Nose: Classic bourbon cask. animal crackers, vanilla pudding, light anise vibes.
Palate: A bright sweetness. Pot de creme, hints of caramel, grapefruit peel.
Rating: 5 / 10 – delicate finely balanced bourbon matured laddie. yawn.
Nose: Homemade fruit leather, bright tannins. Tomatoes on the vine, talcum powder. Oiled brown paper.
Palate: Cherry pot brownies. copper penny. salted cod, dusty wood
Rating: 7 / 10 – what a transformation from last years cask sample. This has a nice deep flavor profile.
Nose: Tangerine, smoked salt, juicy fruit gum.
Palate: Sumo orange, very gentle peat notes, miel de caña
Rating: 6 / 10 – an unusually elegant port charlotte. Cleaner than some of its kin.
Nose: Vanilla icecream, green apple peel, grilled pineapple, kettle corn
Palate: Sweet toasted corn with brown sugar and smoked butter, hint of iodine and big smoke.
Rating: 7 / 10 a raucous good time. Elegant nose with a big palate.
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: Molasses, orange and grapefruit peel. Apricot and tangerine tartlets. Almond meringues
Palate: Sweet yet tannic, think sweet southern black tea. Hints of cinnamon, canned peaches flambéed with rosemary. Cherry pits. Cotton candy aftertaste.
Rating: 9 / 10 This is unbelievable and worth the hunt. I’m not feeling verbose, more sarcastic. Thank god this is only 90 years old and not truly unobtainium. Every day drinker right here; With a freaking straw.
Nose: A single epic note. Like that moment Michael Jackson grabs his woohoo and wails. Baking sugars and peach cobbler with a French country pie crust. There is a fairy dusting of nutmeg and allspice, a la salt bae. A subtle hint of turbinado and walnuts. Pine nuts, olive tapenade, herbal and gooey creamy cheese funk round this out with more time on the back half.
Palate: I thought I’d need to listen for the whispers given my propensity for no-holds-barred MMA cask strength whisky. Nope, plenty of character here. Each of the nose nuggets are neatly present. But really, we are talking about peaches and apricots. And then we head to herbal town, a rounded ricola herbal rinse. The late landed funk is hard to find on the palate. The finish stays herbal for a long time and got less interesting the more it rested. I’m going to give this another shot in a few nights.
Rating: 7 / 10. It’s super good and the herbal fans might rate this even higher than I do.
Nose: Sweet balsamic vinegar. Sandalwood. Bit of funk, the body odor of an unwashed french man reliving his past hipness. Dr pepper and cola. Man back to funky, quite ripe stone fruits, black peach tea, walnuts, chewing tobacco, fresh dark potting soil. When I think rancio, it smells like this.
Palate: Black peach tea through and through. An unsweetened sarsaparilla or birch bark home brewed old-timey beverage. Green peppercorn, licorice root, and a stale high-end cinnamon stick. It has all the markers of being sweet without ever going there. There is an exceptional balance between herbal, sweet, and wood that leaves things in harmony.
Rating: 8 (shane) & 9 (ryan) / 10 this is seriously delicious in a way I did not expect. The nose and palate align, and even at the low abv this spirit shines.
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: Yummy old oak, dried citrus peels (bitter orange, grapefruit); walnut baklava, and hints of that rare tropical rancio.
Palate: Nice full blast of oaky and booze, licorice, marmalade, butter, cardboard (fresh and dry), NOLA coffee and some passionfruit and pears (rancio).
Rating: 8 / 10 – the finish is quite sweet with walnuts, honey, oranges, and also a good amount of oaky bitterness. Overall it is a delicious armagnac, rustic with all the oak and licorice, but also sweet and complex.
Nose: Dates, walnuts and yogurt covered raisins.
Palate: Sweet, with cola, lemon zest, date paste and mushrooms.
Rating: 5 / 10 – Black pepper, vanilla buttercream and stone ground mustard. Overall, a tasty dram. Nice balance of sweet and oak, of age and fruit. Nothing surprised me here, for good or bad. These were common flavors on yak of this age. Enjoyable though.
Nose: maple, oak, tons of licorice, linen, pear and butter.
Palate: apple skins, licorice and raspberry jam.
Rating: 4 / 10 – The finish is bitter lemon and juniper. I expected more rancio, but while this didn’t taste young, it had most of the boring components of aging and few of the exciting ones. I didn’t find anything wrong necessarily, but neither does it have much to recommend it.
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