Tastes

Bunnahabhain 18yr 46.3% abv Nose: salted caramel apples, rich malt, walnuts, cured dates. toffee, milk chocolate, nutmeg and allspice, sweet white grape, woven delicately throughout is a vein of peat that leans more earthy than medicinal...like damp forest floor. Palate: rich, oily, salty and sweet. Decadent salted caramel, baked apples, milk chocolate, nuts, lovely oak spice that coats your whole mouth, chocolate malt, salted mixed nuts chewy earthy peat. Finish: salt, leather, apples and cream, sweet dark fruit. The finish is this ever swirling tapestry of salt and sweet all of it framed in old leather and fruity cream. One of the best sherried drams of scotch i’ve ever tasted. It’s just everything in wonderful balance. Yin and Yang. Sherry, Malt, Oak, Peat ,Sweet, Salt. Harmonious perfection in a whiskey.

2019 Ardbeg Supernova...First Impressions: Nose: dense campfire smoke, grilled meat, vegetal peat, malt, fresh pressed wildflowers, vanilla, tobacco, apple butter. Palate: immediately sweet dense malt, honey, golden delicious apples and pineapple syrup. Then the peat explodes in a battle between vegetal and herbal notes. Anise, menthol, sweet floral, and then the barrel spice erupts on the back end. Finish: long, creamy mint, peat, vanilla, forest floor. Leaning more sweet than earthy. Through the whole journey is this dense cord of smoke wrapped in all the sweet malt and vegetal peat notes; From front to finish. This is such a unique Ardbeg. Almost leaning in the Octomore direction but completely Ardbegian. Nosing it next to the 10yr reveals the depth of smoke and peat as the 10yr noses like a malty “briney” Highland in comparison. This is amazing in every way.

Aberlour A’Bunadh Alba 57.1% Batch 001 Bourbon Oak Barrel Aged Nose: rich, sweet and pretty...almost perfumey without being annoyingly so. Vanilla bean, sour mash grain, Camellia flower, tart and overly ripe apples in an orchard in fall, lemon cream frosting, sweet tobacco leaf, raspberry flower honey, orange creamsicle. Mineral. Palate: immediate oily dense blast of sweet flavors. Honey, vanilla, chewing tobacco, honeysuckle, apple butter. Mid palate explodes in peppery barrel spice. Ginger, clove, cracked pepper medley, sour apple. Finish: astringent turning slightly creamy. pepper, mineral, over-ripe apples in cream.

Andalusia Revenant Oak Nose: apple and white grape juice, vanilla sugar, caramel cream, buttered shortbread, damp grain field, Palate: sweet malt grain, smokey honey, ripe orchard fruit medley, white chocolate, ginger and all spice, smokey Texas oak funk intertwined with and earthy woody peat. Finish: long and luxurious. Barrel spice, creamy leather, white grape juice, tobacco leaf

Nose: brown sugar, dusty salted peanuts, corn fruit, vanilla, cola syrup. Palate: sweet caramel leads with a mix of baked apples and spice. Roasted peanuts quickly overtaking the mid palate, vanilla and sugar are blanketed by the nutty notes. A twinge of cola sweetness peaks through. A little barrel spice tickles the sides of the mouth. The finish is medium with nuts and cracked black pepper dominant.

Nose: sweet malt and grain, citrus and honey, kelp, rock pool and sea water, stilton cheese, wet hay, iodine and medicine cabinet, violets and fresh cut wildflowers. Palate: slight malt sweetness quickly overcome with brine and umami. And then, the nectar explodes in a hefty tar and cigar ash char that unfurls into salted fish and seaweed. Finish: creamy mouthfeel layered with ash and brine and little bursts of vanilla and sweet grass.

Greenspot Nose: instantly apparent pot still character; rich, decadent, buttery. Caramel Vanilla, Buttered poundcake, opens up to a floral tart apple note. Light baking spices meld with the buttery and apple notes leaves you dreaming of warm apple pastries. Palate: Granny Smith Apple pie bathed in caramel sauce. Cinnamon, clove, allspice, white chocolate, and an easy tingle of barrel spice. Finish: long...ginger and allspice, apples, cream.

Nose: smoldering campfire, charred oak, sweet malt, dark fruits (plum, musty grapes) sprinkled in sugar, green olives, vegetal peat, cinnamon, sandalwood, latakia pipe tobacco Palate: intense, sweet, rich and oily. Its a masterful roaring whirlpool of flavors. Smokehouse, bbq meats, tangy bbq sauce, umami, earthy red wine, dark chocolate, cinnamon and incense, shiitake mushrooms, barrel char, vanilla, slow building pepper spice. Finish: cured tobacco leaf, cigar smoke, leather, oyster sauce, smoked meats, tangy peat, creamy vanilla.

Ranger Creek 36 Bourbon Nose: sweet and dense with green grains and wet hay, rolling into milk chocolate, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Ceylon tea and honey, and that funky Texas oak vibe is present throughout. Palate: sweet, rounded and oily. Brown sugar and buttery pie crust, orange peel, fruit jam, cinnamon, black tea, some nice peppery spice enveloping the mouth. Finish: caramel and vanilla cream, soft leather, pepper heat, sweet grains and molasses.

Ironroot Promethean 2017 103 proof Nose: what immediately comes to mind is a fresh pecan twirl pastry. One that is topped with toasted pecans and drizzled with a maple-vanilla sugar frosting and served warm. As you begin to explore, the nose is dense and sweet and layered with an undercurrent of earthiness that you get in a good Bordeaux or Rioja. Waves of thick vanilla and maple syrup give way to red fruits like a raspberry purée, strawberries sprinkled with sugar. Smokey oak char and cedar unfurl gently within the sugary sweet notes. Nutty pastry and cinnamon. Palate: salted caramel, bitter dark chocolate, red currants, tart raspberries, classic Texas oak tinged vanilla kicks in mid palate and then it turns umami and soy like. Finish: salted leather with a cooling mint. An amazing paradox of flavors and so intriguing. There’s as much “brine” as a good Islay whisky yet it works marvelously with the tart sweet fruit and vanilla oak. A testament to the distillers in keeping all the varying notes in balance and layered nicely. A whiskey that has deep earthiness yet feels youthful and bright. I am reminded of some of the best Bordeaux or Rioja I have had in the balance of fruit and earth.