21 January 2021

20/01/2021 Back on the saddle

Three weeks without a single tasting note published... Time to remedy that! With a blind dram, of all things.


Dram #1

Nose: soft and sweet, the nose emits a mix of gently-fragrant flowers (violets, primroses, corn-flowers, forget-me-nots) and boiled sweets (violets, albeit of another kind, strawberry bootlaces, purple marshmallow). Soon, yellow meadow flowers join the dance (buttercups, daisies), as does a lick of plaster glue. Weird. Perhaps a note of plasticine? Dried-up wax? The second nose brings out darker fruit, be it dark cherry, blueberry or plum -- or a combination of those. All in all, it is a remarkably quiet nose, though. Mouth: it wakes up on the tongue with the acidic bitterness of dandelion sap, hiding a bag of sweets as best as it can. Chewy plasticine rocks up next, though it does not carry the nostalgic comfort that it should; instead, it is marred by the now frankly-bitter plant sap. The second sip is unfortunately not much more convincing, still bitter as adult life. It makes me think of a very young, white Rhine wine of mediocre quality. The hazelnut nuance that appears via retro-nasal olfaction does not help: we are talking about unripe hazelnut, also very bitter. Finish: the finish happily lifts up the whole a little, with Tubble Gum, plasticine (the good kind, this time) and almond paste in the same fashion as the Pogues did. Hazelnut paste, crushed green hazelnut shells, copper coins, covered in verdigris, maybe even a copper knife, coated in stale mustard. Very odd! I liked it during the Christmas bash, but today, I am not a fan. At all. Burnside 26yo 1991/2018 (46.7%, Cadenhead, Bourbon Barrel, 174b) 5/10 (Thanks for the sample, WK)

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