Hanyu Nice Butt

Another of the samples bought recently from whiskysample.nl

An OB Hanyu for Full Proof Europe - a Dutch whisky enterprise apparently - that formed part of a series of bottlings of Hanyu casks featuring somewhat different, and award-winning (I believe), labels, designed by Hans Dillesse.

Hanyu "Nice Butt", 1988 - 2008, for Full Proof Europe 55% (Cask 9307)

Nose: A little reticent at first, but soon enough full-blown sherry notes develop. Raisins, roasted nuts, spices and chocolate. Meaty, too. A bit later, a hint of rubber develops.

Palate: A blast of fruit hits the fore palate initially - huge sherried notes of dried fruits, ginger and leather - before some grippy tannins take over, lending a mouth-coating electricity to proceedings. Hold on, what's this? Peat makes a late entry after even more time in the glass. Intriguing.
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Finish: Quite long - those tannins leaving the impression of length long after the flavours themselves have disappeared. It finishes quite dry first up, but after some time in the glass some honeyed sweetness comes through. Later, rubber and wood develop without ever dominating.

A rather tasty sherry bomb, this one, from a nice clean cask. That late-to-the-party, gate-crashing peat, however, really gave it an extra layer of complexity that I wasn't expecting. Lovely.

And here, below, I've re-produced a copy of the original label from Full Proof Europe.
For posterity.