Tastes

Nose - (w/o water) Very tropical fruity/floral, coconut, pineapple, hints of dark stone fruits, lemon cake (w/ water) More pronounced tropical vanilla, toasted coconut, less port influence. Taste - (w/o water) Dark fruity honey, fruity black peppercorns, strong white pepper heat/burn, pomelo, "dark" tasting yet fruity/tropical, pineapple, drying, light fruity bitter like a dark chocolate/coffee covered dark toffee, lightly briny (w/ water) more tropical fruity honey, grilled pineapple, floral saffron, sharp citrus/hoppy sweet. Finish - (w/o water) Lingering white pepper burn, charred pineapple bittersweet, tropical honey, weird splenda sweetness (w/ water) Less white pepper burn, lingering tropical saffron simple, fruity honey. Score - 85/100 Final Thoughts - When I first opened the bottle, my impression was great nose, not so great on the palate, but after having this opened for a few weeks, it's mellowed out a tad. Nose is still fantastic, both with and without water in that it retains the tropical vibe I get from Amrut. The port influence is more prominent without water and oddly seems to vanish quite quickly with water. On the palate, it's super hot without water, and gives a very tropical/fruity honey vibe which is somewhat tamed with water and makes it more of a lighter/tropical vibe with dark honey undertones. Without water, it burns from the instant it hits your tongue to the finish, a bit of water tames it a bit, but you need to be careful as it's easy to overdo it. I'd suggest a dropper to get it to the level you want as it's easy to add a bit too much, which is what I think I did. Overall a very interesting dram, hard to tell the youth from the heat and the dominating tropical flavors but that's a good thing.

Nose - Vanilla buttercream, fresh cut young oak sawdust, cardomom? Taste - Definitely taste the young spirit bite up front, young oaky bitter vanilla simple, charred cinnamon, mouth drying, cardamom, sharp medicinal bittersweet. Finish - Lingering young spirit alcohol burn/warmth, lightly oaky bitter, lightly unpleasant medicinal splenda spice. Score - 66/100 Final Thoughts - This felt like a very rushed rye. The color on it was very light and I'm not sure if my sample had the cognac finishing on it but if there was they probably just showed the spirit the cognac cask and called it done. Nose smelled strongly of newly made oak barrels and that overly sweet yet ethanol new make. Tasted very much the same as well. Finish was quite unpleasant with young spirit all over the place. There are some things to be said about properly aging in a full barrel and to let time do its magic. I feel this was quite rushed just for the sake of getting a product out there. If they continue to microbarrel I think I'll skip this, but maybe I'll give it another shot if they actually release a decently aged product in full sized barrels.

Nose - Strong dark dried stone fruit sweet, sweet toasted oaky vanilla, hints of dark chocolate, leather, caramel. Taste - Sweet spicy dried prunes, white pepper heat, light bitter similar to stone fruit pits and apple stems, hint of bittersweet cocoa nibs, sweet skin on almonds, drinks like a 60+% ABV. Finish - Long lingering syrupy dark stone fruit sweet, white pepper heat lingers, hint of sweet almonds. Score - 93/100 Final Thoughts - I was very surprised with this dram as it was full bodied on the nose. Nice "sherry bomb" with a nice balance throughout. This was nicely full flavored, well balanced and was very pleasant from start to finish. I think if I could find this more readily, I'd probably have it as a staple on my shelf.

Nose - Sweet sherried smoke, almost like a dark red wine being mulled with a bunch of dark dried stone fruits over a campfire in a kettle. Taste - Like eating a prune that's been re-hydrated with a sweet white wine heated over a wood heated campfire, lightly drying mouthfeel with a hint of oaky bitter, like a charred oak branch fell in your mulled red wine. Finish - Lingering charred fruit bittersweet, light smoke, hint of medicinal sweet. Score - 75/100 Final Thoughts - I enjoyed the nose on this one but after that it fell a bit flat. It became dominated by a sweet smoky fruit and that's about it. Light spicy notes at the end, but the medicinal fruity smoky finish reminded me a bit of a sweet band-aid which was a bit off putting. I'm glad I only got a sample of this as I think I'd be a bit disappointed if I had a full bottle of this, especially at WA State prices.

Nose - Pleasant nose, notes of stewed apples and prunes, hint of chocolate, hint of ginger spice. Taste - Toasted apple cider, slightly metallic prune/dark raisin syrupy sweet, ginger spice, white pepper heat, burnt orange rind fruity bittersweet, burst of golden raisin sweet at the end. Finish - Lingering light metallic bitter apple/grape juice sweet, ginger spice stays, white pepper heat lingers. Score - 84/100 Final Thoughts - I quite enjoyed this. I was a bit skeptical at the odd 42.8% abv but the nose was quite pleasant and the flavors punched way above the proof. Flavors were pretty balanced between light and fruity with a dark and bold sweet, but what threw things off a bit was the metallic taste I got. A tiny bit distracting as it shows up mid palate and then lingers to the finish. I think if the metallic notes weren't present, this would get significantly higher marks as it kind of throws it off like it's been sitting and forgotten inside a metal flask for months only to be discovered and tasted later.

