Woody Malt is Giffard's whisky-style base in their Non-Alcoholic Cocktail Base range, built from natural barley malt flavouring with apple extract. It pours a warm, glowing amber that reads convincingly as a whisky in the glass. The nose is woody and earthy, with hints of dried fruit and sweet spice, understated rather than aggressive. On the palate there's a lively opening of malt and sherry character, then fruity sweetness develops before an elegant finish that brings peat and oak into the picture. The progression is more nuanced than you might expect from a flavoured base product. At 57kcal per 100ml it sits in the middle of the range. The sherry and fruit character make it particularly suited to spirit-free old-fashioned style builds, where sweetness and oak are the whole point.