The Warenghem Roof Rye Double Maturation French Whisky (46% abv)

500 ml of spice integration

Tasting notes:
They say that in the land of blind nosing, the one nostril man is king.  [Stephen: No.  No one says this.]  I mention this because my left nostril picked up sherry aspects, and my right nostril was convinced it was bourbon.  Both were wrong.  For what we have here is a French rye matured for 9 years in Sherry before spending the last two years before bottling in virgin American oak casks.  Wait, is that right?  [Bill: Yup.] 

One thing is clear, this has welcoming spice on the nose.  Take a rye beer, fit it with caramel jodhpurs, and complete the look with a vinyl jacket from the prop room for Blade.  Sage and bay leaves are stuffed into the pockets.  As it strides by we get more vanilla than we expect, but exactly as much celery salt as we want.  

The mouth is Wasa® crackers, steeped in anchovy tin oil.  But it’s also far more balanced than this suggests.  We get creaminess and more of the vanilla, but also some sweetness.  It’s as if white honey suckle blossoms were stunt doubles for the vanilla blossoms shown on the movie poster.  

The finish lets us remark on the unlikely fact of the balance and integration here.  My ledger also indicates that Bill, the human hydrometer, nails the ABV, too.  Our takeaway is that this dram just wants us to drink and enjoy it, and we oblige.  With a few drops of water, we get liqueur features and start to wonder what sort of whisky sour it might form.   

   

Rating:
On the scale of dad jokes that involve French–

The Warenghem Roof Rye Double Maturation French Whisky is:

“Q: Why don’t the French order two eggs for breakfast?  A: Because one egg is un oeuf.” 

   

   

                                                                                      —John

   

   

–Our thanks to Oyeniyi Olaniyan for the sample!

 
 

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