Entrapment 25 Year

Classic vanilla hint and so so smooth

39th birthday bottle. Incredibly smooooth. Very light but flavorful & complex. Maple, butterscotch, tropical, salt.

Butterscotch with coconut, coconut cream, maple, vanilla.

Rating: 18/23 After using a 2000-vintage dram as a bookend for this review series at entry 1991, I thought it was only reasonable to go back to traditional sanity and use this 1992-vintage dram for entry 1992. I've never tried an Orphan Barrel release before. Nor have I seen one anywhere. I've heard quite nice things though, so this should be a treat! N: A really mellow woodiness with a sort of musty vanilla corny sweetness. It's kind of papery and decadent. Coconut! That's what there's a lot of here. So much coconut. This isn't super complex, but it's rich and mature with some great hedonism. Based on the nose alone, this is what I feel like Compass Box Hedonism should be like. P: Super mellow, with a really nice fullness. So, so much coconut. I've never tasted so much coconut in a dram before - nothing else has ever been close to this. Some coconut cream coming out of it. It avoids the bitter side of coconut beautifully and retains a decadent creaminess throughout. Hints of vanilla come out, adding some mild nuance. I do get some really mellow, mature wood, mixed with some mild spices that are kind of hard to pick out. I really just can't get past that immense coconut though. It's not all that complex, but it's super decadent. F: Lingering coconut cream flavor. It's never bitter. Not very complex, but really easy-going. - Conclusion - Really easy to drink and so approachable. I suspect that this would get boring after a while, but a pour of it tastes like savoring a bite of the clouds at heaven's gate. There are parables about heaven getting boring though. It's hard to find a comparison for this. Highland Park 16 Wings Of The Eagle (17/23) is more complex, but also kind of off-balance in comparison. This has a little bit of musty funk, but it's clearly more mature and mellow. Cadenhead's Tullibardine 25 (18/23) is another fairly decadent one. The Tullibardine has a bit more going on than this. It has some arguably rougher edges than this does (more grassiness, especially) and it isn't as rich, but it does have more going on. My overall impression is that this is clearly better than the Highland Park and close to the Tullibardine. I keep thinking that I gave the Tullibardine a 19, but apparently it's only an 18. Considering that, I think there's no doubt that this is an 18. There's so much that I love here. And by that I mean that the coconut is amazing. I really wish that there were more going on here. Still, this is so, so enjoyable. Coming back to this the next day, the Tullibardine's honey and fruit nectar really stand out with added complexity. This has its own decadence and greater maturity, but it's still fairly one-note. That Boutique-y Whisky Company's Auchroisk 19 Batch 5 (17/23) has some nice body when placed side-by-side with this. A big part of that is probably the higher ABV, of course, but that is a factor in these ratings. I'm now thinking that the Auchroisk mayb be closer to this and the Tullibardine may be a bit better. Though I'm also thinking that the Auchroisk could be an 18. I'm not going to be changing the Auchroisk or Tullibardine's ratings here though. This is probably a hair better than the Auchroisk, but I'm no longer putting it on the level of the Tullibardine. Eh, or maybe it is. I think this can keep its 18. It's downright enjoyable, at the very least. A big thanks to @Milliardo for sharing a sample of this special dram!

Nez : caramel Bouche : doux, pomme au caramel Qualité shooter