Paragraph by paragraph:
1. I don't buy that for a second. One thing you can notice in other whiskies throughout the world is the quality of water. That's why the Japanese whiskies are so good, their water quality/content is very close to the islands of Scotland. The water in this area is so hard that it killed a water softener we had fitted, it just smears everything and you can almost chew the hardness in the water.
2. The "angel's share" is always a problem, the Americans especially find it hard as the dry heat of many of their whiskEy making places are in dry, hot locations and they lose around twice that of the Scottish whisky places.
3. I agree, it's why I was so disappointed with the first tastes of it. I like the differences in taste you get from different areas and was looking forward to it. I do hope they can mature over the years and not fall into the unaged mass-market rubbish that has wrecked the reputations of previously good whiskies, such as Jura.
4. Their first branding was nationalism on a bottle essentially. They should take lessons from the Welsh whisky lot who make Penderyn as that's very subtly done, picking up a bit of national pride in their Welsh origins but not ramming it down the throats of the buyers.
5. Book yourself a Feis Ile tour for one year around the Scottish whisky isles, you'll certainly test your liver's recovery rates! It's their peaty one I'll try again if I can get one but it'll have to be good otherwise they'll subconsciously go into the "junk whiskies" pile like so many others these days.
Cheers for the feedback!