Nose: Freeze dried strawberries dipped in espresso laced fudge. Tobacco leaf and the ephemeral smell of a cigar smoked out in an open field. My grandparents had a well loved country home and orchard a few hours from Paris. I can barely remember the house itself as mami would kick me out of it the minute I was awake and told me to come back before the sun set. There is an old farmhouse smell that is hard to describe. Aged wood. Wool. Preserved flowers bouquet and drying fruit from the orchard. Baking brownies with walnuts. And then the fruit pops again. Bright green apples. Not just sweet, but a tart that wrinkles my nose.
Palate: Almonds and pate a choux. Wood tannins and the aftertaste of tobacco. Quince and unripe pear. Lime peel. Lavender slowly transitioning into Moroccan mint.
Rating: 7 / 10 – What a nose. And a beautiful palate. But I swear they belong to different spirits. The nose harkening back to older whisky, the palate to an elegant herbal cognac.