Nose - Sweet malt, almost bourbon-like vanilla, toasted white bread, faint toasted/baked apple with skin/core. Taste - Sweet spicy apple/pear cider, lightly drying cinnamon oak, faint creamy apple custard, hint of flamed orange zest, light fruity bitterness. Finish - Lingering buttery creamy apple/orange custard, charred cinnamon bitterness, white peper heat, lingering sweet orange/vanilla simple that leans a bit splenda-ish. Score - 72/100 Final Thoughts - This was quite interesting on the nose as if I think if I nosed it blind, I would almost peg it as a high barley content bourbon. It has a very sweet vanilla bourbon-like notes, but a yeasty malty toasted bread is also very strongly present too. Mouthfeel is great in that it is somehow creamy/buttery, yet drying at the same time. It's quite strange, but very pleasant. Not sure I'm a huge fan of the combination on the palate, but it's got a nice orchard fruit/custard vibe to it, but what throws it off is that there's this overall splenda-like sweetness from start to finish. If this is considered a step up from their "standard" offering, I think I'll pass on them as a whole. This is a dram that I'd drink if my only other options were things like Dewar's White or A.D. Laws.

Nose - Very sharp sweet red berry/ethanol cleaning product note, alcoholic mint-berry windex, vanilla buttercream frosting after a while. Taste - Very splenda-sweet medicinal mint berry cough drops, vanilla simple with orange zest, light cocoa nib bittersweet, drying tannic heat. Finish - Lingering cocoa nib/orange bittersweet, very splenda-like artificial sweet, diabetes sweet spearmint. Score - 10/100 Final Thoughts - At least to me, there is nothing about this whiskey that is pleasant. It smelled like a cleaning product targeted towards kids, tasted like one, and left a very unpleasant splenda/equal sweet taste. Maybe secale rye isn't for me? Regardless I couldn't find anything I liked about this one and I went back & forth on how low a score I could reasonably give this one as it will probably be my benchmark for bad whiskey. I settled on 10/100 because they bothered to make something & actually bottle it for sale. I think if I actually purchased a bottle of this, I'd probably go back & demand my money back it was so bad. If I could give this 0 stars, I would.

Nose - Sweet vanilla caramels, bit of raw ethanol bite, uncooked cinnamon roll dough, uncooked monkey bread, brown sugar. Taste - Sweet vanilla at first, transitions to a yeasty uncooked sweet bread dough, cinnamon heat, light ethanol bite, buttery mouthfeel, weird offputting green sapling oaky bitter. Finish - Lingering oaky bittersweet, almost splenda like sweetness, light cinnamon burn. Score - 67/100 Final Thoughts - This had an interesting nose that showed promise, but unfortunately fell flat. It smelled young, tasted young, was all over the place. Dominating flavor on the palate was if they forgot about a sweet bread dough on the counter and it started to ferment & develop a bit of alcohol. The young ethanol bite was present on the palate, and I guess what did it for me was there was this constant splenda-like sweetness throughout. I'm glad smaller distilleries are trying to get into the whiskey world, but this is an example of what not to do. Pushing out young product that was quickly aged in microbarrels (if that since they're 10 gallon). Really glad I've constantly passed on this bottle.

Nose - Apple/pear malt, hint of saline, buttery/nutty/fruity sherry influence, macadamia nuts. Taste - Peppery lightly salty apple/pear malt, buttery/oily mouthfeel, lighty sweet nut butter, blanched almonds, flamed orange zest, light strawberry/raspberry. Finish - Lingering peppery spice, light brine, very very faint smoke, light apple peel/stem fruity bitterness, lightly drying, berry pear cider sweet tingle. Score - 87/100 Final Thoughts - This is a bit interesting in that there is a very subtle sherry influence but I also got quite a bit of sweet nutty notes out of it as well. I keep on telling myself that I need to get more acquainted with the different types of sherry, but I've heard that some sherrys have a sweet nutty taste to them and that's a large part of what I get out of this one. That being said, this is definitely an interesting dram. Fantastic on the nose, tasty on the palate but it's got this weird complex combination that just doesn't exactly do it for me. It's very tasty but I don't think it's something I think I'd ever regularly reach for.

Nose - Toasted spices, baked apples/pears, oaked chardonnay, dark tropical fruity honey, hint of dried longan. Taste - Dark tropical fruity apple/pear cider, hint of black pepper spice, subtle clean smoke, lightly medicinal dried longan, light bitterness like oversteeped black tea. Finish - Lingering black pepper spice, black tea bitterness, dried longan, faint clean smoke. Score - 90/100 Final Thoughts - This is a nice dram, nice complexity on the nose, well balanced, great subtle use of a clean smoke/peat. I'm not normally a huge fan of peat, but if done right, it can add a great layer of complexity and this does it very well. The one thing that is a bit off putting is the slight fruity medicinal notes combined with the smoke that gives me a bit of a band-aid note, but not enough to completely distract me. Overall very tasty, but I'm not sure I like this enough to get a whole bottle for myself.