08/01/2024 Knob Creek

Knob Creek Smoked Maple (45%, OB): nose: "smoked maple," they said. Hardly a well-kept secret, then: this is cloying maple syrup -- so cloying, in fact, it is nigh-on paralysing! My arteries are clogging up just smelling this. We have some smoked fruits, in the background, tinned peaches, prunes and grapes, not unlike a Cognac -- a heavy, not-particularly-refined Cognac. Smoke from burning exotic woods (oily teak or mahogany), peachy coffee, and treacle-like hot chocolate. The second nose is a notch drier, a mix of warm sawdust and pony dung competing with cured prunes. How quaint! Mouth: ooft! It combines an intense fruitiness (peaches, cured grapes), thin smoke, and so much maple syrup it is insane, and frankly artificial. Amusingly, it is also a little dry and desiccating, in the same way a heaped spoonful of caster sugar will trigger thirst. A vague woodiness reoccurs, though it is likely maple-syrup cookies, rather than wood, all things considered. The second sip is a little juicier, and it adds a touch of metal akin to licking a Swiss Army knife (though it tastes of neither cheese, nor inferior chocolate). Chewing releases a geyser of sweet syrup, however. Finish: sickly sweet, warming, and rather vulgar. Imagine those maple-syrup cookies pumped with more ultra-processed maple syrup and indistinct booze. It has a vague notion of warm wood, more than smoke. Warm sawdust, in fact. Repeated sipping focusses on the carcinogenic sweetness of ultra-processed maple syrup, at the detriment of all else. Only the one dram for me, thanks. 5/10 (Thanks, ME)