Wolfburn Northland

Medicinal taste

Strongly magnolia on the nose. Cereal on the palate, then pain au chocolate or buttery chocolate chip brioche, with cocoa and honey on the finish. Very pleasant.

It’s 2020. It’s December. Let’s shut this year down with a brand new whiskey (or whisky) every day. It’s my own personal whiskey advent calendar. +6! Dec. 14, 2020 I’m moderately alarmed by my lack of knowledge about my own whiskey collection. The other day, I learned Monkey Shoulder wasn’t a bourbon. Apparently, I also have a Flaviar sample kit? I don’t know much about Flaviar, but my initial impression based on what I just saw online is that it’s a way to charge absurdly too much for anything worth three-sixths of a damn and fair prices for all the stuff nobody wants. This effect seems amplified within their sample kits. Enter Wolfburn. This is frighteningly clear. I can’t recall the last time I saw a whisky look like this. I swear I’ve seen yellower white dog. Nose is caramel, sugar, and cigar smoke. Overall unpleasant nose. Body is intense. Jalapeño, smoke, cream. Possibly some chocolate. It’s interesting, but I can’t call it pleasant. Finish is spicy, acidic. Liquid hot sauce. It turns your stomach. I think I just developed GIRD. After you recover, there’s a decent peat runoff (decent duration, not intensity). The last 2 seconds of this drink are the best. But then you don’t want to go back. I’m relatively new to scotch, so with all the appropriate caveats and humility I assert: this is not great. If I’m way off, please let me know. I have a drop or two left in the vial, but unless there’s something major that I’m missing, I’m pouring it out. This reminds me a lot of that Dickel Tobasco nonsense: it’s interesting on paper, and introducing an acidic hot sauce note does foster some mildly interesting interaction with other notes. However, I can’t say that it’s enjoyable, and I want nothing to do with it. ‘Tis the season. I’m day-to-day on my whiskey selection, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments. Merry whiskey to all, and to all a beer flight!