Smells of caramel, maple syrup, and toffee. The taste is sweet and fruity with flavors of peach, apple, pear, and and apricot up front. The finish is smooth with a minimal burn, featuring notes of oak, cognac, vanilla, and toffee. Overall, it’s very sippable and certainly more flavorful than the Fine De Luxe, though I’m surprised to find it less smooth going down.
A Whisky Sour is super smooth and fruity I actually made this at 2:1:¾ ratio and it’s still very sweet. Lots of tart lemon to back it up though and little hints of apricot, green apple, and vanilla underneath. Absolutely delicious.
A Sidecar is well balanced between lemonade, orange gummies, vanilla, and subtle peppery grains and charred oak; very complex and intriguing.
An Apple Jack is smooth, structured, and complex with sweet cinnamon spiced cider and maple syrup transition into baked apple pie, apple butter, vanilla, and oak with a soft warming of the palate. An absolutely divine cocktail.
A Washington Apple is smooth and balanced with the normal apple, cranberry, and vanilla flavors with added notes of apricot and pear underneath.
XO and Cola is smooth and sweet with notes of orange and apricot (a splash of lemon juice accentuates this) with cola and vanilla underneath.
A Manhattan is sweet, spicy, and jammy up front with a bitter oak and vanilla finish with just a hint of apricot. Very good, but the unique qualities of this spirit are lost.
An Old Fashioned is exceptionally smooth with notes of orange and apricot up front and vanilla, peach, cherry, and oak in the finish. An above average rendition of this cocktail.
Derek November 1, 2023
nice