08/02/2024 Dallas Dhu

45.19 31yo 1975/2007 Foreplay whisky (45.6%, SMWS Society Cask, Refill Barrel): nose: well, that is enticing! Grape juice, cut flowers (forsythia and cornflower come to mind), followed by Turkish delights and fruit jellies of all kinds. That is not all: it has marzipan too, and a whisper of panettone crust stuck to the parchment mould. Soon, that morphs into chewy blackcurrant sweets (think Gummibärchen) and crème de cassis served with scones. How wonderful! Talking about piles of logs would be lying, yet a woody element grows in stature, certainly close to age-old, Bourbon-soaked oak staves. The cut flowers return, however, firmly yellow (forsythia, crocuses, tulips, buttercups), hand in hand with the associated pollen, and a spoonful of honey that is starting to set. Come to think of it, that subtle aroma that could be fresh plasticine is probably wax instead. Beeswax indeed. Then, we go back to fruits: green grapes, greengages, mirabelle plums, maybe lychee, mangosteen, or dragon fruit. Exciting! The second nose sees the wax and honey fuse into an almost chocolate-y paste, and if it no longer turns tropical at all, it remains fruity, with dark cherries joining the grapes. Lastly (and fleetingly) a minute note of fermentation comes and goes -- sheep or rabbit droppings or suchlike. Thankfully, it disappears quickly, because it would work less well with the rest of this nose. Mouth: mh. The initial impression is soapy. And I am not particularly sensitive to soap, as this blog's readership will be well aware. It has fruits (green grapes, less than ripe), budding flowers (forsythia), yet also stripping soap that turns bitter in seconds. That calms down and becomes more mineral, with quarry chippings and green-hazel-wood ash, before turning leafier (hazel). It remains quite bitter, though. The second sip is a little fruitier, and welcomes the return of dark cherries. It is still fairly soapy, bitter and caustic, unfortunately. Pumice, fruit-scented shampoo, green hazelnut, Turkish delights covered in green-grape-scented hand wash, sweetened plant or tree sap (hazel, daffodil, dandelion). Finish: phew! The soap has mostly gone. Hazelnut paste and crushed green hazelnut, blended with pressed grapes, a generous dose of relatively-young wood (shelves made of recently-cut hazel wood) grossly covered in dark honey (some kind of conifer, probably). One cannot escape a certain bitterness, yet it is now a far cry from what it was on the palate. The second sip is as fruity, yet now splashed with droplets of soap. That sadly wrecks it. We have a lovely sweetness, imparted by grapes and greengages, but, over time, green hazelnuts regrettably become louder, which renders the whole bitterer and less pleasant, like a mix of scented soap or shower gel, ash, and ground pumice. What a pity. This would have been an easy 9, based on the nose. The subsequent soapy notes bring it down dramatically, in my opinion. To the point I wonder if something has messed up my taste buds, today. 7/10