IB: Velier Archives - The Distillates

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Nine Leaves Ace of “Guru” 2018 Ex-Armagnac (3 Casks) 59% by Velier

Nose: nosing I would swear we are talking grain whisky or a buckwheat brown sugar shochu. Oats forward. Clarified butter, tangerine spa water, unripe pineapple and tart green grapes. Water improved the nose rounding it out. It’s quite piquant.

Palate: Tangerine/orange and whipped cream. cooked barley. Oats and creamy mouthfeel. Mirin. A dollop of spearmint, but overriding it all is a sharp and green wood. A note which becomes overwhelmingly dominant with a splash of water.

Rating: 5 / 10 – Label 10. Novelty 10. But this is about the liquid. I would never ever guess this was a rum. This is strange. Almost too intense or not intense enough. Might be a perfect candidate for a highball. And sparkling added, tested and approved.

Tasting Note

Nine Leaves Two of “Pao” 2020 Ex-Sherry PX (2 Casks) 59% by Velier

Nose: Plum jam on country bread, mild mode made chai tea with milk. I have vivid sensory memories of walking into a malbec winery. Concentrated red wine tannins wafting off giant oak barrels, my friend Peter playing the piano as it echoes through the cathedram (no that isn’t a real word, but it’s where I pray). The smell was so intense it triggered my red wine allergy and I had to go lie outside amidst the vineyard. Bright cabinet spicer, coalescing into classic Graham crackers. This just has the best px nose after a rest in the glass, dates/figs, golden raisins, vanilla bean. Pfffft what a nose. This is gorgeous

Palate: jammy luscious hug. What a baller px cask – exceptional. Hot cocoa with ginger, turkish apricots. Christmas pudding. BUT it burns and has a bitter sharp moment like a pothole you weren’t expecting in a perfectly paved new country road.

Rating: 6 / 10 – without that bitter note, this would be a 9. But it is such a disharmonous moment. But what a nose and amazing px influence.

Tasting Note

Shane

Savanna HERR 2017 @ 62.5% by Habitation Velier

Nose: The day we moved to the canaries and walked into our first grocery store, we had an intense moment of deja vu. A large box of fresh, luscious ripe Driscol strawberries sat right at the entrance. I understand when I see the same candy brand in different countries, but the fact that the strawberry grower who produced most of California’s berries not 10 miles from our home, was the main provider to a small island off of Africa, that was a strange moment of global awakening. It’s all connected. We’d pick strawberries and set them on warm hay. Mom would get such an abundance when I lived in LA that we would dehydrate them, concentrating their flavors and adding a touch of tannic intensity. While we have pineapples on the island, they are odd stunted little creatures, nothing like the potent juicy ones from our time in Hawaii. I loved grilling on the lanai, cutting a pineapple in half and caramelizing it on the bbq. I’ve had this a few times and those two notes, ripe strawberries and overripe pineapple are the DNA I associate with HERR. But tonight I also get that cloying smell that comes from hanging next to the cotton candy machine during carnaval. And the slightest moment of brine and salinity, olives and red bell peppers marinated together.

Palate: The palate is so deeply concentrated as to make me pucker. Potent cedar note first followed by a wallop of sweet eucalyptus honey lozenges. Papaya while still firm. Twice fried sweet plantains with lime and seasalt. Pineapple dance party. The hint of salinity on the nose is a full on tsunami, dutch double salted licorice. I honestly would love this whole experience as a bubble gum flavor.

Rating: 7 / 10 – this is amazing. While I truly enjoy the powerful complexity in this bottling, it’s so overwhelming as to be a tiny sipper. I would rarely reach for it. But it is also not my favorite HERR. That was the black label with the pink ribbon – 57 if I remember – that Christian poured for me? That was all the glorious fruit and none of the intense salinity.

Tasting Note

Shane

Vieux Sajous 2018 / 2023 5 Year Grand Terroir Saint Michel de l’Attalaye 57.5% by Velier VSGB

Nose: clarified butter / ghee, dried lemon peel, crayola crayons, rye seed cracker or buckwheat crepes drizzled with honey.

Palate: jasmine flower honey, kumquat peel and golden berries. cinnamon life cereal – the king of breakfast. How the cereal companies ever convinced my parents that those aren’t desert is pure magic. teddy grahams.

Rating: 7 / 10 – I truly appreciate when someone manages to tiptoe into esters without jumping the shark. This is so well balanced.

Tasting Note

Vieux Sajous 2017 / 2021 4 Year Grand Terroir Saint Michel de l’Attalaye 56.3% by Velier VSGB

Nose: esters ahoy, touches of diesel, playdough, clarified butter / ghee, dried lemon peel, crayola crayons, ginger molasses cookie.

