Nose: Grilled leeks, bergamot, dark bread fruit nut loaf, cinnamon / nutmeg
Palate: Cinnamon sticks, marzipan, citrus white tea, bay leaf and bbw smoke
Rating: 7 / 10 unbelievably soft for an Octomore .. or it’s my 5th dram.
Nose: I’ve been somewhat obsessed with sweet spicy salsas. My neighborhood burrito shop chef has been trying all kinds of things. A tamarindo habanero (win). A smokey tropical guava with earthy notes, perhaps guajillo? I’ve been wondering if there is some way to bring in a leather / tobacco / cedar vibe into his next experiment. This almost tiptoes into rancio, with a dollop of blue cheese.
Palate: Dirty peat alert. Cast iron pan burnt bits. Charred green bell pepper Crispy baked broccoli. Over steeped green tea, nearly metallic. And yet among all these astringent flavors is a sweet hug.
Rating: 7 / 10 you know this is good when I spilled my glass, and decided to lick it off the table. =)
Nose: Capri-sun orange juice. Guava and unripe banana. Marsh grass. Clove butter, almost flambee.
Palate: Tony Chocolonely salted caramel milk chocolate. Dark chocolate orange. Bitter almonds. A dark heavy german bread loaf. The kind which are actually edible bricks slicked as cracker alternatives.
Rating: 4 / 10 – okay, better than the 1988 but still no bueno. Maybe I’m missing something.
Nose: Tangerine, subtle fleeting note of violet, meyer lemons, guava, essence of grapefruit, rose hip tea
Palate: Milk chocolate, grapefruit and lemon peel, perfume and cheap hair spray, that note of old wood again. Slightly bitter and herbal on the finish.
Rating: 5 / 10 – coming off the Hart Brother’s sherry cask samples, the core dna that is Littlemill is present here. Hats off to them for capturing that with the addition of the sherry cask at play. We are just finding that maybe we don’t love Littlemill, but we have more samples to try and will report back.
Nose: During my full day bike ride in Belgium last weekend we ended up talking about making a craft cola. I’m thinking of starting with rose hips, orange peel, the tiniest brush of cloves. And something to bring a sense of aged wood but not sure how to approach it. We didn’t discussed a smoky cola, but I kinda want to give it a shot. Layer in a solid peat smoke and a maritime vibe. It is a solid nose but every time I’ve stepped away from the glass and come back, the first sniff isn’t filling me with joy. Maybe it is the wool socks vibe.
Palate: Salty first then sweet. Blackberries and cassis. Licorice root. A faded meaty note, sweet glazed beef jerky. Oh and it is not wool socks, although that does fit. It is the fine edge of the sulfur spectrum. Not terribly dominant, nor particularly unpleasant, but enough that it won’t outshine the bourbon for me. Even then, this is still a pretty interesting whisky.
Rating: 5 / 10 – When I tried the straight bourbon, I loved it and also wished it had some kind of funky note. Mission accomplished, it’s funky. But I don’t think it actually elevated the pour. Went back to the straight bourbon cask and it’s still awesome.
Nose: I spent the day yesterday biking through the canals of Belgium through tall grasses. At low tide, the smell of wet earth mixed with the warm grasses and pollens floating on the wind. I can still smell the chai from this morning, with a oatmilk base. Touch of cinnamon, vanilla, a shaving of orange peel and the yeastiness of rising dough.
Palate: Oranges and the flavor, but not the kick of sweet asian chilis. My buddy Peter always travels with Metamucil cinnamon digestive biscuits. Probably the best biscuit to pair with coffee, and manage the unfortunate side of travel. Orange blossom honey, and a touch of citric acidity, balancing the underlying sweetness. We visited “the best chocolate shop in Belgium”, all 6 of them, all on the same street. I always appreciate the confidence with which they declared their superiority. While I quickly concluded that Belgium chocolates still taste like chocolate, and I don’t care for chocolate, Daniel found a nut brittle that was well worth the buy. I like how the caramelization of sugars pairs with other flavors. I’m still blown away by how I can recognize the rye influence but it simply doesn’t have the harshness of rye. This is so pleasant.
Rating: 6 / 10 – A fantastic beginner whisky. Warm, sweet, with a juicy bite and only a touch of punch. I was expecting all the gnarly herbal and pepperiness that often accompanies high rye’s but instead found a friendly taste tipple. If you want a bottle in your cupboard for non-spirit drinkers, this is a pretty solid choice.
Nose: Fresh pineapple and a bright honeycrisp apple. Honeybaked ham, asparagus, fennel, calvastrano olives, and lemon pine sol. Pineapple upside down cake on revisit.
Palate: Julie’s aunt Claire’s lemon bars if she added a single drop of liquid smoke into the curd. Grilled pineapple. Fennel powers the finish, paired with an animal cracker.
Rating: 8 / 10 – This is just down right yum. It is super well integrated and I love pineapple vibe on peated whisky. It doesn’t have the complexity of most of my 8s, but it’s just so fun to drink.
Nose: A glorious Cadbury egg. Nothing more needs saying as this is in my opinion he penultimate expression of a chocolate treat. Sea salt dark chocolate and honeycomb / bit-o-honey. The zing of sweet tarts… or more elegantly orange blossom water. Fleeting hints of anise. Brown sugar and butter oatmeal, lemon poppyseed. A tomato plant in bloom.
