Nose: Philadelphia cream cheese, banana leaf, No2 pencil eraser, milkweed/dandelion, avocado smoothie, elmer’s glue
Palate: High top of palate sweetness, pink peppercorn.
Rating: 7 / 10
Nose: Quite lovely. Bright citrus notes, pineapple and grilled lemons. A Petit-suisse with a big spoonful of loquat marmalade. Grilled leeks and a strong garden vibe, almost ferns. Sojourn is obsessed with all things Jurassic and is now on the hunt for the world’s oldest plant. Time to take him to the botanical garden again. Under the sweet smoke, salt crinkles my nose, nearly iodine.
Palate: True to the nose. The taste in my mouth when I’m spinning clay pottery. Yuzu gummy candies. Grapefruit peel and a lick of ginger. A mild green tea with a tiny dollop of lemon and honey. The smoke layers gracefully. This would make a hell of a tea.
Rating: 7 / 10 – I am no yamazaki fan boy. I’ve had a number of the older expressions when I used to travel to Japan for work and they were lovely but I would gladly have picked an older hibiki or springbank or bourbon for the money. So, when I say this nose is off the charts, I am certainly not swayed by any mystique. Lovely.
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: Lychee white tea. Rose hips. Strong perfumey note. Honeydew melon milk hard candy. Sugar cookie. Lychee, did we say lychee? Tangerine and fresh hops. Organic herbal Oway body lotion, for the modern man. Honestly, the way Ryan sells it, I would use that but the odds they make it to western africa is low. Orange zest.
Palate: Palate mirrors the nose. Loads of that lychee front and center. Orange zest, fresh peeled orange wedges, and essential oils. White pepper. Jasmine. Rose hips. White chocolate. On the more astringent side.
Rating: 6 / 10 – How can this be so beautifully fruity? It’s completely off the charts palate volume. Def leopard of whisky. Could be a 6 or 7 but had too many to make the call.
Nose: Powdered sugar. Cranberry orange relish. Metallic. Clover. Slightly hoppy with moist oats. Cow chow. Sauerkraut and cornichons.
Palate: Full on spearmint. Fancy rosemary herbed butter. The alcohol isn’t in your face, but you have to work your way up to here. An intense, intense woodniness. I feel nearly pine but ryan disagrees and thinks he needs to start licking the tropical hardwoods at home depot, perhaps tea tree.
Rating: 7 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 – it’s down right absurd this is drinkable. And delicious. Fucking hazmat hoose juice. My mouth is completely numb. Ryan thinks I lack fortitude.
Nose: Sliced peaches on brown sugar oatmeal, Granola with dried goji berries, papaya and coconut flakes. Steel cut oats and honey. Tomato vines.
Palate: So peach forward. And raspberry coulis.Papaya frosting. A great fruity sourness on the finish that inspires the fan of lambics in me. Bitter on the finish but within the range of acceptable and adds dimension. Comes in hot and keeps on dishing.
Rating: 7 / 10 – a powerfully intense fruit bomb.
Nose: Abbazabba–peanut butter wrapped taffy shell. in a Nutella, PayDay & 100 Grand candy bar, and Ferrero Rocher. So damn nutty. And fresh agave. What do these sheep EAT?!?! Yup, farmer Peter, all the sheep had their PBrotein shakes this morning. Whiffs of pipe smoke wafting out of your favorite bar. Toasted chestnuts outside the mall at xmas.
Palate: Warm spanish peanuts, and a brown ale while drinking at a bar with friends. Yeast cakes. Few slices of jamon serrano and grilled green onions. Deep dark cinnamon, earthy variety.
Rating: 7 (Shane) 6 (Ryan) / 10 – It looks like those sheep were well hydrated. Proof that color is rarely an indicator of goodness. Same for booze, same for people. I’d buy a bottle of this hands down.
Nose: Right as ryan came on zoom, he was rubbing tigerbalm into his eyes. Trying to break the evil spell and prepare himself for all that biodiesel potency. Fennel seeds, peach tea, potters clay, apple chutney, turnip, creamy black peppercorn sauce on smoked loin. Dried peppers. Reminds me a lot of some of the agave distillates like sotol with the earther green funk. With more time in the glass, canned pears and….very oddly….raw beef.
Palate: Strong pepper and leek notes, garden variety hot peppers. Arugula with grapefruit supremes. Much lighter smoke of touch than the others, like a nice chargrilled steak. Add green peppers, sharp onions and broccolini. Bouji fajitas, molcajete, rehydrated peppers.
Rating: 6 / 10 – the agave lovers will flip over this. This isn’t the type of profile I typically reach for, but dang it’s fun, interesting AND good. Peter thinks it was mostly likely a 200L pinot noir. 6.7 Years in the barrel.
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: It’s as if you stuck your head into a diesel truck’s exhaust. Burnt bbq with a big dose of mesquite wood. Walking into a smoking shed filled with white fish. Even the color captures the level of intensity of the smoke here. Tires. Nose evolves with more time in the glass, wood shop, varnish, and chamomile. Newspaper.
Palate: Smoking a cigar. I was kind of scared to taste this given the nose. Not only is it not bad, it is shockingly drinkable for about a second, and then I’m completely overwhelmed. This harkens to my first time drinking balcones brimstone. Or smoked tamarindo. Mid palette is a varnish. Whoooo this is so so intense.
Rating: 4 / 10 – Fascinating. I can’t even finish my glass. Octomore ain’t got nothing on this. If you like smoke, this is the penultimate, marked by delicious burps of brisket. I think I’ll actually keep this sample and use it as a replacement for liquid smoke in a recipe. It reminds me the very first time I tried a caroni 4 years ago in a restaurant with my wife.
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