Nose: Sharp black tea, bitters, black pepper reduction
Palate: Umami black pepper awesomeness. This should be a steak sauce. Spicy. Hot. fascinating.
Rating: 6 / 10 – I love this but can’t imagine wanting a bottle. But what a cool pour.
Nose: Subtle and gentle, soft nuttiness, stone fruits, tobacco, leather. tiny hint of chlorine. Toast with orange marmalade.
Palate: Insipid warmth with a sprinkle of herbs and spices, fleeting notes of the stone fruit, and cheap hair spray. The crystal folgers of armagnac. Wild spearmint. Pool water. The finish trails off into nothingness.
Rating: 5 / 10 – whatever. All the core components are here for this to be great, but they don’t quite come together to pull it off.
Nose: Geraniums and marigolds, latex paint, asparagus, dolma, green beans, hard unripe green plums, gooseberries, grape leather and tannins. Light hint of nuts and the shells of sunflower seeds.
Palate: Lemongrass, spearmint and chamomile … which is basically sleepytime tea. Lemon pith. A light glue, like licking an envelope. White peppercorn. Increasingly dry and bitter with more time in the glass.
Rating: 6 / 10 – Levi poetically named this bottle, and even Google seems incapable of capturing its spirit. Google translate gives three results: what under voice, what subheadings, and what is quiet. This is the first spirit of his we have had the pleasure of tasting (thank you Sten!) and it did not disappoint in spite of all the lore around these bottlings.
Nose: Initial impression is all butterscotch, however this fades with time. Dulce de leche drizzled on a pineapple angel food cake, tangerine flan. Super concentrated mini tangerines. Thai basil. Coriander. Some type of asian green chili, but I don’t know them well enough to pick it out.
Palate: This should be a designer lollipop. Basil tangerinaide. Lime leaves and coriander. Concentrated juice with a touch of spicy spices (will the real slim spice please stand up). And some loose leaf black tea.
Rating: 8 / 10 – Alright Grappa. I see you. This is the first Grappa to raise Ryan’s eyebrow. The nose is super fun and interesting, but the star of the show here is the finish, it just puts a smile on your face with its tangerine goodness.
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.
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.
Nose: Been tripping on Harry Mack’s freestyle tonight with Serenity. Poured a glass and set it down for a time. And hot damn the room’s sweet aroma is woven with rhymes. Apricot honey, and thyme. New pressed vinyl. Ducken devine. Peach fruit compote, lightly coating warm crepes. Yom tov, for a new year. Raise a glass, this is a white porto and tonic, not beer. No jeers, just elegance and class.
Palate: This I did not expect. Incredible subtext, with a fully floral fruity perfume. Plum blossoms in June. Had to pour more, a second glass and let’s be straight, 64% my ass. Banana leaf and white rice. Not the sweet sticky kind, just simple times with a touch of lemon grass. Sojourn is currently obsessed with acai berry herbal tea. Makes me put it in sparkling water and drinks it through a bamboo straw, plastic free.
Rating: 7 / 10 – this is one of the most gentle pomace brandies I have ever tried. Stunningly subtle, worth a buy.
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.
Nose: Opening with a blast of fresh pressed apples. What we call cider in northern washington, to differentiate from that vapid shit people sell in stores as apple juice. Cider that pulls no punches, with off the chart sweetness and acidity. If your head doesn’t snap back, it’s not the right blend yet. Tonight my daughter cooked dinner, and she took it up a notch with some epic steak tacos. Heavily seared filet with a green mango coleslaw. The mayo / paprika / cider vinegar and sugar vibe pairs so well with shredded green mango and carrots. Earthy, sweet, rich creaminess and extra acidity given both our palates. Sorry mom, I know it’s not your jam, but the chef is in charge.
Palate: Oh. Oh… shit lads (n ladies), we have a belter. My mom sometimes allows the apple and pear juices to sit in a glass container and give the wild yeast some space to add a touch of character. It’s not quite alcoholic cider, not quite apple vinegar. Maybe kombucha is the closest coursin. Or a shrub. A funktastic expression of nature and time. Incredibly vibrant, tart, tonic and tannic without jumping the shark. Vanilla and turmeric. Rich earthiness of brown sugar rock candy.
Rating: 8 / 10 – Off the charts awesome if you love belgian sours. I wish I had a bigger amount as with more time this will most certainly evolve into a 9 (but might not).
