishes almost acrid after a while. A little unpleasant really.

Well, I can't say I really enjoyed this one too much. Unexciting and forgettable - except for that finish, unfortunately.
I'm sure there are other, better, examples of this malt around.

After doing my reading I learn that Auchroisk is a relatively new distillery, built in 1973 (production began in 1974), and owned by Diageo. The majority of spirit goes in to J&B Rare and Johnnie Walker Red, apparently, and it seems to have been built primarily to meet the demands of such blends.
I'm glad, then, to be getting in early on this one, as Auchroisk will, no doubt one day soon, be super-premiumised and sold to desperately thirsty billionaires in designer crystal eye-droppers.