Michel Couvreur Grand Frère

Michel Couvreur virtual tasting, 21 October 2021. Whisky #5 Nose: Peat smoke. Big bush-fire smoke, medicinal brine, citrus fruit, menthol, gunpowder, pipe tobacco, old leather. No sign at all of alcohol. An excellent nose. Palate: Sweet, big, full peaty arrival with the peat billowing above stewed fruits. Chocolate, baking spices, red fruits, walnuts and chewing tobacco. The texture is very good and you cannot taste the alcohol at all when neat. It swims very well and explodes with flavour from just a dash of water. Finish: Medium/long. Smoked dates and figs, fading to a sherried aftertaste. I have not investigated Michel Couvreur whiskies previously but a recent virtual tasting event based on 5 expressions piqued my interest. This was my equal favourite expression from the tasting, and in my opinion it was significantly superior to the rest (with one exception). This is a big peated sherry-finish whisky, but it also has clarity, nuance, balance and complexity. It is excellent neat and the high alcohol is exceptionally well contained, being not noticed at all. There is wonderful progression in the palate which goes through several waves of development. This expression was a limited edition single cask, cask-strength bottling by Barrel & Batch Whisky Co-Op. At the tasting session when the cask was being selected one of the Barrel & Batch partners commented that it was like the Candid expression’s big brother, and Jean Arnaud (the manager of Michel Couvreur) said “Yes! It is Candid’s grand frère!” - hence the name. The distillate for this expression was from “an unidentified Islay distillery”. The rumour is that it was Ardbeg and in my opinion it does smell and taste very much like Ardbeg - in fact it's not that dissimilar to Uigedail. This was the second of the Michel Couvreur whiskies I tasted that I would consider buying, but unfortunately it is no longer available. Like the Fleeting Q it was AUD$225 for a 500ml bottle when available and in my opinion worth every cent. Part of the purpose of the Barrel & Batch tasting was to poll the participants regarding the next special cask bottling from Michel Couvreur. The voting was split equally between “Fleeting Q” and “Grand Frère”. I voted for Fleeting Q but I’d be just as happy to see another whisky like this one available. Very Good : 86/100 (4 stars)