Ryan Archives - Page 17 of 21

Tasting Notes From: Ryan

Grappa di Barolo 20 Years 50%

Nose: Passion flowers, vanilla, wood shop, champagne vinegar, well balanced sauternes dessert wine, peach shrub, plump golden raisins.

Palate: Starts off with a lovely peach centric note and then a huge burst of crushed vanilla pods, old school vanilla ice cream, rich and decadent.

Rating: 6 (Shane) 7 (Ryan) / 10 – The quality of this spirit is not in question in looking at our ratings. It has purely come down to personal palate preference, and this spirit is a big winner if you love intense vanilla in yo face. Another really fun, interesting, and ultimately quality spirit.

Mortagne au Perche Calvados Tres Vieux 43%

Nose: Why hello apples of the tart variety. Crab apples and honey crisps. Apple vinegar, apple cider, apple butter, I’m Forrest Gumping at this point about apples. This is the very essence of apples in distillate form. Green olives stuff with pimiento peppers.

Palate: Apple vinegar, bone dry cider, licorice root and cloves, dry tannins, green olive brine

Rating: 5 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 – This is an interesting spirit and also quite opinionated. We could both see hopping between a 4 and a 6 on any given session with it.

Belgrove Distillery Hopped Malt Whisky Distilled IPA 64.5%

Nose: Lychee white tea. Rose hips. Strong perfumey note. Honeydew melon milk hard candy. Sugar cookie. Lychee, did we say lychee? Tangerine and fresh hops. Organic herbal Oway body lotion, for the modern man. Honestly, the way Ryan sells it, I would use that but the odds they make it to western africa is low. Orange zest.

Palate: Palate mirrors the nose. Loads of that lychee front and center. Orange zest, fresh peeled orange wedges, and essential oils. White pepper. Jasmine. Rose hips. White chocolate. On the more astringent side.

Rating: 6 / 10 – How can this be so beautifully fruity? It’s completely off the charts palate volume. Def leopard of whisky. Could be a 6 or 7 but had too many to make the call.

Belgrove Distillery Wood Seep Rye 73.3% (this whisky seeped out of the wood after the barrel was emptied)

Nose: Powdered sugar. Cranberry orange relish. Metallic. Clover. Slightly hoppy with moist oats. Cow chow. Sauerkraut and cornichons.

Palate: Full on spearmint. Fancy rosemary herbed butter. The alcohol isn’t in your face, but you have to work your way up to here. An intense, intense woodniness. I feel nearly pine but ryan disagrees and thinks he needs to start licking the tropical hardwoods at home depot, perhaps tea tree.

Rating: 7 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 – it’s down right absurd this is drinkable. And delicious. Fucking hazmat hoose juice. My mouth is completely numb. Ryan thinks I lack fortitude.

Belgrove Distillery Oat Whisky 65.5%

Nose: Sliced peaches on brown sugar oatmeal, Granola with dried goji berries, papaya and coconut flakes. Steel cut oats and honey. Tomato vines.

Palate: So peach forward. And raspberry coulis.Papaya frosting. A great fruity sourness on the finish that inspires the fan of lambics in me. Bitter on the finish but within the range of acceptable and adds dimension. Comes in hot and keeps on dishing.

Rating: 7 / 10 – a powerfully intense fruit bomb.

Belgrove Distillery Wholly Shit Rye Whisky Smoked With Sheep Dung 62.6%

Nose: Abbazabba–peanut butter wrapped taffy shell. in a Nutella, PayDay & 100 Grand candy bar, and Ferrero Rocher. So damn nutty. And fresh agave. What do these sheep EAT?!?! Yup, farmer Peter, all the sheep had their PBrotein shakes this morning. Whiffs of pipe smoke wafting out of your favorite bar. Toasted chestnuts outside the mall at xmas.

Palate: Warm spanish peanuts, and a brown ale while drinking at a bar with friends. Yeast cakes. Few slices of jamon serrano and grilled green onions. Deep dark cinnamon, earthy variety.

