January 6, 2015
Review: The Arran Devil's Punchbowl Chapter III
Bam! Now that's some freakin' packaging!
So What The Hell Is It?
With all this smoke and fire on the cover, we're hoping for a peat monster here. Turns out that's not what we're working with. It's a vatting of 8 Sherry butts, 8 French oak casks and 5 bourbon barrels. No age statements, and likely a mix of Arran malts including lightly peated and non-peated.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Ton of musk going on here, like a fine cologne. Just from the nose you can tell it's a skillful blend of different woods. It's got a lot of the fresh river moss / wet rocks thing going on. Equal parts perfume, fresh river rocks, and sherried malt.
Palate: It's very fresh and smooth. A lot of citrus, honey, and cake.
Finish: Very smooth with little perfume notes trickling up the nasal passages. Guess there's a little spice thing going on at the end, but this is hardly 'devilish'.
Review
It's $130. Is it good? Yes, we'd say it's very good. It's a very skillful mix of casks showing off the sweetness of bourbon casks, the rich sherry notes, and it all really comes together into this fine perfume. If you want to pick it up, you can find it online here or here.
It's supposedly the last of these Devil's Punchbowl releases, hence the "Fiendish Finale" title. Maybe it's sort of collectible? But a couple issues here. One, this isn't really our thing since it's not peated nor does it have a lot of big flavor to it. Much more finesse than boldness. Two, it's tough to spend over a hundred bucks on a NAS (No Age Statement) bottle. If you're going to put out a very expensive NAS, it had better be stupendously good (like Glenmorangie Signet). Otherwise you should just buck up and list the ages of all the ingredients. Why not? They certainly have enough space on the intricate packaging to tell you what's in it. The packaging is so over the top, you have to feel like you're paying a lot just for the box.
Ok maybe we're being too negative. This is a delicious dram, it's very drinkable. Certainly a head and shoulders better than the Machrie Moor that we didn't care for at all. But we're not running out to pick up a bottle. It's a lot of hype for something that at the end of the day is a big mix of casks from a distillery that we don't love. Tons of illustrations with little information about what's in it. And with all that fire, we want more smoke!
Until next time. Cheers/SB
So What The Hell Is It?
With all this smoke and fire on the cover, we're hoping for a peat monster here. Turns out that's not what we're working with. It's a vatting of 8 Sherry butts, 8 French oak casks and 5 bourbon barrels. No age statements, and likely a mix of Arran malts including lightly peated and non-peated.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Ton of musk going on here, like a fine cologne. Just from the nose you can tell it's a skillful blend of different woods. It's got a lot of the fresh river moss / wet rocks thing going on. Equal parts perfume, fresh river rocks, and sherried malt.
Palate: It's very fresh and smooth. A lot of citrus, honey, and cake.
Finish: Very smooth with little perfume notes trickling up the nasal passages. Guess there's a little spice thing going on at the end, but this is hardly 'devilish'.
Review
It's $130. Is it good? Yes, we'd say it's very good. It's a very skillful mix of casks showing off the sweetness of bourbon casks, the rich sherry notes, and it all really comes together into this fine perfume. If you want to pick it up, you can find it online here or here.
It's supposedly the last of these Devil's Punchbowl releases, hence the "Fiendish Finale" title. Maybe it's sort of collectible? But a couple issues here. One, this isn't really our thing since it's not peated nor does it have a lot of big flavor to it. Much more finesse than boldness. Two, it's tough to spend over a hundred bucks on a NAS (No Age Statement) bottle. If you're going to put out a very expensive NAS, it had better be stupendously good (like Glenmorangie Signet). Otherwise you should just buck up and list the ages of all the ingredients. Why not? They certainly have enough space on the intricate packaging to tell you what's in it. The packaging is so over the top, you have to feel like you're paying a lot just for the box.
Ok maybe we're being too negative. This is a delicious dram, it's very drinkable. Certainly a head and shoulders better than the Machrie Moor that we didn't care for at all. But we're not running out to pick up a bottle. It's a lot of hype for something that at the end of the day is a big mix of casks from a distillery that we don't love. Tons of illustrations with little information about what's in it. And with all that fire, we want more smoke!
Until next time. Cheers/SB
