ARARAT Akhtamar 10 Year

A rich, 10-year-old Armenian brandy from the Ararat brand. The Yerevan Brandy Company even has its own cooperage to create the barrels to age their rich, spicy brandies. It opens sweet & spicy with notes of exotic spice, vanilla, plum jam, toffee & a hint of potpourri; while a round & creamy, full bodied palate adds notes of sultanas, dried apricots, creamy vanilla & a hint of pear; that lead to a rich & spicy finish with notes of cinnamon & toasted oak. January 2018 / June 2018 / January 2019

Definitely overpriced brandy. Too much burning on the palate for me, nothing great or even enjoyable here.

Rating: 12/23 I just tried the 6 year Ararat and like it more than I'd expected, so I'm excited to try this. N: Woodiness with some meaty notes and hints of floral orange peel at points. Disappointingly, there isn't a lot going on with this nose. P: Oh, this is funky. It's sweet, with a bit of an aggressive floral note mixed with caramel and some artificial sugar. Some spices with leather. There's also some burn going on here. It's rough around the edges for sure. Quite a bit of vanilla as well. F: This is kind of sweet and floral with vanilla and also a bit of a burn. Lingering faint meatiness too. - Conclusion - I'm a bit disappointed by this. It's not bad, but it's not great. It's less interesting than the 6 year old version and it has some odd sweet flavors going on. I just don't see the extra age here being an improvement. The alcohol is less present, but this is otherwise not as good, unfortunately. As far as the rating goes, I'm thinking an 11 for this. It could be a 10 to a 12, but not a 9. Coming back to this the next day, I'm thinking that those odd sweet flavors aren't as bad. It's not amazing, but I think it's more like a 12 or 13. It could be a 14. I'm thinking a 12, considering how it tasted at first.