Rating: 18/23 N: Not as sweet as I expected. I get richness with some sweetness, but a big presence of apple peel and some spices. P: Very full of flavor, but also surprisingly harsh. This really burns in the mouth. The apple flavor is there and it's nice, but it's not actually incredibly prominent. I get lots of spicy tannins that bring along some wood. There's also a sweet, fruity sherried note. The full richness here is quite good and the complexity is solid. The pretty intense harshness is definitely the biggest problem by far. Richer with a fuller fermented flavor than St. George Apple Brandy, but less spice. This is sort of like Garrison Brothers to St. George's Eagle Rare or Russell's Reserve 10. F: That rich, tannic, tawny fruity bitterness, tartness, and sweetness really lingers. It's nice. The complexity is still decently present and the hedonism really carries through here. It's a bit overly sweet perhaps still, but it's not problematic. It certainly doesn't taste super mature, but it is tasty. - Conclusion - Well, it turns out that this is finished in port casks, so I guess that sherried flavor makes some sense. I'm looking in the 17 to 19 range for this most likely. I could go down to a 16 if I decide I've had it with the harshness. This reminds me a lot of a really good regular grape brandy, but it's toward the upper end. Torres 10 is just nowhere near this in terms of quality when compared side-by-side, so this is certainly a high tier brandy. The sheer richness and maturity of this blow Torres out of the water. This has a lot less of that artificial caramel flavor to it and the palate is much richer and fuller. It actually starts to remind me of Kavalan Soloist Port. This definitely isn't as concentrated flavor-wise as the Kavalan is, but it's above most things out there. It has that same fruity sweetness and spicy, woody richness going on. St. George Apple Brandy (2019) is not nearly as full and rich. It's spicier and fresher. If this is Kavalan Soloist Port, St. George is a nice Eastern Highland Scotch. Since we're talking big, bold flavors, another obvious point of comparison is Delord 25. Delord is far drier than this with much much more wood. There's endless depth to Delord's wood and a very nice layer of spices. The contrast considering Delord's lack of fruit is striking. The sweetness in this amps up the fullness for sure, but Delord is just as rich and definitely deeper when you dig into it. This has more of a bourbony character to it. Considering how much older Delord 25 already tastes, it certainly isn't worth pulling out the Delord 1981 to compare. OK, I do have one more obvious point of comparison. A De Fussigny XO is fruitier and more complex than Delord 25, but it's also younger with less of that nice woodiness. So I figure it site between Delord 25 and Mischief Apple. Mischief's sweetness still massively brings up its fullness. It's really difficult to explain how full this brandy is. A De Fussigny XO shows more complexity and maturity (though less maturity than Delord 25 for sure). This is all very subjective because the styles are so different (and they're even made from different fruits), but I would place Delord 25 and A De Fussigny XO above Mischief by at least a point, but really it's hard to imagine it being less than 2. OK, so there is one more obvious comparison that I can do. For anyone asking "what happened to the mouse?", well, it's back. Clearly I need to compare this with Kavalan Soloist Port. OK, so in terms of fullness, the Kavalan blows this away. I could chew on the Kavalan for days. On a 5 point fullness scale, it's an 11. The maturity also seems much more substantial in the Kavalan, more like the A De Fussigny XO level (not at the Delord 25 level). Of course, Kavalan is also a malt whisky, which an even bigger jump for comparison than apple brandy versus grape brandy was. A De Fussign XO tastes a bit grapey and fresh compared with the Kavalan. Surprisingly, I get more of that port fruitiness in the Mischief than in the Kavalan. Delord 25 doesn't pack enough of a punch to stand up to the Kavalan (though the difference in proof is also very substantial. It's actually sort of like the Kavalan is between the Delord and the Mischief when it comes to fruity richness and woodiness. At the end of the day, the Kavalan, Delord, and A De Fussigny are better than this by a large margin, yet this is still a great brandy.