Simon here! Thanks to u/TOModera for this mystery sample. I took 2 takes at this. See my notes and guesses below.
Take 1:
Nose: out of sample: apple juice. Little funky/fermenty. Barley. Out of glass: malty, white wine-y. Grainy. Little honey.
Palate: malty spicy sweet (halfway between honey and apple). Grainy. Very slight herbal note.
I've only had 2 drinks that remind me of this: Bruichladdich Classic Laddie and an Auchroisk 22 years old. So I'm guessing unpeated Bruichladdich? Auchroisk sounds like a bad mystery pick. Proof wise it's not crazy. 45-50%. Let me have another crack at this before committing to my guess.
Take 2:
Nose: out of sample: barley and apples. Apple cider vinegar. Out of glass: rich apple. Apple cider vinegar. Grainy.
Palate: apples, little spicy, cayenne, malty, honey. Little funky barley note.
Hmm. On take 2 I feel less good about my unpeated Bruichladdich guess. It's more highlandy. Ardmore? Dalwhinnie? Glen Garioch? Aberfeldy? Tullibardine? I'll be honest this is a tough mystery.
I feel pretty good about 46% abv. It may be some kind of white wine cask. Not Sauternes, something dryer. If not it's just refill. Age wise it's not super young or old, 10-15 years.
Score wise I'm thinking high 70s/low 80s. Let's go with 82. This is nice, pretty well put together classic Highland profile of barley forward malty spicy honey with some nice vinegary/fermenty nuances around that.
I can't decide on any Highland distillery so I'll stick with Unpeated Bruichladdich as my shot in the dark.
Reveal: Edradour 10y, SFTC 2007, 56.9%, Burgundy cask.
Post-Reveal comments: ok ok, I didn't ace the test. Man did this hide its proof. This is my frist time having Edradour that's not heavily sherried so hopefully I get some slack for not thinking about it. Looking at TOModera's review from a couple years ago, that mushroomy note is great. I couldn't pin point it so I said fermenty and funky but mushroomy is spot on.
Cheers!
Simon from S&P.
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