Nose: Floral and perfumey edging on potpourri, violet, rose hip, rhubarb pie, gummy bears, jordan almonds, candied fruit slices.
Palate: Herbal and woody, orange peel, cloves, hairspray, for the abv this hits surprisingly hot.
Rating: 4 / 10 – this is actually both quite good and absolutely not my thing.
Nose: Peach sours, the candy dipper from a fun dip, cut dry grass, subtly floral with time in the glass, horchata.
Palate: Strong rooibos backbone, cardamom, eucalyptus, goatmilk caramel, sour lemon grass, lemon peel and honey, herbal and woody with a slight sweetness.
Rating: 4 / 10 – the DNA on these is so distinct
Nose: Walnuts & dried peaches
Palate: Nutty, black tea, tobacco, turkish dried apricots, figs.
Rating: 5 (Ryan) 6 (Shane) / 10 – rich and robust with a heavy hand
Nose: Snapple peach tea and hello alcohol! Old school McDonald’s Baked Peach Pie dessert. Fresh Madagascar vanilla beans. Sticky fig and date pudding. Sugary syrup in fruit cocktail. Jordan almonds. Biscoff cookie, caramel, coconut marshmallows.
Palate: Fleeting initial note of the cheeky peachy and then goes more tannic and dry like oversteeped black tea and oak. Palate is thin and missing heft, not a lot going on here. I don’t agree with ryan. Carmeley. Tasted anise treats.
Rating: 4 (Ryan) 5 (Shane) / 10
Nose: Oh wow! Rich, luxurious, luscious red and stone fruit, and walnuts. Apple cider and hints of apple cider or champagne vinegar. Jasmine. Vanilla.
Palate: Cake frosting, strong oak backbone, spicy finish. Pencil shavings. Anise. Coffee grounds. Dark chocolate. Nougat. Touch of herbs on the finish.
Rating: 5 (Ryan) 7 (Shane) / 10
Nose: Figs, dates, dark syrup, soy sauce, violets.
Palate: Dark black licorice and fresh anise, dried pineapple, deep brooding cinnamon, raw nuts, bordering on burnt toast (in a good way), hints of scotch tape, dry mouth
Rating: 7 / 10 – yum. I have a note that says dry cellar. Makes me wonder if there was mouracs in a wet cellar?
Nose: Tangerine tangerine tangerine, pineapple, some fun rum notes, anise reduction
Palate: Tangerine, salty, celeriac, slightly meaty note on the back palate – biltong, the wetter side of it, pipe tobacco, leather, black tea
Rating: 6 / 10 – the most approachable Pouy I’ve ever had. Experimenting with toasted cask finishes to add sweetness and balance it.
Nose: Butterscotch (initial impression, fell off with time), sweeter side, nutella, white sugar, fresh grape flesh, cotton candy, browned butter, braggs worchestire sauce?.
Palate: Rootbeer.
Rating: 6 / 10 – well I’ll be. A cuxtan I didn’t dislike.
Nose: Saucisson. It’s all I can smell. A rich fattiness, nearly bone marrow. The resin part of the epoxy before adding the curing agent. Like hanging out with a friend wearing a slightly wet flannel who was smoking cloves outside. The longer it sat, the more I can feel the old woodshop dust from a project finished long ago. The smell of sharp nostalgia. But when I get past the raw ethel vibe, it’s wonderful.
Palate: I know the name is so suggestive it probably just drags me there, but the pine derby vibe is unmistakable. Marijuana tar. Cloves. I was in a bar recently where a few mixologists were practicing for the Spanish cocktail championships. They would never call themselves such a pretentious title, but the experiments that happened in front of my face were inspiring. One lady made me a molasses based mojito that was so earthy, with the tiniest hint of smoke. It was to be remembered. A hint of ephemeral honeysuckle.
Rating: 5 / 10 – The ethel vibe is strong, but once I get past it, both the nose and palate have something special. I’m nearly a 6 and as this smoothes out it should be something special.
Nose: Apple tree in bloom, kombucha and cider vinegar. Cigar tobacco vibe, licorice root.
Palate: Intense oak bomb. I feel like a termite. High proof but the alcohol only plays on the finish. Concentrated plum along the dr pepper spectrum. Almost a pepto bismol sweetness. I rarely say it’s too much, but tonight it’s too much.
Rating: 5 / 10 – timber.
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.
Begin typing your search above and press return to search. Press Esc to cancel.
