I happened to be placing an order when they had some of this so I went for it because batch 1 was so good. I happened to have some Batch 1 still around, so figured it would be fun to note a comparison while doing this review.
Minutia: Matured in 55% ex-Bourbon casks and 45% ex-Sherry casks, the same makeup as batch 1. Bottled in September 2019.
Color: Deep copper, 1.0.
Nose: Mouthwatering buttery shortbread type cookie very big at first. Getting past that there’s a funk that’s of a swirling nature, going between smoky, salty, chocolatey, and cheesy, and various combinations thereof.
Batch 1 is quite similar and less on that buttery cookie. The funk is a pretty stable earthy smoky funk.
Taste: Taste of funnel cake (without or with very little powdered sugar), smoke, hot feel, think.
Batch 1 is similar, replace funnel cake with earthy. Batch 2 drinks at its ABV whereas 1 felt well below, though in a side by side having sipped the Batch 2 the Batch 1 feels hotter than it was on its own.
Finish: Spicy, salty, oaky. Medium-long to long.
Batch 1 is less long, bit of an earthier quality. Saltier than I remember, possibly from Batch 2 influence. Not pure salt, there’s a bitterness to it.
I don’t know that I’d consider it part of the finish proper since it was so long after that typical “finish” sensation and felt like it came back after my palate went back to neutral for a while, but I was tasting that buttery cookie nearly an hour after a sip of Batch 2. It didn’t appear in the flavor in the way it did in the nose - it manifested as funnel cake there - and wasn’t really in the finish, but after a while I felt as if I’d recently eaten a cookie that tasted the way this smelled.
It was nice to do these together. The first dram I had left me feeling like it was quite far off from the first batch, but having them together, they really are quite similar. Batch 1 really moved me in a way this one didn’t as a whole, but some of the individual elements I liked more in Batch 2. That cookie in the nose is terrific, and Batch 1 only hints at it. It’s not constant in Batch 2, but when it’s there it’s there in a big way. And that phantom cookie recurrence really shifted my enjoyment of this up enough where it’s just shy of Batch 1 whereas without it I’d hold Batch 1 a clear notch above 2. Another great release by Kilkerran still leaving me as eager if not moreso to jump ahead to the time this becomes regular with a good amount of age.
Score: 91
Musical Evocation: Metallica – “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”
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