Mystery sample from /u/31mak

Thank you to /u/31mak for this sample.

Damn your husband, /u/devoz, for laughing about this review throughout.

Recently I lose the coveted amazing title of “Canadian who has somehow reviewed the most Indian whiskies” to devoz. And while I had many a sleepless night crying about this, I’m happy for him.

However during these reviews he noted that one of my scores was quite different. And since he was at a tasting, asked about said whisky. He found out that it had changed between our reviews.

Also his wife enjoyed it. So I was served it as a mystery to help fix my score.

Let’s see how I did, shall we?

Price: N/A at the LCBO

Region: India

Abv: 46%

Colour: 5Y 9/8

Nose: Soap, tangerine, funk, lemongrass, pear nectar, bamboo

Some orange notes here, some floral effects, though nothing that’s reminding me of a whisky. I’m lost here.

Has some funk, so given who this came from, I’m guessing it’s an odd Gorda cask or something.

Taste: Dried pineapple, butter, red licorice, caramel

Less orange now than last time. Nice amount of butter and pineapple. Last time I had this it had lots of nuttiness and some parsley.

More interesting than the last time.

Finish: Mushroom, brine, apple, cloves, floral

Short finish, mushroom is reminiscent of last time. Less earth this time, with more apple. No peat now. It feels like this finish connects with the nose and taste. The brine adds a nice element as well.

Conclusion: Last time I had this dram, it included peated whisky and whisky as young as 3 years. Now it includes whisky as young as 6 years old.

Any rough earth flavours are gone, and we see the score rise. We have a better, nicer nose that has grass and funk rather than overly floral elements. The taste is less orange (which I’m not a fan of) and complex.

Finally the finish. What last time was a dirty orange flavour now has a short, but nice flavour. Overall I liked it very much, and didn’t recognize it. Yes, there were elements that were similar, however nothing to denote what I had last time.

80/100

Guess: I don’t know, something that was in a Gorda? From Japan?

Actually: Paul John Edited

World Whiskey review #281, India review #29, Whisky Network review #1236