South Shore 13 Year Old 2008 Valinch & Mallet

South Shore is the pseudonym used by Valinch & Mallet for Lagavulin. And this youngster is special because it matured on a Rum barrel from Caroni. It was launched in 2021 in the so-called Peat(y)full Pack Madness (in which an Ardmore, Ledaig and Caol Ila also appeared, each time with a funny cartoon on the back of the bottle). Would we notice anything about that legendary funky Caroni rum? And if so, did it do the malt any good? The DNA of Lagavulin holds up nicely with a lot of maritime notes and even some bacon on the BBQ and olives, plasticine and finger paint, but is nicely complemented by some sweet stuff that I can't immediately put my finger on. Banana is there. This is quite good. Adding a few drops of water hardly changes anything on the nose. On the palate it is a somewhat strange experience. Apart from the fact that you get a big kick to your teeth because of both the alcohol percentage and the spiciness of the wood, the Caroni now comes through with its funky notes and that seems to clash a bit. It is a lot sweeter than the nose promised and the rum dominates. If you add some water, it's even worse. Now I just seem to be drinking a peated Caroni. I wasn't expecting for that. And yet... it's tasty. But quite weird. The finish is long, starts salty and then evolves to (very) sweet, while the peat makes it a bit sweet and sour without really generating much smoke. An outsider that was praised to heaven by some of my friends. For me, it's a bridge too far.