Nose: In a strange place tonight as I find myself contemplating mortality. Worked with my parents for a few hours on their medical directives. We legit argued about where my mom’s brain should get donated. And then the queen of England passed and I’m watching friends process. Don’t have much of a horse in that race. But all in all there is something austere in the air. Spiced plums and holly. A huge blast of cloves. And definitely sweet and earthy. Sticky rice with tamarind sorbet.
Palate: Fun! Old timey candy, both herbal and lightly sweet. Thyme. Catnip. Jasmine tea. Honey lozenge. I usually don’t go for this type of style, but it is so beautifully balanced, and kind of fits my mood. I’d drink this at a funeral and appreciate both the past and the future yet to come.
Rating: 6 / 10 – Not typically in my wheelhouse but an incredibly elegant pour.
Nose: Cranberry relish has the power to evoke an entire ambience. Not that jiggly canned crap, the stuff mom makes with fresh berries and orange zest. Tart and inviting green grapes that crunch. Rosehip and hibiscus tea. What a lovely and powerful blend of sour fruit notes. My kids and I have been obsessed with lemonade / limeade and we were just wondering if there was a way to barrel age it.
Palate: The wood leads the orchestra. And rocks the mid palate with a wild bassoon solo. I love wood, although this might teeter on a knife’s edge of tannic for some but I think threads the needle just right. A homemade black currant cordial concentrate mixed with champagne. Who doesn’t love a kir royal. Hibiscus. Finish shows hints of herbs. Catnip and thyme.
Rating: 7 / 10 – The palate really evolved with a nice sit and just got better. Went from a 6 to a 7 with time.
Nose: Rich sweet carpet. Dark maple syrup teetering on molasses. I used to soak ripe red cherries in bourbon in the freezer over the summer until cider season. It added intense base notes to the fruit. I keep expecting it to get brighter, but instead we roll into umami territory. Serenity has been experimenting with teriyaki sauce, marrying soy, sugar and vinegars. Adding a hint of starch brings a smoothness to the smell and the palate. Nearly velvety chocolate cake.
Palate: Oak shadow boxer, but with a core of soft red velvet sweetness. Explodes into a big mouthful but the cocoa carries it. Reminds me of some of the older elijah craigs. Maybe closer to chocolate malt balls. The oak tannins aren’t shy.
Rating: 7 / 10 – I quite like this. The palate doesn’t have a ton of nuance but that rich deep note is lovely. I’m right on the fence about buying and while I don’t usually talk about price when reviewing, I just added one to the cart because it’s priced right. So that puts it solid in 7 land.
Nose: Harkens to a good amontillado. Cherry cola notes. Royal flan, with the notes of industrial caramel syrup (that we all know is just palm or corn syrup) but damn it’s good. A wander through a fresh herb garden after a while, parsley and thyme. A lovely thick wood layer.
Palate: Tamarindo, tomato marmalade, bitter pie cherries with a notable astringency in the mid palate. I’m tasting a touch of salt but this might be because I was making barbeque sauce earlier today and got it everywhere. Peppery. Herbal notes are quite prevalent but are less easy to pull apart for me today. I’d need to come back to it, but since I don’t love herbal, the odds aren’t high I will.
Rating: 5 / 10 – this is tasty but I wouldn’t reach for it again. From the nose I was hoping for a bigger oak and cherry hit. What I found was more savory and herbal and interesting, which is not really my thing. This is an excellent pour for the herbal aficionados. Kind of leans towards some of the more agricol style rhums I don’t jive with.
Nose: Such a gentle and lofi nose. Elegant and rounded. Chestnut y hazelnut. Warm wood. Touch of dried apricots. And the after hints of loquat when my daughter had one for breakfast.
Palate: An rich and mouth coating almond nut butter, tiny hints of kumquat.
Rating: 6 / 10 – smooth is nearly an insult in whisky. But if you could elevate smooth to an artform, this is it. As an adamant fan of the neurotic, I rarely can slow down enough to appreciate this. But I put on lofi hiphop on spotify, and it paired perfectly. I could imagine happily owning a bottle, though I don’t imagine I would actually buy one given my leaning. So it’s between a 6 & 7.
Nose: Big lovely oak. rootbeer . vanilla pods, cloves and nutmeg.
Palate: It like a perfectly rounded bourbon. Light maple syrup sweetness. Oaky tannins. Christmas plum butter. This should be put into a wrapper and sold as candy.
Rating: 7 / 10 – this is gorgeous. And sweet deliciousness. It’s missing the complexity to transcend but dang lads. Buy this one. Paco says he would consider buying 2.
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