Tastes

Nose: lots of cherry, black tea, cinnamon, pipe tobacco, rye? Taste: hot, the black tea and pipe tobacco are still there, not a lot of sweetness, cherry came through on later sips - maybe building on the finish from prior sips Finish: waxy, cherry, maybe peanut, a minty freshness eventually After reading reviews: really surprised not to see cherry notes - only found one review that mentioned, I just didn’t get the vanilla that most cited even after adding some water, my black tea note was a bit specific and not noted by others but the rest of what I found was

Nose: dark fruits (plum, raisin), caramel, bread, something savory or maybe leather, coffee? Taste: whoa - much less sweet than the nose, it’s not smoky but there’s something that reminds me of a note from smoky whiskies or even ash at one point (just briefly, didn’t come back), further sips found some fruity sweetness but lighter fruits Finish: nice and long, raisin comes back, pumpernickel After reading reviews: chocolate mint? Maybe... I’m pretty far off from Distiller and Flaviar though the whizzky community notes were similar to mine.

Nose: sherry, pear, honey, cereal Taste: really consistent with the nose Finish: the fruit lingers and almost goes watermelon After reading reviews: yes on the dark chocolate on the finish, I’m not really getting the Christmas fruits/spices though, the sherry was obvious and the wine influence makes sense once I read that. Would like to compare to Glenmorangie 10 - it’s similar to what I remember liking about that one.

Nose: caramel apple, sugar cookie after a while - I may be forcing that Taste: hot, some apple Finish: honey, shortbread cookie After reading reviews: flaviar notes mint and I see that on the finish, I’m just not getting any sweetness on the taste. I want to like this one so much, but it just hasn’t done it for me on the first couple tries. Hopefully letting it sit for a while will change things.

Nose: rye jumps out of the glass, pickle, caramel, leather, pine Taste: spicy, salty, rye bread, some sweetness that I can’t pinpoint Finish: almost minty, some licorice After reading reviews: confirmation of the pine, mint, and leather. The unidentifiable sweetness may be the confectioners sugar noted in whizzky - I didn’t find honey or vanilla. I don’t like gin or really know what juniper is like, so I wouldn’t have gotten that. surprised I didn’t see pickle or salt noted. Overall, the pine and mint are a little weird for me.

Nose: sherry, apricot, a whiff of smoke Taste: smoke with no medicinal, sweetness I think from sherry, malt. Smoke fades on further sips with a citrusy note coming through. Finish: Some oiliness, creamy, light smoke After reading reviews: I didn’t get vanilla which was consistently referenced in reviews, I can see where they are coming from with honey. Right on with the citrus (lemon for some, orange for others). Not getting the grassy or floral.

Nose: caramel or maybe chocolate, cinnamon or a baking spice, pine needles - basically something like a Christmas cookie Taste: spicy, rye, salty, not much sweetness Finish: hot and dry, rye but neither pickle or licorice After reading reviews: flaviar and whizzky had clove and I’d agree that is a better descriptor than what I said was cinnamon. Cocoa also was noted, as was the overly spicy rye character that dominated for me. Reviews cited more sweetness in the taste than I got. Overall, this was maybe too much rye for my tastes which is good to know.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to focus for a thorough tasting, and I had heard enough beforehand that brine and peat were what I expected and found. Need to revisit, but I can say that I prefer the Lagavulin 16 I tasted around the same time.

Nose: bacony smoke, a floral honey Taste: earthy up front into an ashy smoke on first taste though the ash wasn’t prominent on subsequent sips, a very subtle sweetness maybe honey Finish: very pleasant smoke, something a little floral almost a mint After reading reviews: I do get the saltiness on the taste and peppery on the finish with both intensifying over time. Reviews mention strong iodine but I get a more savory smoke than the medicinal I associate with that. Not sure what to make of the seaweed note in reviews - maybe that the combo of earth and salt I got?

Nose: malt, apricot Taste: sherry but not candy, malt, butterscotch Finish: medium After reading reviews: this was a straight down the middle scotch for me, didn’t get any of the various notes in the reviews. Probably didn’t help that I was drinking out of a plastic cup while playing shuffleboard...