Murray Hill Club Special Release (Pineau des Charentes Cask Finish)

Special Release Batch 4, bottle 434, no clue on the release size. Supposed to be 8 and 17 year 21% rye MGP finished in a calvatos cask (already concerned). Neck pour review warning. Nose - dang we got some lovely old cigar tobacco rye and spice notes. Bready and rich oak. Light fruit but apples? I couldn't tell you. Taste - clearly finished. Really rich and spicy. Finish is a bit odd. This one will take some time. Water brings a huge amount of vanilla notes out on the nose. Not much change on the palette. I'm unsure on what I think about this one yet. for now 3 stars. Good oak, smoke, spice, and aged notes. Not sure I like a few notes on the finish. Taste two. I swear I didn't over do it last night, but I went to pour a second glass of this before bed and...I never got the bottle sealed or the glass filled. So it got a bit of extra airing out over night. Going back the next day - I'm getting this apple cider note but with more a touch of brown sugar and oak spice vs cinnamon. The brandy aspect of calvados is very clearly imo adding the musty funk and giving way to the added antique woods. While not over oaked, gone from batch 2 are the rich old bourbon vanilla notes I love so much. Batch 2 approached with a lightness and then turned up the finish to 11. That change was much a wonderful experience, something I look forward to in great whiskies. Batch 4 starts darker and never really can go there. Though make no mistake, we get good transitions here, just no great. After the disappointment of my last cigar blend, I wasn't expected to find what down right SHOULD be a new cigar blend labeled as Murray Hill, but here we are. This has that smoke and leather that I expect on those casks. A good age profile. And while I think this would be better with another finishing cask, I'm really intrigued with this one. I should add there's a recent kentucky bottle of something like 6, 10 and 15 year kentucky finished partially in these casks that I hate to say but gives you 80% of this one for well under 100 bucks. But I can't say I'm disappointed. 200 dollars is more than this is worth. But nobody is giving you MGP with this age and BP plus with finishing for much less today. You're paying for the branding that Magnus and Nancy Fraley have rightfully and fairly earned and for that branding, I think we're perfectly fine at 200. I just can't recommend anyone buy before they try. Standing at 3.0 but it's a soft one. Also if Nancy makes it around to this review or initial exploration. We would love to have a bottle count on this. I'm a bit surprised that the notes look back at the 1 and 2 and not batch 3. Final thoughts are - there's more to this one coming as it opens up. This isn't where I tend to go with well aged bourbon, lacking some of those dare I say buffalo trace type vanillas as they reach into the 15-20 year range. But make no mistake, the quality and depth is here. It almost makes me think of a CS version of blood oath for those wanting a comp to try and think about this. With those drying types of older bourbon vs more sweet forward. I still can't tell if the finishing added or subtracted to the level of sweetness. I tell tell you...I won't be sharing this with too many people as I want to explore this bottle to the fullest over a long time. But it will be shared with a few of the RIGHT people! And now I"m thinking my score might reflect my hope for greatness vs the whisky I got. Maybe I need to add a half point?

Yummy

Batch 1... Sent Thinh to the afterlife