It has been a wee while, has it not? GT, PS and Dr. CD are naturally here when JS and I land. Cue recommendations, which is always useful.
44.175 17yo d.2005 Kiss me Pedro! (56.4%, SMWS Society Cask, ex-Bourbon Hogshead + 2nd Fill ex-PX Hogshead Finish, 204b): nose: we have oily woods (mahogany, teak), prunes and dried dates. It has vanilla and caramel cream at second sniff, with a drop of cream coffee too. The second nose has hot brass. That is original! Mouth: it dishes out the faint bitterness of cream coffee indeed. Further on, it is torched sticky toffee pudding. Chewing adds the steam from a La Marzocco being cleaned, which is to say hot metal, remnants of coffee smells, and steam. The second sip confirms the cream coffee. It is well balanced. Finish: long, warm, part sweet, part bitter. It leaves the mouth in the same state a slice of sponge cake topped with caramel would. JS finds pepper or some other spice alongside cold cuts. The second gulp is similar, crispy-burnt mocha sponge cake at the death. Water renders this somewhat fruitier. 7/10
71.110 13yo d.2011 Fresh out of the oven (61.2%, SMWS Society Cask, ex-Bourbon Hogshead + 1st Fill ex-Oloroso Barrique FInish, 262b): JS chooses this because of the name, which makes her think of bread out of the oven (oooh!) Nose: wide and buttery. Here is Saint Louis gooey butter cake burnt in the oven and that has turned pretty crispy. Of course, that makes no sense: the point of a gooey butter cake is that it is gooey. Maybe a few grains of ground mocha on top. It is drier on the second nose, almost dried ink and sand. Mouth: big and powerful, it feels a lot stronger than the previous dram (and, looking closely, it is). We detect heated apricot eau-de-vie or liqueur (it is too thick to be an eau-de-vie, really). The second sip is juicier, while still very hot. Simmering marmalade sweating in a torched tin cap. Finish: big on arrival, it grows bigger and bigger, with hot caramel, caffè corretto (more corretto than caffè), and hot metal trays. The second gulp is fruitier, all piping-hot apricots. 7/10
JS and I move tables to let newcomers join the lads. YM arrives a bit later on.
tOMoH: "I feel left out. But really, it allows me to focus on the drams."
GT: "Bet you can still hear PS!"
tOMoH: "Oh yeah."
GT: "Can you hear me?"
tOMoH: "I can hear you are talking. I cannot hear all the words."
GT: "Good answer!"
PS offers a round.
36.228 28yo d.1996 Tales of the Worm Tub: The snaking coil (47%, SMWS The Creators Collection, 1st Fill American Oak + PX Hogshead Finish, 222b): oh! So floral. Honeysuckle and rosehip frolic with roasted apples and baked peaches. Wow. Cherries and Mirabelle plums follow, more honeysuckle, lychee, magnolias... Did anyone mention honeysuckle? The second nose has chocolate éclairs with a topping of fruity-pine-y cream rather than chocolate, and pineapple shavings in a lemon custard. Mouth: perfect balance, mellow, silky, it is full of flower petals and fruit slices (pear, apple, guava, lychee). The second sip brings pineapple acidity and sweet citrus to boot -- Ugli fruit, calamansi, citron. Finish: behaved, yet long-lasting. It leaves quite an impression. It is creamy as mango (the texture, not the taste). We have baked-peach flesh melting on the tongue. Repeated quaffing decreases the acidity and the fruitiness which tend to go hand in hand. This is on such a different level, compared with the first two drams, that it is comical. 8/10 (Thanks for the dram, PS)
 |
| Cheese board served. Huge slabs of cheese with only six puny crackers. I ask for a couple more and receive twelve. :-D |
35.410 19yo 2006/2025 Don't hurry this one... (55.8%, SMWS Society Cask, ex-Bourbon Hogshead + 1st Fill ex-Oloroso Barrique Finish, 271b): nose: here, we have fine tobacco, crushed pinecones, and what comes across as preserved lemons, a little briny, a little sweet, and a little acidic. It may well have a drop of diluted ink too. Mouth: it is more wine-y here, sweet, yet also tannic. Rather punchy too, surprisingly enough. We note pickled onions, maybe. Finish: long, big, briny. This is full of pickled red onions, onion relish, and a lick of wood varnish or oil. It does not improve much with water; wood oil turns into nail lacquer. I am not really convinced by this one. 6/10
66.258 26yo d.1998 Wood-smoked walnut gâteau (51.2%, SMWS Society Cask, ex-Bourbon Hogshead + 2nd Fill ex-Shiraz Barrique Finish, 237b): nose: incense smoke, ash, burnt balsa wood, a pinch of dry earth, albeit much less than could be expected of this distillery. Further sniffs have hay so dry it is falling into dust, as well as extremely-dry shortcrust. It develops leather, in the long run. Mouth: hot at once, it soon reveals dried cherry slices fallen into mud. The second sip is more charred, with burnt paper, charred fruits (acidic pineapple, this time) and old newspapers after a trip in the open fire. Finish: some fruits here too (cherry and pineapple), chargrilled and turning black. It has the bitterness of black ash, paper burnt to a crisp, and parchment paper after it has been under the oven's grill. Decent. 7/10
149.19 9yo d.2015 Out with the gherkin, in with the brine (61.7%, SMWS Society Cask, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 190b): nose: heavily peated to this nose, this is muddy -- crusted mud, lumps of mud stuck on boot soles. Indeed, it has a whiff of new rubber soles. Then, suddenly, it is all billowing cigar smoke, burnt banana leaves and smoky Kaffir lime leaves. The second nose adds pine-y influences, needles and cones, as well as smoked vanilla custard (or smoked-vanilla custard, who knows?) Mouth: white pepper on hot custard, sawdust, cork shavings and something green. It has smoked orchard fruits too that do not dominate at all. Finish: long and peppery, it has the tingle of ginger without the taste, galangal and cinnamon. It is the numbing effect of those, not the taste. The smoke is much more subdued, here, more a feature of a leafy whole, but it is there alright. Repeated quaffing adds smoked seaweed too. Solid. 7/10
Sadly, they are out of 162.4. Hm.
No comments:
Post a Comment