Dornoch 4 yo 2018/2022 (55.5%, OB, cask #54, 1st fill 100L ex-bourbon cask, 178 bottles)
Distilled from Plumage Archer barley using liquid brewers yeast for fermentation. Colour: bright straw. Nose: bailed hay and cut grass mixed with fresh breads, hoppy ales and some very trebly citrus notes on top. Indeed, given a couple of minutes it really begins to develop along these grapefruit and lemon angles. With water: getting more detailed now, showing aromas of green tea, yuzu, crushed nettles, lemon and hawthorn. In fact, there's an increasing undergrowth/greenery/earthy vibe emerging. Mouth: sharp and prickling with this rather chiselled yeasty quality. Sourdough starter, Gueuze beer, aniseed distillate and touches of putty, ruby ales and a little tarragon. With water: greener, sharper, an encroaching acidity and these nicely tart notes of gooseberry and kiwi. A wonderfully vibrant and punchy fruitiness! Finish: medium, with an unexpected dovetail towards sweeter qualities, still nicely citrus and yeasty though. Comments: some hybrid whisky that involves the modern and the old school in a very 'new' way.
SGP: 551 - 87 points.

Dornoch 5 yo 2017/2023 (58.2%, OB, cask #33, 1st fill bourbon octave, 88 bottles)
Also Plumage Archer barley and liquid brewers yeast, but this time a smaller and theoretically more active cask. Colour: pale gold. Nose: definitely creamier and with a more assertive suggestion from the cask. Touches of American cream soda, more obvious bready notes, roasted aubergine and things like limoncello, weed and new world IPAs. With water: surprisingly floral, more on grasses, hops, greenery, more marijuana and going towards star fruits and mango. Mouth: probably caught at exactly the right time, the wood is spicy and vocal, but it balances well with all these green and hoppy fruity vibes! Rather exotic, lots of crushed nettles, grass, muddled green herbs and some notes of tonic water and ginger tea. With water: pure and rather vivid cereals up front now, then citrus rinds with lots of pith, some more basic beery and bready vibes and also a touch of waxiness. Finish: medium with a lot of bright cereals and some more of these tart green fruit impressions. Comments: this one develops impressively with water. Makes me think these casks as refills in 4-6 years should yield some pretty stunning results.
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Dornoch 5 yo 2017/2023 (58.4%, OB, cask #14, 1st fill bourbon octave, 91 bottles)
Same recipe once again, so we are hunting for small details of difference. In theory… Colour: gold. Nose: ok, the same, but more of everything, in also fruitier globally. It goes towards this superbly gelatinous fruitiness with suggestion s of overripe green and yellow fruits, slightly drier exotic fruit tea notes, some exotic hardwoods with their resins, mango lassi, crystallised fruit peels and some lovely heathery and honey notes too. Frankly, superb! With water: a brighter and more complex fruit profile now that more explicitly involves exotic, green and garden fruits. Crisp green apple, kiwi, lime and guava jam. I find the reduced nose really terrific. Mouth: superbly grassy, limey, peppery and full of sharp citrus and green fruits, fruit acids, shoe polish vibes and waxes. Really going towards a fatter and fruitier style now I would say. With water: great now with water! Superb fatness, oiliness and thickness of texture, pulpy fruit notes, more specifically exotic notes and more of these funky weed notes. Finish: long, creamy, hoppy, lemony and oily. Juicy fruits, waxes and a touch of camphor. Comments: It's hard to envisage in what direction this character will go if left for 10+ years, or from larger casks for that matter? But the feeling is that a highly distinctive and rather different distillery character is emerging in these bottlings.
SGP: 651 - 89 points.

Dornoch 5 yo 2017/2022 (59.06%, OB, cask #10, 1st fill bourbon octave, 80 bottles)
From that early era when they were doing 'Rare Malts' tribute strengths on the labels. No doubt destined to become hyper collectable! Colour: gold. Nose: almost the same as cask 14, which is perhaps where this sort of tasting is inevitably going to become slightly more challenging. I would say this one just becomes slightly more mentholic and minty in its aromatic profile. With water: creamy, more minty, sappy and full of hops, citrus peels and now also coconut and gorse flower. Mouth: similarly juicy and fruity, but here this is spicier and more hoppy and even slightly more bitter with more influence from the cask in terms of stronger brewed tea notes, pithy citrus rinds and cereals. Richer beery notes like heather and shilling ales too. With water: juniper tea, lanolin and grassy and nettley notes. More focussed on greener vibes with these richer polished notes in the background. Finish: medium, on camphor, beers, wood saps and hops. Comments: I think there's a whisper more wood in this one, but it's otherwise very similar and excellent.
SGP: 561 - 88 points.

Dornoch 5 yo 2017/2022 (59.6%, OB, cask #4, 1st fill bourbon octave, 86 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: very similar, but what is nice here is a more pronounced floral aspect, more cupboard spices, cereals, beers and general sense of fatness and weight about it. Still quite a few pin-sharp lemons and nettles sloshing about in there though. With water: much more aromatic and on subtle dry citrus peels, flowers, ointments and bread dough. Mouth: globally a spicier example where the cask has a slightly louder voice. But this is very nicely balanced by these familiar hoppy, weedy and green fruity notes. Then those slightly funky beery vibes with dried flowers once again. With water: putty, camphor, waxes, ointments and many dried fruits and teas beers. All of the above but broader, more complex and with a fatter, spicier feeling in the mouth. Finish: long, peppery, waxy and with crystallised fruits and fruit teas. Comments: this once just keeps developing and becoming more and more impressive as it goes along.
SGP: 661 - 89 points.