Nose: Someone left a leather jacket draped over a crate of old oranges and went to polish their shoes at the other end of the room. (8/10)
Palate: Sucking on a dried up orange peel that had been previously used to garnish a well balanced Negroni. (8/10)
Finish: After considering things for a while I have come to believe that shoe polish does have a place in caring for antique furniture. A few blocks down the road someone is burning oak chairs. (8/10)
Balance: Lovely. Delicate for sure, but lovely. (8/10)
Nose: Effervescent earthy orange candy. Rises from the glass like a dew sprinkled mushroom cap, gently glittering in the soft forest light. Don’t get me wrong… there is nothing woodlandish about this. It’s just an image that arose when I was thinking about the movement and character of the nose. Everything is rich and deep, yet gentle like the colors of moss and fern in the soft light under quiet trees. Quite beautiful. Later it drifts towards something resembling a faint BBQ savoriness. (8.8/10)
Palate: Crawling fire spreads here and there. Spots of burning shoe polish emit puffs of smoke wafting about. And yet, as a whole, this palate is bright with almost metallic notes shimmering on top of the subtly smouldering depths. (9.4/10)
Finish: Life is too short. So is this whisky. It never reaches the throat or chest. The finish floats near the roof of the mouth with some lovely orange-flavored smokiness and some decent initial heat that disintegrates into hollow echoes of itself. Sigh. I can’t emphasize enough how enamoured I am by this whisky and how much it hurts to be let down by its finish in this way. (7.5/10)
Balance: If it wasn’t for the short reach and, compared to nose and palate, lacking heft of the finish this whisky would be quite amazing. But that finish fails to live up to everything else and because the finish is, well, the finish it colors the whole experience. Such a bummer. But the rest is still absolutely worth it for early experience. (7.9/10)
Nose: Dark fruit, cherries and strawberries leading earthier wine notes. (8/10)
Palate: The wine influence comes to the fore and mixes into a batch of cookie dough. (8/10)
Finish: A mixture of wine and orange with hints of baking spices. It leaves a kind of gummy bear coating. (8/10)
Balance: This is surprisingly good for such a youngster but it needs a lot of time in the glass to get a hold of all its parts and assemble them into something presentable. Water makes a shambles of it all. (8/10)
Nose: Oranges, flowers mingle in minty heat. Water drops it to faint notes of a wet leaf-covered ground. (8/10)
Palate: Hot orange-flavored hard candy. Water dials fruitiness up to 11 and spreads everything out wide. (7/10)
Finish: Astringent wood and unripe, acidic oranges. (8/10)
Balance: Somewhat unbalanced. Adding water, while nicely boosting the palate, messes with the bookends in rather disappointing ways. The heat on this one definitely requires warming up ones palate with something else first. (7/10)
LVMH Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton SE via Glenmorangie
Series
Ardbeg Day Committee Release
Style
Single Malt Whisky
Peated
Yes
Cask
Bourbon Cask Maturation, Rum Cask Finish
Bottled
November 2018
Strength
52% (104 proof)
Price
$145-250
Nose: Smoke drifts past freshly ground metal shavings used to season a barrel of mackerels. Right after the bottle was cracked open there was some mild sour fruit rising out of and above the smoke but that element was quickly aired out. (9/10)
Palate: A slightly bitter and tangy kernel hides out in a fluffy cloud of smoke. (7/10)
Finish: Smoke tentatively probes the back of my mouth but is too scared to jump off the ledge down into my throat even though there is a cushy pile of embers to land on at the bottom. (8/10)
Balance: Just a bit off in the middle but otherwise very nice. We have not yet returned to the level of the grand old Ardbeg Day releases such as the original Supernova or the stupendous Rollercoaster. (8/10)
Nose: The mummified corpses of licorice candies melted under the Saharan sun and shriveled up to a state of utterly desiccated, dark tightness. (8/10)
Palate: Beastly and rough but full of beauty and power in its hot, raging magnificence. (9/10)
Finish: Bitter, medicinal flavors slowly build and layer in the back. (9/10)
Balance: And what rough beast dram, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem my mouth to be born drunk. (9/10)
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