Rating: 21/23 - Intro - This marks my 1000th tasting on Distiller! I looked around to see what I had to taste for such a milestone and settled on this sample of ridiculously old nearly-Armagnac. I call it "nearly-Armagnac" because there is a brief finishing in Islay casks (of all things), which makes the brandy no longer qualified for the term "Armagnac". I'm curious to see what effect that finishing period has on this. It seems like a bold choice of finishing, but then again Armagnac tends to have more smoke and bold funky flavors than most spirits. For those unfamiliar, Bhakta Brandy is being put out by the same guy responsible for Whistlepig. I've never been much of a fan of Whistlepig, but I'm a long-time Armagnac fan and most of what he did is just buy and blend some absurdly old Armagnac (oh, and he finished it in Islay casks because, presumably to add a little bit more depth and complexity). When I say that this is so extremely old, what exactly do I mean? Well, it does have an age statement of 50 years. There are very few spirits I've tried that are that old - in fact, there might just be one. Sure, some have traces of 50+ year old juice in them, but this starts at 50 years old. Bhakta Brandy also makes a big point of the fact that the oldest juice in it is from 1868, which means that it spent 152 years in the barrel! But how much of this is actually from back then? Rémy Martin makes a big deal about how old some of the distillate in Louis XIII is, but it doesn't get into the actual ages or percentages, so I have to assume it's teaspooned. What about Bhakta? Well, it makes a big point about how it isn't teaspooning with the old stuff - which is exactly what I would say if I were teaspooning. Here's the difference though: Bhakta makes a point of the fact that there are 37 barrels being used to make this line of brandy and it also lists the vintages that go into each bottle on its website. My initial assumption was that half or more of the bottles were coming from 1970 and there were just a few older ones, but by simply counting the vintages it is possible to make a rough estimate of the age breakdown in the average Bhakta release. I counted 29 vintages (including 1970) among the 25 releases that have come out so far. My recollection is that there are going to be 37 releases, so there's a strong possibility that there are more vintages that will be revealed later. There's also a strong possibility that there are multiple barrels with one or more of the same vintages. For my calculations, I assumed two things: all barrels have the same volume and the remaining 8 barrels of unknown vintage are all from 1970. Since these assumptions work in opposite directions, I waved my hands and assumed they's cancel out. Now, after all of that build-up, here are my estimates: - 76% >50 years old - 59% >60 years old - 46% >70 years old - 38% >80 years old - 27% >90 years old - 19% >100 years old - 19% >110 years old - 13.5% >120 years old (pre-1900) Average age: 77.75 years old Even if these estimates are off by a lot, this is far from teaspooning the old juice. And with that taken care of, I'm finally ready to taste this. - Tasting - This is batch 15 ("Boniface"). N: After giving this a few minutes to breathe, I get a big woodiness. It doesn't smell over-oaked (almost shockingly) though. There's some rich smoke coming out with just a kiss of medicinal peat and some tarry black licorice. There's a bit of vanilla, but the wood has much more of that French oak tannic scent - though they're some of the softest tannins I've ever smelled. The fruit is less strong, but I get apricot and/or sultana most strongly, but cherry gradually starts coming out. The cherry has a little bit of a floral side. There might be a little orange too. I get a moderated layer of spices: black pepper, white pepper, clove. There's a faint saltiness at times too. Some funky herbs gradually start coming out as a I get closer to the 10 minute mark. Perhaps a faint hint of mint. Somewhere in here, a bunch of leather comes in. Delord 25 smells positively light and brash in comparison. This is so full and mature that I worry it might actually taste a bit flat. P: Bold flavor! There's a tremendous amount of wood, then a tsunami of peat comes in quickly There's more tartness than I'd expected and the tannins are stronger as well. This is also considerably less viscous than I'd expected. The fruit is present, but not nearly as strong as the wood. Little bits of sweet, floral cherry mix with sultana and apricot. I get really fresh black pepper with a dash of white pepper. Definitely some clove, but it isn't overwhelming. There's a light burn that coats my throat for a long time, but it isn't harsh. There's tons of tobacco and other herbal flavors in here. There's a lot of subtlety, but it takes some real effort to pick out. Dark roast coffee beans and char. F: The peaty