Clynelish 24yo 1993/2018 (48.1%, Càrn Mòr Celebration of the Cask, Bourbon Barrel, C#11214, b88b, b#37): nose: oooh! This is waxy. Beeswax, honey, royal jelly, rose-petal jelly and a ton of yellow fruits -- mirabelle plum, peaches, apricots. Then, polished dashboards, quince jam and honey-glazed crème brûlée. This wax is amazing: it has nought of the candles and platicine that often appear; no! It is all bee-related goodness. Racks, pulled from a hive and dripping with honey and wax. It goes from light, pouring honey, acacia style, to much darker, thicker, richer honey, mountain honey from sappy pine trees. The third nosing lets milk coffee emerge (latte macchiatto, I would say, if I knew anything on the subject). Mouth: the first hit is that of copper coins, loud and clear. Wax soon joins in, alongside the freshness of mountain pines, pine cones, sappy and woody. It is woodier on the palate than expected, the wax only providing a backdrop, here. Copper cutlery, used to spread honey on crusty golden cake, yeah! This pine aspect recedes with the second sip, restoring the honey. Finish: long, calming, reassuring, full of beeswax, furniture polish and moist sponge cake. It might even have melted milk chocolate in the mix. A whiff of encaustic appear through retro-nasal olfaction, delicate and charming. A couple of sips in, hot cocoa, very clear, now, and it is corretto -- my guess is: with a dash of Amaretto and a drop of gooey caramel. Lovely! 9/10
Sonoma County West of Kentucky Bourbon N°2 2014/2016 (56.5%, OB, Barrel, C#14-0224, b#246): nose: woody as hell, this has oily teak, Sumatran rain forest, set alight to make room for palm-tree plantations, meaning: oily tropical wood, releasing its sap under the effect of fire (palm oil is the cause of deforestation and of the decline of the orang-utan). Avocado oil, oily Brazil nuts, chestnut liqueur, rum-spiked panna cotta, slightly overdone banana bread. Mouth: corn syrup, of course, oily chestnuts again, teak cabinets, Brazil-nut oil... Suddenly, the alcohol catches me by surprise: it is rather pungent and spicy, with a dose of preserved galangal shavings and ginger. Toasted banana bread is present here too, the crust slightly too toasted. Aniseed, perhaps, mocha. This toasted aspect is well pleasant, since it is very much under control. Newly-cut wooden planks, still warm from the contact with the circular saw that cut them. Finish: here, it is closer to a "regular" Bourbon, with bananas, custard, caramel flan, wood shavings and so on. It is a very creamy finish, with gooey caramel, more than hardened fudge, warm sticky toffee pudding and, after a couple of sips, a clear alcohol kick. It is sweet, but not overly so, toasted, yet not too much. It is simply a pleasant sipper. 7/10 (Thanks for the dram, JS)
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