Nose: this reminds me of Gautier’s cigar blend cognac on first sniff, which is a bottling I haven’t thought of in years and I want to revisit. The nose flares with an initial burst of sweet grape candy which then quickly expands with rich earthy mahogany notes. Leather and smokey tea, a brush of dark chocolate, and the longer I sit with it, the more prevalent menthol and eucalyptus become. This reminds me of my dad’s machineshop, where he used to build planes. It always blew my mind that the first plane I flew in had a fabric exterior.
Palate: walnut and mahogany to build upon. Camphor. Leather shoe polish and old books. Strong mentholated licorice drop with traces of iodine. Black tar. This is quite medicinal. Reminds me just a bit of catnip. Unfortunately, the armagnac character I still got from the nose on this has been smushed.
Rating: 6 / 10 – half uni and half colombar 12 year armagnac finished 6 months in a Caol Ila whisky cask. Frankly this really works and for the medicinal caol ila fans out there, this is a really great pairing – an easy 7+ for those folks. I respect the hell out of it. I just don’t like gnarly tar / medicinal peat in general, as I’m more of a bbq peat kinda lad.
