This Connoisseurs Choice bottling, done for Whisky Warehouse in Germany is a bottle I picked up in Luxemburg earlier this year, at Shopping Center Massen. If you’ve never been there and enjoy either good non-beer booze, or dry aged beef, you ought to.

For some reason they have a stellar wine selection, and all kinds of spirits are very over-represented for any supermarket, anywhere, but their beer selection is tragic. Of course you can find something enjoyable, but they have put in almost no effort, or so it seems. Anyway, whisky they do have. Thousands of bottles.

This one was discounted when I was there and of course I bottle-shared it. Over last weekend the last couple of drops were drawn from the bottle and that means it’s high time for a review!

Sniff:
It’s quite timid for such a quite dark sherried whisky. On the nose there are notes of dried fruit, yeast, hessian. Apricots and peaches, mostly. Some shoe polish, dried apples, Fanta (that’s a first!), garden wood mulch, some soil and walnuts too.

Sip:
The palate brings quite some heat. All kinds of pepper on top of sawdust. Soil, walnuts, some dried apples and apricots. Chili, black and white pepper. Brazil nuts for extra dryness too. A hint of cracked leather later on, and some hessian.

Swallow:
It’s a lot more gentle quickly, but the walnuts and Brazil nuts longer quite long. It’s dry, warming and very old fashioned. The nuttiness is typical but quite rare nowadays.

If you dislike nutty whiskies, this one isn’t for you. If, however, you do like those drams, this one is stellar. It’s very simply put, and epic dram of which I wish there were more of. The whisky has a lot of sherry influence, but it’s complex and layered. So not just sweetness and dried dates, but lots of other things instead. Glorious.

89/100

Currently available at Whisky Exclusive for € 150