Paul John Christmas Edition 2019

To celebrate the holiday season, I’ve been holding onto this sample from @PBMichiganWolverine for a while and am excited to finally crack it open with the winter weather and finally try out Paul John distillery. The nose starts with an effervescent sherry note with dark chocolate and figs followed by Fuji apples and orange peel before a light smoke and minerality that fades to spices of anise, pine needles, and light oak with medium ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with light sherry sulfur then dark chocolate, roasted nuts and figs followed by sour apples and grapefruit pith before a moderate tannic spice with light smoke that slowly fades to spices of anise, pine needles, and ashy oak with medium ethanol burn. The finish is medium length with orange peel, green apple, moderate sulfur, anise, pine and ashy oak. The nose starts off with a nice mix of those sherry dark chocolate and figs along with citrus fruits, light smoke and spices that make me feel in the winter mood and that Santa has come with some treats. Sadly, Santa was only pretending to visit and it was a ruse as Krampus was behind him with his birch rod waiting to pounce on the taste and assault my taste buds with sulfur, sour citrus, tannic spice and ashy oak that thankfully the devious duo left with this finishing with pithy sour fruit, sulfur, light spice and ashy oak. Looking at other reviews, this might be one of those polarizing drams that you either love or hate. The only other option is that this is perhaps a well-engineered product to reward the nice and punish the naughty. Alas, I guess I fall into the hate it and naughty crowd on this one.

Oloroso sherry, stone fruit, and some nutmeg on the nose; oak, baking spice, some rye spice, vanilla; nice medium texture; fairly hot; finishes with baked apple and oak; a good approximation of a highland scotch, but nothing special

Nose - Fresh red apples, hint of dried cranberries, honey, faint cinnamon & clove spices Taste - Black peppercorn & charcoal filtered unsweetened apple juice, super light smoke presence, light metallic/charcoal, hint of dried red berries Finish - Light fruity apple, light charcoal/metallic lingers, super light red berry Score - 64/100 Final Thoughts - This started out with a somewhat promising nose, a bit light, but pleasant. It starts out nice once it hits the palate, but then nothing really changes and you're left with a very generic filtered apple juice sweet with this weird metallic/charcoal vibe. There MIGHT be a hint of peated whisky in this one, or maybe they just didn't rinse out their previous run of peated whisky or something. The finish is fairly short, which in this case is good, because the metallic/charcoal vibe is a bit weird. Would I drink it if offered? - No Would I specifically order it? - No Would I buy a bottle? - No NOTE - All reviews are done without factoring in price.

Banana and vanilla