Nose: Anchovies, salted toasted marshmallow, honey, thick cut pepper bacon
Palate: Peat wallop, aged balsamic vinegar on tomatoes with sea salt, anchovies, sweet Kalamata olives, big oak vibe
Rating: 6 / 10 – a fun dynamic pour with huge peat and a fun sour n sweet layer.
Nose: Honey ham, cucumber, melon pear (cucumber)
Palate: Honeydew melon, milk candies, brine, smoked eggplant
Rating: 6 / 10 – a nice sweet smoke, with a good rounded character. Wish it wasn’t watered but still lovely.
Nose: Prosciutto wrapped around cantaloupe, cedar chips, cotton candy, rose hips, orange peel, the tiniest brush of cloves, almost cola vibe
Palate: Bunch of peat well integrated with the other flavors, surprising for an older cask. The combo of barrels does wonders here. Very blackberry/raspberry, licorice. Wool socks. [Ryan]: Damn, I don’t tend to love the more heavily smoked, peaty side of the spectrum these days, but this is delicious.
Rating: 6 / 10 – when compared to the pure bourbon sister cask, it comes short, but on its own, a very nice pour.
Nose: My nose crinkled. Of all the things I was expecting from an ale cask, tunera (prickly pear) was not one of them. When you live on a desert island, you eat what you grow. Here, along with plantains (go figure), that is cactus. And they use the leaves in all kinds of dishes, although my hands down favorite is sorbet or aguachile. The prickly pear is a delightful explosion of sweet and tart. Going so far as the bright note of loquat. As the glass rested, the ale cask began to shine. That smooth butteriness of a brazil nut. Which ironically is not a nut but a seed. Warm, whole grain bread. Allspice and a dash of cardamom.
Palate: It’s raining outside. Which for you northerners is a given, but for me is a source of rare nostalgia. I’m in jeans and long sleeves, which is nearly a special event. Perfect for this pour. It belongs on a table between friends by the fire, where camaraderie warms the heart and staves off the world. I’ve been working through a cold for nearly a month now, and when I blew my nose, an explosion of berries. The flavors are super well integrated. Soft and rich, edging on decadent. Like German fruit nut bread. Or a whole grain sopapilla; deep fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar and warm butter. I honestly prefer it with honey, but don’t get that here. The finish ends with a slightly tart note, green peppercorn and unripe plum. This is the pfeffernusse of whiskey.
Rating: 6 / 10 – the longer this sat, the more it evolved and the richer the palate. My first impression: this is a good pour, glad I had one. I always support my friends’ projects. On my second pour, ohhhh, thank goodness I bought two. This is really good. Props lads. A year later, back down to a 6. Still awesome, but I ended up gifting the second bottle to a friend.
Nose: All the lovely classic px sherry notes
Palate: Eucalyptus with cherry simple syrup. Benefits from a large sip. The long finish on this is nice, the herbal wears off becomes a bit more nutty, coffee, and cacao nibs. Raw almonds.
Rating: 5 (Ryan) 6 (Shane) / 10 – I personally struggle with eucalyptus, and it’s extra odd mixed with px syrupyness. But if you stick with the ride, this is a solid pour.
Nose: Burnt coffee ice cream, prune juice, dates, raisins. Shaved my body today and smelled my armpits at the end. Under all that sweetness are some rough notes… like my armpit and julie’s fingernail polish. I can’t tell if the palate will be amazing or awful. Kinda scared. Going in.
Palate: I am in a complicated relationship with this palate. I love sour. It reminds me of the funky fermented side of belgians sours. And the industrial side of jamaican rum. All spice, steel cut oats,, horse milk. We all have a little bit of genghis khan in us. We’re talking Injera, sour fermented funky ass … ethiopian pancakes.
Rating: 5 (Ryan) 6 (Shane) / 10 – it is weird and neurotic and I like it. But I can’t imagine anyone else vibing it. So this rating should not carry any weight.
