London Distillery Company New Forms Ex-Bourbon English Single Malt Whisky, 70cl

New Forms is a trio of single cask releases from The London Distillery Company, each one taking the distillery's single malt and finishing it in a different cask. This is the Ex-Bourbon edition: London single malt finished for 12 months in a first-fill ex-bourbon cask #11190, bottled at 60.7% Alc. and limited to 222 bottles.A year in a first-fill ex-bourbon cask has laid honey, vanilla and buttery caramel over the spirit, with toasted oak and a seam of char giving it structure.Nose: Honey on buttered toast, ripe banana, lemon zest and pineapple juice, then vanilla blossom, red peppercorn, tart nectarine and toasted grain. Palate: Sweet and rounded: buttery caramel, toasted oak and warming cinnamon, followed by bitter lemon zest and a deep, rich char. Finish: Long notes of oak and char, melted butter on toast, a little fresh banana and tart green apple.In our view this is the most approachable of the three New Forms: the bourbon cask keeps the London spirit front and centre, and the tropical fruit and char make it a fine reference point for the other two. At 60.7% Alc., add a decent splash of water; it brings forward the banana, honey and lemon zest.The casks behind New Forms were filled at the original London Distillery Company, London's first whisky distillery in over a century when it began distilling in 2011. Whisky maker Matt McKay now chooses and bottles that stock in small releases. Tasting the three New Forms side by side is a rare chance to see how much a single cask finish changes one spirit.