22/01/2024 Bielle

Bielle 8yo d.2003 Marie-Galante (53.9%, OB Brut de Fût): nose: as close to a grain whisky as it gets, this nose has oil paint, paint thinner, solvents of all kinds, and glue aplenty (wood, plastic, all-purpose). If it was not so windy, I may open a window, and a queue would form outside, made up of disenfranchised, glue-sniffing youths looking for a cheap high. Little would they know that this rum is probably not that cheap... Anyway, we also have oily mahogany cabinets, or iroko shelves, coconut oil, Brazil-nut oil, kluwak-nut oil, and other dark-nut oils, until tiny tins of modelling paint pick up (navy blue, gunmetal, matte black; very much military-airplane in terms of colours). There may be dried pineapple slices, but one has to look hard to find them. The second nose has crème brûlée, the top still smoking from being torched, and fruit slices in a coarse, hard-plastic containers left in the sun (white-and orange (vintage French) Tupperware bottles and lunch boxes from the 1980s). Later nosing brings a baking tray, loaded with boule loaves, coming out of the oven (oooh!), and somehow smelling a little plastic-y. Mouth: it is a mellow attack, against all odds, yet it develops a drying touch fairly quickly. Fruit-tree wood, cut last season, and drying since, which has acquired a gingery, galangal-y spiciness, without getting rid of a certain fruity sweetness entirely. Ginger-powder-coated dried pineapple slices, orange peels so dry they may as well be crisps, and a mix of wood oil and turpentine via retro-nasal olfaction. The more one chews on this, the more intense modelling paint grows. The second sip dials up a clear plastic-y vibe that flirts with melted plastic (Tupperware, or thin electric cables). That plastic ends up dominating all else, with a mere pinch of caramelised Demerara sugar to try and balance it. Finish: dark, dark, dark, and woody, woody, woody. If it is not quite ebony, it does not fall too far short of it. Teak, mahogany, iroko, and kluwak nuts combined, with a drop of pressed dried-pineapple juice -- although it is oily, it is not juicy. Repeated sipping brings a certain minty freshness: lint, tar, liquorice bootlaces, and spearmint, chewy, long, and rather pleasant, probably similar to gnawing the cable of a headset. Not that I do (or recommend doing) that. The final impression if of having ingested a large mug of acrylic paint. Odd. 7/10 (Thanks for the sample, OB)