Exit Madeira and Burgundy, here’s a Sauternes finish. It’s not impossible that new owners LVMH provide the distillery with their own empty Sauternes casks (yes, it’s Sauternes with an s at the end. Sauterne is a pale copy made in America, or a frequent misspelling done by some of our Scottish friends. Well, I do it myself sometimes, but not on labels, eh!)
Colour: gold (what else?) Nose: but this smells exactly like Sauternes at first nosing! Amazing... I mean, the spirit is almost absent here, it’s the wine that does all the talking, and as Sauternes isn’t ‘a winey wine’ (come on, Serge!), the result is rather pleasant. A lot of fructose, ripe apricots, icing sugar, hints of kiwis, tangerines... How funny. Gets a little more ‘whisky’ after a while, that is, with hints of oak, a faint maltiness and... And? Hugely demonstrative in any case.
Mouth: ho-ho, this works better I think. More multidimensional than the sherry (and certainly than the Port), with a better oakiness, spices and grass at the attack, and then a huge sweetness that’s better controlled I think. Pepper, baklavas, apricot jam and green tea. Works very well, and there’s even bits of the original distillate that shine through (imagine something delicately smoky and vanilled whispering in the background).
Finish: long and thick, on the same big flavours, with also hints of resin. Again, a very well crafted malt from the New World of Whisky. Certainly not a grand cru (how would we know anyway with this heavy treatment?) but the end result is truly palatable methinks, albeit a bit panzerish (I think you made your point here, Serge). 86 points (just two points below the rather excellent old 21yo Sauternes finish).
