Something out of left field tonight perhaps. A left of sample from a gift box this curious dram is scotch malt sent to France for maturation. Apparently a blend of 12-27 year old liquids aged in PX sherry casks in one of the worlds most premiere wine regions (Bouze-les-Beaune; although I don’t know what that has to do with anything beneficial to the whisky?). N: A slightly musty-dusty and very malty opening with a very clear woody backdrop. The malt is quite light, cookie-dough like and is delivered with a cast of secondary notes: apple, vanilla, gentle spices, and a little leatheriness. The dried fruits of a sherry cask come out with time, but they are, to me, masked by the heavy wood presence. Chocolate is in there somewhere as well to round out the anticipation of sherry cask. P: Medium bodied and balances the line between juicy and viscous. Baked apple, biscuity malt, ginger, brown sugar crunch, cloves, cinnamon, a little leather and maybe black forrest fruits. The wood presence has backed off somewhat and lends its self to an emergent creamy texture that is more apparent with time. A touch of mocha comes in late. F: Medium. Ginger-cinnamon spice, apple juice, chocolate, raisins. Oiliness and maybe nuttiness remain. Meh. This is a generic sherry cask whisky. I honestly could not pick it from a line up. It is perfectly fine, and I would happily quaff glasses of the stuff. But, I wouldn’t write home about it, nor remember it. At AUD$158.99 it is not worth the price. It is, in a word: meh. Distiller whisky taste #266 [Pictured here with some (probably Uruguayan) amethyst. The word amethyst comes from the Greek amethustos, meaning ‘not intoxicated’ For centuries people thought amethyst was an antidote for drunkenness, a throw back to Greek legend. In Greek legend, the god Dionysus, in a drunken rage, vowed to kill the next mortal that he saw. Just then, a beautiful woman named Amethyst walked by, and Dionysus ordered two tigers to attack her. The goddess Artemis prevented a tragedy by turning the girl into a statue made of quartz that was harder than the tigers teeth. the statue was so beautiful Dionysus sobered up and regretted his rashness. In remorse, he spilled his wine onto the statue as an offering, staining the quartz purple and making the quartz statue amethyst.]