High West A Midwinter Night's Dram

A cold snowy night here in the Metro Detroit area finds me seeking a nice dram to end the evening. A Midwinter Night’s Dram on this mid winter’s night sounds like a perfect match. Thanks to @Scott_E of the SDT group I happen to have a sample. Act 4, scene 1, which comes in at 49.3% ABV, most likely natural color and non chill filtered. The color is a beautiful dark red mahogany, no doubt in part from the port cask finishing. This is a blend of sourced ryes. I won’t go into the composition, frankly because I didn’t bother to look it up. The nose starts with a huge minty dill pickle. Right there is a miss for me, can’t stand dill pickles. Moving on. A good deal of rye spice and some oak, oak that was sanded smooth with stale rye bread. Dill vegetable dip, a touch earthy. Buttery English toffee, caramel and some maple syrup. Very light fruits, apricot pits, subtle cherries. Vanilla finally shows up after a while. At the bottom of the glass I got an unexpected note of overripe mango. I didn’t get the port finish so I decided to add a little water to see if I could coax it out. Sure enough it worked, but it was overshadowed by the strong rye notes. A pink bubblegum note came through as well. The palate starts spicy and sweet. Lots of rye and oak. Like the nose, lots of dill and mint. Buttery toffee, caramel, vanilla and some fruits. Apple skins, pears and cherry cough syrup. Not much else that I could pick out with all that dill in the way until I added a little water. After that I got that same bubblegum note and the elusive port finish. A medium to full bodied mouthfeel, dry but slightly oily. Medium long finish with lots of mint, dill, some of that bubblegum and rye. I really had high hopes for this one after seeing all the praise it gets. Unfortunately the dill notes were just too strong for my liking. I can tell it’s well put together and most would probably love it, but it’s just not my style. Of the ryes I’ve had (and that’s only a handful), this one was probably the heaviest on those dill notes. Glad to have tried it since I’ve had it on my wish list for a while, but now I know not to seek out a full bottle. 3.75, which is still a respectable score in my opinion. Cheers

Wonderful deep color Super complex nose, rich and full. Some wonderful seasoned wood, allspice , caramel cinnamon and banana. Palate is allspice syrup port with some spice and nutmeg Smooth all the way through. Some Bread pudding as well Really great pour