Who at some point in their lives has not considered how cool it would be to go to space?

Unfortunately we are not all as brilliant as Tim Peake and will probably never get to experience floating in zero gravity or eating freeze dried food for months on end.

To cope with this devastating blow from reality, Scotch malt Whisky Society has decided to release a special bottling titled 39.124, “A Toast To Tim Peake’s Return”.

Peake returned from space on June 18^th, and SMWS promptly released 39.124 in honour of the astronaut and his safe landing.

This dram hails from the Speyside region, specifically near Lossie, and is thought to be from Diageo Linkwood Distillery.  It has been matured for 39 years in second fill Sauternes hogsheads.

This is a wonderful dram and one can only hope that of the 96 bottles that were released, Tim Peake at least got a good taste of one.

The nose opens with aromatic spices and tangy citrus fruits, including lemon, orange and grapefruit.

The spices and fruit mix well together.  The allspice and cinnamon undertones give a warming note to the fruit.  Together they are sophisticated and bold.

The orange becomes a sweet marmalade, with lots of tangy peel included.

On the palate the mouth feel is dry and smooth, with the Sauternes really coming through.

This is a dram that gets a lot of its cues from sweet, dry wines, with more dessert wines coming through towards the end of the palate and into the finish.

The sweetness of the marmalade over takes here, with toffee and caramel coating the citrus fruits and summer berries that begin to appear.

The dessert wines are joined by actual desserts, with crisp and sugary meringue and moist sticky toffee pudding entering the mix.

The spices come through more here as well, with a mouth watering warmth and zest to them.

There are undertones of whipped cream and oaty biscuits, giving a slightly more savoury edge to the dram.  Adding a dash of water brings these out even mroe

In the finish the dram maintains these savoury notes with a final note of tangy orange to wrap it up.