This was brought over by a friend along with its sister bottle. Both were purchased directly from the distillery and picked up at the sinking castle itself despite the winding and icy roads. If you’ve read my review of batch 1 you might not be expecting much. I certainly wasn’t. In the end I was pleasantly surprised. Knowing nothing of their mashbill I suspect the same distillate went into two different barrel types, batch 1 being heavy char and this being char-not-specified but with toasting. Probably all bullshit, but allow me to explain. This has the same caraway and lemongrass backbone as batch 1 but is significantly more well round. Beginning with the nose there’s is a noticeable vanilla, almost brown sugar. There is also a bit of apricot (Buffalo-trace-esque). The palate begins with light, stove-top caramel and then caraway, then a blip of candy cigarettes and them back to a slightly buttery sweetness. My guess is some degree of vanillin extraction due either to barrel toast or maybe entry proof. So, this is good. Maybe even $30 good. I could enjoy drinking this again but I won’t seek it out due to shelf space. I will say without a doubt that batch 2 is the clear winner here.