For today's tasting we are going with a friend (whom I will call Terry Tate) to settle down in an unusual place. To enjoy this magnificent 21-year-old single malt, we will go to the jardin des tuileries in Paris on a sunny day. Let's find a stone to put our bottle and the two glencairn glasses (a bench would be too simple to enjoy the trip).

First of all, we pour this magnificent dark liquid with reflections of amber gold in the sun. The eye warns us: we'll have sherry today!

We plunge our nose into the glass and the aromas make us leave Paris and propel us directly near the small town of Ballindaloch in the heart of Speyside. The Seine becomes the Spey River, the Tuilleries garden is covered with thistle and the surrounding buildings are transformed into green mountains. The aromas are intense and very quickly candied fruits, nutmeg, almonds on a citrus base appear. But what about this color? It is on the second nose that it can be explained: smoky and woody aromas now merge with sherry and announces a powerful but subtle whisky.

We have only one desire with Terry Tate, to extend our trip in the Spey Valley in the middle of the sheep and taste this beautiful drink. Its mouth is beautiful but powerful. You can feel the strength of the liquid that survived the angels during its 21-year stay in sherry casks. It is rich and full-bodied but with a lot of roundness. It develops towards more fruity, smoky and spicy notes. The wind is blowing and the air is fresh in Speyside.

The finish is long and smooth as grass grazed by a sheep, but it leaves smoky notes and a chocolate sensation in the mouth.

This beautiful tasting in the Parisian spring sunshine has kept all the promises of this 21-year-old whisky, which is part of the very closed circle of cult whiskies. It allowed us for a moment to transform the pyramid of the Louvre into a pagoda roof hiding the large stills of the Glenfarclas distillery.