Rating: 7 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 – It looks like those sheep were well hydrated. Proof that color is rarely an indicator of goodness. Same for booze, same for people. I’d buy a bottle of this hands down.

Belgrove Distillery 100% Rye Grain Cask PB 081 Ex Wine Cask 62.6%

Nose: Right as ryan came on zoom, he was rubbing tigerbalm into his eyes. Trying to break the evil spell and prepare himself for all that biodiesel potency. Fennel seeds, peach tea, potters clay, apple chutney, turnip, creamy black peppercorn sauce on smoked loin. Dried peppers. Reminds me a lot of some of the agave distillates like sotol with the earther green funk. With more time in the glass, canned pears and….very oddly….raw beef.

Palate: Strong pepper and leek notes, garden variety hot peppers. Arugula with grapefruit supremes. Much lighter smoke of touch than the others, like a nice chargrilled steak. Add green peppers, sharp onions and broccolini. Bouji fajitas, molcajete, rehydrated peppers.

Rating: 6 / 10 – the agave lovers will flip over this. This isn’t the type of profile I typically reach for, but dang it’s fun, interesting AND good. Peter thinks it was mostly likely a 200L pinot noir. 6.7 Years in the barrel.

Belgrove Distillery Apple Hatchet (apple brandy) 42%

Nose: Apple cider with a super tart apple, mulched ash and cedar, a light stilton cheese, saltiness, lime peel, unripe fig

Palate: Water that a cigar was extinguished in, smokey and deeply woody, salisbury steak tv dinner.. Where did the apple go?!?

Rating: 4 / 10 – loved the nose, but damn the palate is a major departure. I’m baffled at the disconnect. Made from a local cider that have surplus production. In australia brandy required 2 years, so he calls it a hatchet.

Belgrove Distillery Big Smokin’ Barrel 50.7%

Nose: It’s as if you stuck your head into a diesel truck’s exhaust. Burnt bbq with a big dose of mesquite wood. Walking into a smoking shed filled with white fish. Even the color captures the level of intensity of the smoke here. Tires. Nose evolves with more time in the glass, wood shop, varnish, and chamomile. Newspaper.

Palate: Smoking a cigar. I was kind of scared to taste this given the nose. Not only is it not bad, it is shockingly drinkable for about a second, and then I’m completely overwhelmed. This harkens to my first time drinking balcones brimstone. Or smoked tamarindo. Mid palette is a varnish. Whoooo this is so so intense.

Rating: 4 / 10 – Fascinating. I can’t even finish my glass. Octomore ain’t got nothing on this. If you like smoke, this is the penultimate, marked by delicious burps of brisket. I think I’ll actually keep this sample and use it as a replacement for liquid smoke in a recipe. It reminds me the very first time I tried a caroni 4 years ago in a restaurant with my wife.

Belgrove Distillery Single Barrel PB 128 Peated Rye Whisky 60.2%

Nose: Reuben in a glass form your favorite jewish deli, complete with the dill pickle on the side. With more time, maybe less deli and a bit more sweet. Leeks. Turkish dried sulfured apricots.

Palate: Intense dill. Fresh marbled rye bread. Did I say dill? Pickle with fresh dill, dilled pickle, pickled dill, whatever combo you want to go with fits the bill. A black cloud of tractor smoke. Bitter tractor ass.

Rating: 4 / 10 – Fuck it, I give up. Mercy me.

Ron Aldea 2002 single cask #1 62.3%

Nose: Dark dank potting soil, artichoke dip dusted with cotija, fresh cut leather, walnuts in dark chocolate, cement glue, patacones with ripe plantains or sweet potato shoestring fries, mango in chili. Slight whiffs of celery. Muscovado sugar and packing tape. With lots of time in the glass breathing, a neat note of cayenne pepper, nutmeg, and toffee.

Palate: There is something insanely masculine to this pour. Unarguably sweet, but only as a backdrop to bold base notes and powerful farm funk. Tobacco, dark chocolate espresso beans, cecina or biltong, quite gamey with such a vibrant saltiness, bourbon cherries, grilled watermelon rinds, portobello mushrooms. And a dark brown sugar to wrap. So earthy.

