Tastes

[Few drops water] honey and dried fruits, overall sweet, finish of oak-y vanilla. Prolly more sweet and less complex than neat, but the water does help it linger on a lil longer.

(Straight no resting) starts v sweet and moves quickly though a lot of floral herbal fruity notes all at once before finishing with a vanilla-y taste and mouthfeel. Perfectly fine, but not complicated and doesn't linger. Maybe with a drop of water or some time the tastes will open up or slow down a touch.

[over ice] tl;dr - straight or as a mixer much better than on ice. smells of apple juice, taste is quite flattened, goes from quite sweet, spiced apple juice straight to alcohol burn without much in between.

(Straight, no resting.) Creme Brulee is the exact smell. Taste starts with peaty sugars followed with a hint of dried fruits and red wine, a waft of herbaceousness, then the finish is spiced malts and cereals. Leaves a hint of vanilla oiliness lingering on the tongue which is truly delightful.

Simple and delicious; a dash of water opened it up a teeny bit but also brought the alcohol sting sharper on the end, so not worth it.

(Rested 30 min) Applewood ham on the nose all right, and saltier / more iodine than when drunk immediately. While still smoky and delicious with decent peat and finishing with that slightly tart-apple-juice fire, it's lost some of the fruitiness and complexity I loved, and the mouthfeel is thinner. Just somewhat less interesting. Right from the bottle does the trick.

(Straight, no resting). Fuck. Yes. The peatyness, the slightest of sweetness under the smoke, the taste of salted pear, the bite of alcohol on the back of the tongue, the balance of not too thick or thin or oily but just right mouthfeel, I love everything about this.

(rested 30 mins) the rye burn hits immediately now, followed by spice and faint fruit carried by a deliciously oily mouthfeel, a faint hint of vanilla washed over with a second, more menthol-y burn finish it off.