Palate: Milk chocolate, hazelnut, dried cranberry, sea salt, touch of caramel. Old leather my dad kept is tools in. I’d often be assigned the task of sandblasting old metal to remove any corrosion before we worked on new projects. It was hands down the most fun with tools I ever had as a kid. The grit and metal never quite escaped the saftey box my dad built until you opened the door, at which point you could taste it on the air.
Rating: 6 (Shane) 7 (Ryan) / 10 – Ryan and I have been trying to nail down the Hazelburn DNA for a while. There is a unique smell that ties all their spirits that we have been unable to name. But its a pseudo-industrial vibe. Need more hazelburn.
Nose: Tart cherries, Meyers lemon, those tiny cornichon, edamame, street dust, car wax, old wood cabinet.
Palate: Lemon grass and ginger chews which bring that lovely szechuan pepper heat. A potent green garden patch; zucchini, pine needles and green tomato.
Rating: 4 (Ryan) 7 (Shane) / 10 – I like the garden patch vibe paired with the earth sherry notes. Ryan not so much.
Nose: Camping should smell this good. A gentle haze of smoke from a sage brush and old oak fire from a few miles upwind. My parents used to drive us from Los Angeles, through Death Valley and up into the mountains where we would camp by a river. This was back in the days before you had to stay in an assigned spot. It was usually searing hot and we’d spend days building dams, fishing and drifting in the water. I can still smell the hot stones on sandy soil. Roasted trout with sea salt. Wild flower honey.
Palate: Holy shitballs, that is delicious. We had dinner with business partners last night and my favorite dish, which everyone else hated, was a grilled and smoked head of lettuce with candied strawberries, tiny crisped anchovies and a drizzle of sweet cream. The sweet, the salt and the creaminess pair sublimely. Salted toffee. While the peat is the star, and the under study, I like the granny smith apple peel vibe.
Rating: 7 / 10 – As Port Charlotte gets older, I keep expecting the peat to mellow, but it just seems to integrate better over time. I love the way it dances with the bourbon sweetness. I do wish it had an extra note or character to bring deeper complexity, as in some ways for my palate, it is almost too pretty. I know, it’s weird complaining because the pour has nailed a perfect note. I can’t wait to try its sister cask.
Nose: Initial impression, a wisp of sulfur laden miracle whip…mmm…caramelized figs, sultanas, spiced boiled apples. In the canary islands, they make great wine. But when you go through a long aging process, often over 25 years, sometimes a barrel turns to vinegar. Why let top shelf vinegar go to waste? They drizzle Vinaigre Macho on fish or meats or use it in cocktails to add that sweet cloying funk. A fun potato salad.
Palate: Gentle and subtle. Tobacco leaf and cardboard. Finish is dark roasted coffee. I even went back for a second dip and didn’t find much more.
Rating: 4 / 10 – the nose and palate weave a very different narrative and while the palate is gentle, it lacks complexity and depth. I had high expectations after the first 1996 Longmorn was such a heavy hitter, and we find myself a wee bit disappointed here.
Nose: Classic sherry nose with layers of sweetness. Maple syrup and fancy christmas panettone with dark cherries and dried prunes. Sherry poached pears. Prune vibe is potent when I return to the glass.
Palate: You ever stare at your own notes and think, that isn’t a description, its just a rehash of every decent wood forward sherry bomb out there? Yeah yeah, dark chocolate, leather, coffee, and oak. Plump raisins and dates. =)
Rating: 6 (Ryan) 7 (Shane) / 10 – This is everything you want in a classic sherry bomb. A bit too woody for Ryan, but right up Shane’s oaky alley.
Nose: Apricot yogurt, peach turnover, baked apple with lime zest, vanilla, waxy, Catholic saint candles that were stacked next to the mexican food isle in safeway when I was a kid. I always wondered why they did that but not a fat smiling buddha or the maneki-neko cat statue in the asian food isle. Would you like a side of catholicism with that horchata? And we are talking barrel age horchata here. Wish you could brew that without it going rancid.
Palate: My poor daughter is really struggling with braces. I’m a bit scared from that myself and still remember the taste of the wax I used to try to protect my poor gums from the sharp edges. Sweet and lightly vegetal: spaghetti squash and zucchini blossom. A mild green bell pepper. Herbaceous paired with lime. With slices of crisp pear.
Rating: 5 (Shane) 7 (Ryan) / 10 – A bright and potent nose, paired with a subtle and grassy palate.
Nose: Pool water. Which as a competitive swimmer, isn’t a complaint. Beeswax. Sweet yeast and flour. I’ve never managed to bake those big loaves of fluffy white bread. Mine always has too much heft. Spread a super thin layer of kumquat marmalade and a small pat of butter. The longer it sits, tropical fruits float to the surface, dried mango, yellow peach slices, lychee.
Palate: A dusting of baking spices on a morning pastry. Cinnamon pears. Ridden by cinnamon bears. Waxiness. Kinda makes me want one of those bunuelos from up the mountain. I love the anise ones but julie always goes for the orange. Then the fruit really picks it up a notch. Loquat and kumquat, which are pretty much unrelated despite the linguistic overlap. The palate is sweet yet citric, a somewhat bitter expression of the oak. Keeps it from being too boring.
Rating: 5 (Ryan) 6 (Shane) / 10 – waxy and tropical. Yes please. Ryan actually finds the fruit distracting from the core waxiness.
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