Nose: Dr pepper, black peppercorn, Kookaburra black licorice, almond extract and Disaronno liquor, alfalfa and fresh straw
Palate: Blackberry and plum crumble. Dark chocolate. Organic rooibos. A strong lick of wood that layers in well with the syrupy sweetness. Layered in with an herbal kick. Like getting a digestif here in the canaries, where they put herbs into spirits and roll their own.
Rating: 6 / 10 – a completely lovely oloroso expression
Nose: Sage. California pepper tree. Slightly rotten lime. Peanut butter or butterscotch fudge. Those greenhouse notes with more subtle savory notes. Weird note, but smells like paper fresh off the printer with ink.
Palate: Licking envelopes, orange blossom water, unripe figs / fig sap.
Rating: 6 / 10
Nose: Some barnyard that then gets cleaned with a dial soap bar. Putting my nose into a copper pot actively popping popcorn.
Palate: Pipe tobacco and smoking a cigar. Light turon with hints of cloves. Cardboard.
Rating: 6 / 10
Nose: I’m not typically in love at first sniff, but dannng, domaine whose name I can’t read because vincent handwriting is illegible, I might love you. Mom and I used to make plum butter every year from the orchard. We would take the plum acidity and sweetness, layer in baking spices and then concentrate and then concentrate until we have a spread fit for the gods. We would make so much and you can only eat it so quickly, that I recently had a debate with mom about expiration date. This isn’t a distillate or a wine, a 1998 plum butter vintage is quite suspect. Still smelled amazing though but I was too scared to try it out. The dutch might consider themselves the licorice maestros, and it is hard to argue given how much amazeballs salted licorice my mom used to drag home from business trips. But when dad started traveling to Australia for his eucalyptus research, he began to bring home a whole different take on licorice. Soft, chewy and rich flavors, layered both anise and licorice root oils. On mouthfeel they take the crown. But they also had a rich and decadent smell no other style has ever produced. There is so much more but I want to dive into the palate, so brain dump style: toasted pecans, dry oak right as I place it in the fire before it burst into flame, cassis concentrate, oyster mushroom, dr pepper at the bottom of my glass after it has dried.
Palate: I’ve been titillated by tart lately. Wood forward. And while on the first sip that is all I found, I reached for a bigger draw and flavors cascaded onwards. Maybe a lower abv? Definitely plum. Kind of reminds me of the higher abv Capreolus damson EDV we tried with Barney. Earl gray, hot. Bergamot and black tea. Licorice root. An adult tootsie roll. And something intensely floral that I can’t quite pin down.
Rating: 6 / 10 – top notch sniff, and a woody wood wood palate with tiny bursts of sweetness. Which I personally quite enjoy but might only appeal to those oak munchers. Hard to say. Wish I knew the ABV.
Nose: Barnyard funk, touch of sulfur, hints of prime rib, sweet treats, lot of delightful things here dancing around on the nose. Maple candies. Frosting.
Palate: Chocolate, leather, heather, smoke, vanilla salt water taffy, salted cod.
Rating: 5 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10
Nose: Apricot stone, Loquat, Grapefruit peel, peach black tea. Wow, way different from Rochelt’s Quince. Nice kinda citrusy pop here. Creamy.
Palate: Dusty white pepper, an overstepped white citrus tea that had ice cubes which then overwatered it., tart note I can’t place, licking an envelope
Rating: 6 (Ryan) 5 (Shane) / 10 – one of the most amazing noses, but palate is both thin and sharp.
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.
Nose: The abv tickled the nose, but there’s plenty of classic old Armagnac raisins. You can smell butter, French oak, plums, vanilla cream, balsamic vinegar, and some wool sweaters.
Palate: It tastes quite peppery and boozy, with pleasant drying oak and burn. A bit of tar, toasted pumpernickel rye and figs.
Rating: 6 / 10 – Pretty long finish, with tar, sour oranges and carpet.
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