Rating: 7 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 Is this the sugarcane juice talking, yet with a Spanish hand at the wheel? Or perhaps aging for 20 years on a cliff overlooking a roiling ocean. You could feel the salt spray where this cask sits, right at the door of the warehouse. Unctuous and funky. Dear lord I hope we all agree and I can convince Jose to sell it.

Lheraud Cognac Petit Champagne 1932 43%

Nose: Molasses, orange and grapefruit peel. Apricot and tangerine tartlets. Almond meringues

Palate: Sweet yet tannic, think sweet southern black tea. Hints of cinnamon, canned peaches flambéed with rosemary. Cherry pits. Cotton candy aftertaste.

Rating: 9 / 10 This is unbelievable and worth the hunt. I’m not feeling verbose, more sarcastic. Thank god this is only 90 years old and not truly unobtainium. Every day drinker right here; With a freaking straw.

Lheraud Cognac Petit Champagne 1920 44%

Nose: A single epic note. Like that moment Michael Jackson grabs his woohoo and wails. Baking sugars and peach cobbler with a French country pie crust. There is a fairy dusting of nutmeg and allspice, a la salt bae. A subtle hint of turbinado and walnuts. Pine nuts, olive tapenade, herbal and gooey creamy cheese funk round this out with more time on the back half.

Palate: I thought I’d need to listen for the whispers given my propensity for no-holds-barred MMA cask strength whisky. Nope, plenty of character here. Each of the nose nuggets are neatly present. But really, we are talking about peaches and apricots. And then we head to herbal town, a rounded ricola herbal rinse. The late landed funk is hard to find on the palate. The finish stays herbal for a long time and got less interesting the more it rested. I’m going to give this another shot in a few nights.

Rating: 7 / 10. It’s super good and the herbal fans might rate this even higher than I do.

Lheraud Cognac Petit Champagne 1922 40%

Nose: Sweet balsamic vinegar. Sandalwood. Bit of funk, the body odor of an unwashed french man reliving his past hipness. Dr pepper and cola. Man back to funky, quite ripe stone fruits, black peach tea, walnuts, chewing tobacco, fresh dark potting soil. When I think rancio, it smells like this.

Palate: Black peach tea through and through. An unsweetened sarsaparilla or birch bark home brewed old-timey beverage. Green peppercorn, licorice root, and a stale high-end cinnamon stick. It has all the markers of being sweet without ever going there. There is an exceptional balance between herbal, sweet, and wood that leaves things in harmony.

Rating: 8 (shane) & 9 (ryan) / 10 this is seriously delicious in a way I did not expect. The nose and palate align, and even at the low abv this spirit shines.

Lheraud Cognac 1914 Petit Champagne 42%

Nose: I’ve been making chai from scratch again. It’s interesting how quickly they can vary in character, even with similar ingredients. Sojourn was asking me if I could make a decaf chai and I found myself staring at the rooibos and pondering. A rosehip, ping peppercorn red tea and wildflower honey concentrate, to be blended into oat or almond milk could be the ticket. Or you could just smell this glass and get the same experience. Potent notes groseille, not just the fruit but of the whole plant. Had a rhubarb fritz soft drink at lunch today, something I plan to repeat. Worth the shot my friends.

Palate: I think the biggest gift of this broken leg bullshit has been resetting my palate. I took nearly 4 months off of spirits to focus on recovery, a journey with many months left. But now, 42% has a full mouthfeel that it certainly did not back in 2022. Real deep fritz cola concentrate vibes, carob malt balls, licorice sticks they sell in health stores as alternative to a toothbrush, dried goji berries, and some herbs quickly landing in ricola territory.

Rating: 6 / 10 – I’m really enjoying this tonight, and its got a surprisingly intense palate. But you have to want the dense roots ‘n herbs mojo this delivers. Having just come back from Greece and enjoyed a ton of ouzo, this is definitely a step up, but it shares a lot of DNA.