Palate: caraway seeds, cardamom, clove, slightly drying, cinnamon honey.

Rating: 5 / 10 – complex, juicy ,estery, tasty. I came in ready to be assaulted given my clairin experience. Not the case at all, this seems promising.

Tasting Note

Hampden Estate Pagos 2023 467 gr/hlpa ester 52% by Velier VSGB

Nose: compared to the last Pagos, this one is far less funky on the nose, which is interesting given the higher ester count. Nice touch of sherry notes, dates, figs, walnuts. With time you pick up some sulphur. Fresh cut apple, cider vinegar.

Palate: lightest touch of sulphur is not pleasant, and quickly fades. Once you get past that the remaining palate is quite nice, good balance of ester to sherry where the esters are more refined. Well integrated graphite and tropical fruits. Grilled leaks. Mussels in sherry stock.

Rating: 6 / 10 – for me to be willing to skirt a touch of sulfur says just how well built this blend is. The sherry and ester plays so well together.

Tasting Note

Hampden Estate Pagos 2022 394 gr/hlpa ester 52% by Velier VSGB

Nose: lovely rum funk, touch of cinnamon and sandalwood, wool ski socks, fermented overripe apricots, raisins, burning a pile of plant matter that is still slightly green, and a weird funky salinity.

Palate: nice initial touch of sweetness, clove cigarette, strong briney note of olives or a salted sheep cheese, hints of cardamom and carraway, overripe fruit leaning into the fake bubblegum flavor they used in the mould I had to sit still in when crafting my retainer. Five minutes is a long time for a tween to sit still.

Rating: 5 / 10 – While there is a lot going on that works, there is one strange note that underlies it. Like when you get a heavily rancio oloroso, which I personally struggle with the meaty side of the schwartz.

Tasting Note

BeenLeigh 2013 / 2023 10 Year 59% by Velier VSGB

Nose: milk chocolate coated butter cookies (petit ecolier), almond scone, biscotti, coffee being roasted a block away

Palate: a giant wood hug, tobacco, carob malt balls, cloves, using a licorice root to clean your teeth, pineapple upside down cake.

Rating: 5 (Ryan) 6 (Shane) / 10 – I quite enjoy it, while Ryan finds it a hint too intense. That said, its DNA really lends itself to an elegant additive for a good banana bread or pudding.

Tasting Note

Shane

Christian Drouin 1991 / 2017 Velier 70th anniversary selection 45%

Nose: Baked apples, or perhaps more completely, Peter’s apple crumble (brown sugar, butter and whole oats), with sliced apples and sultana raisins, cinnamon and cloves and a dash of lemon. Julie, my toughest critic, says it smells like fall. And she is right. There are also hints of pipe tobacco in the empty glass. For me, the nose is why I bought this and keep coming back to it.

Palate: I taste the oak first. A drying sensation, with root beer barrel like notes, the bite of tannins and a strong dose of cloves. Then the touch of apple sweetness and cassis tartness coats the palate. This is actually better on a larger pull, as on small sips the oak overwhelms but with more spirit the fruit strikes back.

Rating: 6 / 10 – I come back to this bottle somewhat regularly and was surprised I’d never jotted anything. It has everything I want on the nose. It was one of the first milisimes calvados I ever bought and opened my eyes to the quality that lay in the region. The palate is both wonderful and can be a bit too much oak depending on my mood. This is my second bottle of this specific millesime and I loved it deeply. Which might make you ask why it’s a 6 and not a 7 or 8 given my scale? Truth is, I have since then collected an embarrassment of riches and have other Drouin releases I find better balanced and go to more often. So a 6 today, but perhaps higher when the mood strikes.

Tasting Note

Shane

Velier Rhum Saint-James 1998 20 year Martinique 47%

Nose: Spoiled banana peel, older calvados, violets, orange blossom water, cedar, rose infused candy drops, caramel, biscotti, dill

Palate: Wet perfumed wood. Intensely floral. Rotten banana. Dried ground cinnamon and cloves, marsala

Rating: 5 / 10 – powerful, perfumy and challenging. But not delicious.

Tasting Note

Velier Rhum Saint-James 2015 6 year Martinique 47%

Nose: Walking into a natural food shop. Natural soaps, and patchouli to cover the lack of proper bathing practices. Or an old fashion, brown sugar and butter, angostura bitters, rose hips, incense, grape popsicle. Add water and it reminds me of irish spring soap.

Palate: Potpourri, diffuser liquid, tangerine soap, moth balls

Rating: 3 (Shane) 4 (Ryan) / 10 – this is really hard to drink and yet so interesting that I can’t stop drinking it. Nope, unlike Ryan, I stopped. I don’t need to drink distilled bath balm,.