With the official samples for round 6 in the books, it’s time to delve into the extras- and boy do we have a rare one here. It was provided by my brother from another mother, @PBMichiganWolverine, from NJ. He picked this bottle up on his business travels while over in the EU. I don’t believe any of this stuff made it to the USA, because the primary component is a Dutch whisky. The Winter Queen is from blending house Adelphi. It’s a blend comprised of 2 scotch single malts and the aforementioned Dutch whisky. There were less than 900 bottles available and it was bottled at 52.7% ABV. I believe the youngest whisky used was 9 years old, but they chose to leave it as a NAS bottling. It’s a beautiful, deep amber and mahogany in the glass. It’s NCF’d and made lots of long, silky legs in the Glencairn. The nose immediately reminded me of a sherry finished, rye whiskey. Sweet with hints of dill and pepper floating around the glass before they receded into fresh baked bread and syrupy, liquified toffee. Some amazing espresso notes remained hidden unless you got a little violent with the spins, but then they popped. The palate brought forward a lot of the nosing elements with maple syrup and peppery rye battling to be the center of attention. I immediately thought of the earlier vintages of High West’s Midwinter Nights Dram- except this one is sweeter, but not as well rounded. The latest MWND batches haven’t been able to hold a candle to the older ones, and this one walks that line a bit too. There’s just a feeling like the flavors don’t want to mix and fold into each other. It’s like a square dance where each ingredient steps forward in time, dances a bit and then backs up against the wall awaiting another turn. It’s not bad, by a long shot, I just wish it commingled a little better. Maybe it’s the youth of the juice, I’m not sure. The finish is long and highlighted by sweet sherry and a tree sap-like thickness. That was also very interesting. It takes mouthfeel/mouthcoat to a whole new level. Very satisfying. Overall, she’s a beautiful queen. Flavor packed from start to finish. I just can’t stress how I wanted it to meld a little better on the palate. It’s nit-picking, I know, but that’s what I do when I find something dancing this close to perfection. A big thanks to Pranay for pouring this one for the group. At $130 it’s right there on that fine line as to whether I think it’s worth that price, but then again if there was a bottle sitting in front of me on the shelf, I’d feel like a fool if I didn’t scoop it up. 4.25 stars, maybe 4.5. Cheers.