Michel Couvreur Overaged Malt 12 Year

Something out of left field tonight perhaps. A left of sample from a gift box this curious dram is scotch malt sent to France for maturation. Apparently a blend of 12-27 year old liquids aged in PX sherry casks in one of the worlds most premiere wine regions (Bouze-les-Beaune; although I don’t know what that has to do with anything beneficial to the whisky?). N: A slightly musty-dusty and very malty opening with a very clear woody backdrop. The malt is quite light, cookie-dough like and is delivered with a cast of secondary notes: apple, vanilla, gentle spices, and a little leatheriness. The dried fruits of a sherry cask come out with time, but they are, to me, masked by the heavy wood presence. Chocolate is in there somewhere as well to round out the anticipation of sherry cask. P: Medium bodied and balances the line between juicy and viscous. Baked apple, biscuity malt, ginger, brown sugar crunch, cloves, cinnamon, a little leather and maybe black forrest fruits. The wood presence has backed off somewhat and lends its self to an emergent creamy texture that is more apparent with time. A touch of mocha comes in late. F: Medium. Ginger-cinnamon spice, apple juice, chocolate, raisins. Oiliness and maybe nuttiness remain. Meh. This is a generic sherry cask whisky. I honestly could not pick it from a line up. It is perfectly fine, and I would happily quaff glasses of the stuff. But, I wouldn’t write home about it, nor remember it. At AUD$158.99 it is not worth the price. It is, in a word: meh. Distiller whisky taste #266 [Pictured here with some (probably Uruguayan) amethyst. The word amethyst comes from the Greek amethustos, meaning ‘not intoxicated’ For centuries people thought amethyst was an antidote for drunkenness, a throw back to Greek legend. In Greek legend, the god Dionysus, in a drunken rage, vowed to kill the next mortal that he saw. Just then, a beautiful woman named Amethyst walked by, and Dionysus ordered two tigers to attack her. The goddess Artemis prevented a tragedy by turning the girl into a statue made of quartz that was harder than the tigers teeth. the statue was so beautiful Dionysus sobered up and regretted his rashness. In remorse, he spilled his wine onto the statue as an offering, staining the quartz purple and making the quartz statue amethyst.]

This is a very interesting one and the story hooked me to want to try this one for years, but I never actually bought a bottle. So this whisky is aged in Burgundy, but was created in Scotland. The independent bottler would go off to purchase single-malt Scotch, then bring it back to cellars located in Bouze-lès-Beaune in the heart of Burgundy, where the single malts age for years in sherry butts and then in demijohns or giant bottles kept in total darkness in the underground galleries. If I have this correct, this one is vatted from whiskies aged 12 to 27 years. What does a Scotch, that has been imported to France, put into fresh high quality sherry casks and aged in a wine cave in the heart of the most expensive wine producing region in the world taste like, well thankfully @jonwilkinson7309 was kind enough to share a sample for me to find out. The nose starts with chocolate chip cinnamon raisin cookies being dunked in a glass of sherry, baked apples, light spices of ginger, cloves, leather followed by a light ethanol burn. The taste is a medium viscous mouthfeel with grape must, baked apples, some light minerality, then light barrel spices of ginger, cloves, leather and medium-light ethanol burn that finishes medium-long with prunes, ginger, cloves, dark chocolate, cinnamon apples and light minerality. This is a solid whisky, it’s very light and easy to drink. There isn’t anything to complain about on this one, but it’s not a very complex one either. This is something I can bring to family night for those that can’t take something peated or high proof and everyone would enjoy the easy drinkability and nice relaxed flavors.

Nose - Heavy sherry influence, loads of dark dried stone fruits, almost brandy/cognac like dark grape sweet, caramel bread pudding. Taste - Tiny hint of chocolaty toasted barley, spiced dark dried stone fruits, roasted nutty sweet, cinnamon spiced sweet white wine, hint of white peppercorn spice. Finish - Lingering peppercorn spice, residual sweetness of white raisins hydrated in a spiced/mulled wine, light medicinal/herbal finish at the very very end. Score - 86/100 Final Thoughts - So this is a fairly interesting dram that can be summarized as if you liquefied a bread pudding with lots of juicy raisins. It's tasty, a bit on the sweet side, but kind of a singular flavor profile. I'd say it's more like a dessert dram. I can see this standing up pretty well in a cocktail too, maybe a Rob Roy with chocolate bitters or something. Now if they only fixed how you open the bottle due to the stupid brittle wax & the need for a corkscrew...

Pale gold to brass color. Healthy, fat singular legs. Heavy, musty malt with a touch of raisins on the nose. Overpowering maltiness on the palate, a small background of candied dates and oak spices. Smooth and long finish, a slight bitter after taste. A singular whisky but easy drinking.

Great big red fruit and soft texture. Though As much as I like this, it's not something I'd want multiple drams of in one sitting. Perhaps a good nightcap with a dark chocolate.

Full bodied, heavy sherry notes. A bit over sweet for a whiskey, almost like a dessert whiskey. A little goes a long way. An interesting dram but a one-off imho