Ever since I was at Michel Couvreur in Burgundy last year I’ve had sort of a fascination for the brand. How this came to result in no bottles bought except for a four year old grain whisky, I don’t know. I think a case of not putting my money where my mouth is.

I think I should shell out at some point to get the Overaged, or the Spirale or any of the other rather kick-ass whiskies. Luckily, I did get a sample of the ‘regular’ 12 year old they have available.

Obviously, they don’t disclose which distillery it’s from. Many people assume it’s Glen Garioch since they have the ‘Old Meldrum’ address on their label, but that’s just where they’ve got some sort of office and has nothing to do with the distillery.

What I find remarkable is that it says ‘Distilled and aged over 12 years in Scotland’. I was under the impression that all their whiskies matured in Bouze-les-Beaune. Apparently this is not necessarily true for their single malts, contrary to their blended malts and blends.

Anyway, we have a 12 year old matured in sherry casks without much other information.

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
There’s a lot of sherry and a lot of caramel. It seems to fit the product line! Dates, with a sweet and rich simplicity. Ever so slightly salty with a tiny trace of smoke.

Sip:
The palate is very smooth and has a certain spiciness to it that is not strange for sherry casks. Oak and clove, with some cinnamon too. Salted caramel. Obviously, juicy sherry too.

Swallow:
The finish is fully consistent with maybe some more sweet, dried fruits.

I think this product is rather typical for Michel Couvreur. Where their blended malts and blends are a bit more complex, a lot of the whisky they release has it’s beauty in simplicity. This is a dram without an overload of complexity, but what it does (dried fruit, sweet sherry, a touch of spice, oak and smoke) it does very, very well.

When I tried this I might have been slightly let down by that simplicity, but in hind sight (and with a bit of a favorable bias towards the company) I think this dram is well worth a couple tenners. It would never work when this would cost 60 or 70 euros, contrary to what many NAS products now cost. Luckily, this sits at just over 40 bucks, which I’d happily spend on it.

Michel Couvreur 12 year old whisky, 43%. No longer available.