The Single Cask Nation Loch Lomond 10 Year Old (Refill Bourbon Hogshead)

Tasting notes:
The first note I get is burnt bacon, which works its predictable Pavlovian magic upon me.  I am ready to tuck into this dram!  There’s floral notes like those of lotus flowers in full bloom in the prince’s koi pond.  Then thick, desserty notes follow: custard, white grapes, and the condensation on a clutch of pearls licked eagerly by the prince’s pangolins.  But above all I get reanimated lox swimming through aquaponic tubes into the koi pond, to the horror of the prince’s gardeners.  And the koi.

The mouth announces its arrival like a peat train rolling in, with puffs of smoke and a deep but tremulous whistle.  If it lacks the appurtenances of age, like the slow pace of Aristotle’s megalopsychos droning into the phone at a call center, the mouth compensates by being big and dominant.  In this regard it’s Bill Bradley:  practiced, measured, choreographed, but also imposing.  Unlike with Bradley, I get some lychee fruit and vanilla ganache.  Also, there’s some asparagus (grilled) latticed with orchid leaves.

The finish hangs around like road flare smoke on a wet afternoon, or a Wilhelm scream echoing through the Tunnel of Love.  I want to say that the peat is high on the vegetal aspect.  I want to say, further, that it is lovingly cut by work-release hipsters shadowing the summer crew.  Which is to say that it’s not so smoky, but more palm frondy.  [Bill: “Frondy?  Not a word.”  John: “Damns?  Can’t give you any since I’m all out of ‘em.”]  Thin, flexible graham crackers origamied into delicate paper airplanes.  They’ve got slightly charred tips to their wings after their sortie past the halogen lamp.
 
 
Rating:
On the scale of fictitious wingmen–
The Single Cask Nation Loch Lomond 10 Year Old (Refill Bourbon Hogshead) is Trent–Played with unforgettable verve by Vince Vaughn in Swingers, all this dram does is fill you with confidence and tell you you’re money.  And like Trent, when you stare at its mouth and wrinkle your nose, it turns out to be a sweetheart. (“All I do is stare at their mouths and wrinkle my nose, and I turn out to be a sweetheart.”)
 
 
 
                                                                              –John
 
 
 
–Our thanks to Single Cask Nation for the sample!

 
 
[At the time of this posting, this dram is both nearly out of stock and on sale. You can find it here.]