zing and wood linger the longest. Occasional wafts of floral cherry, but this is a much more herbal finish with bold tobacco and char. There's even a hint of mint. - Conclusion - The depth here is very nice, but the peat in particular feels like it's fighting the rest of the profile a fair amount as it comes in in tidal waves. Side by side, Delord 25 (20) is more youthful and fruity with and added sweet caramel flavor that really isn't present here. The Delord has less complexity overall, but it's a more approachable sipper. This tastes more rugged and deep, but possibly less balanced. In terms of depth and complexity, this is about on the level of A De Fussigny XO (18-19), though this certainly has a much more robust and mature profile (and it's nowhere near as fruity). They do both have the low-key burn though. El Dorado 21 (21) tastes flatter in comparison, but it oddly has a sort of musty maturity that this doesn't with all of its brashness. Joseph Magnus (20-21) is spicier with more leather and fruit. This is a lot tarter in comparison. Glenfarclas 25 (22-23) tastes younger (though far from young), sweeter, fruitier, and more dessert-like. Although it isn't as complex as this is, the Glenfarclas is winning in the Hedonism department and is quite complex while being pretty much perfectly in balance. Springbank 12 Cask Strength (22-23) is nearly as complex as this while being much more balanced, less thin, and more...hedonistic? It's tough to place this exactly, but it's somewhere in the range of all of these things I've compared it with. What really gets me about this is that it's both the oldest spirit I am likely to ever taste and the only peated brandy I've ever encountered. I was expecting a softer peat funk with a bunch of complexity, Like Laphroaig or perhaps lagavulin, but this tastes like it could have been finished in Ardbeg Traigh Bhan casks or something. What I'm getting at is that it's hard to find something similar to compare this with. Still, I said it was in the range of the things I compared it with. This was definitely the most complex and deep of the lot - though the A De Fussigny XO gave it a bit of a run for its money - but it was also without a doubt the least balanced. I can imagine going anywhere in the 19 to 23 range on this, though a 19 seems low and the balance and thinness issues here make me highly skeptical of a 23. I can imagine situationally preferring this to Glenfarclas 25, but I can see myself preferring Joseph Magnus or even A De Fussigny XO over this in other situations, so that isn't helping me rate this too much. What does help is the comparison with the Springbank because I think I would take the Springbank over this in most situations. For that reason, I'm ruling out a 22 and am now looking at either a 20 or 21. The maturity really stands out here, but the Islay finish seems excessive. This might have been better if it had been divided into thirds and separately finished in Islay, Cognac, and sweet Sherry casks before being combined back together. If the Islay casks are even necessary. I was worried that this wouldn't have enough personality, but what it really suffers from are some surprisingly rough edges. Cut back the peat, add more fruit, do something about the thinness (the sherry finish would help), and dial back the astringency - that would be a 23. I'm pretty torn, but this is just such an interesting and complex dram - without being a sort of one-off "oh isn't it interesting that they tried that" sort of thing - that I think I'll give it the 21. At the end of the day, I'd be thrilled to have a bottle of this on my shelf to pull down when I felt up for a real challenge. - Musings - I'd be really curious to try some the individual vintages used in this brandy because I wonder to what extent the boldness of the flavor is due to the age versus the particulars of the distillate, barrels, etc. This brandy for Islay fans seems like a project that should continue and I'm hopeful that it will work really well with younger vintages (preferably much younger), but I'm also wary of the possibility that it only works so well here because of that big, dry wood backing. I suppose we'll find out because Bhakta has mentioned plans to release younger brandies once this shockingly old stock is depleted. I saw a cognac for sale labelled as a "cigar blend" earlier today and now it hits me: plenty of brandy drinkers must like smoky, tobacco flavors, so why haven't there been more attempts at peated brandy? I read that some of the grapes affected by the California wildfires are being turned into brandy, so maybe smoky brandy will start being a thing in a few years. I actually tried a smoky pinot noir around a year ago and I thought it worked pretty well. But I digress. Terrific brandy; probably too aggressively finished. Thank you @PBMichiganWolverine for sharing this rare and fascinating pour!