Whisky : Michel Couvreur Overaged Malt Whisky

Country/Region : France/Burgundy (aged) [Scotland/Highland : GlenGarioch (distilled)]

ABV : 43%

Age : 12+ Years

Cask : Ex-Sherry

Tasting : Neat in a Tulip Glass @ Fujioka Craft Spirits Tasting Event

Nose : Pleasant baking spices and stewing apples. A warm buttery pie crust. Smells as though I am just down the street from a bakery in the middle of preparing morning pies.

Palate : Almonds & honey. There is an unmistakable nuttiness: it is almond flour, it is the astringent quality of chewing on raw almond, it is the fruity bite of almond extract flavored cookies. The mealy or flour quality sometimes comes through as bit more as cardboard or cork-board.

Finish : Medium length with sweet crumbling almond cookie.

Score : 4

Mental Image : A traditional macaroon or modern macaron : a dry sweet almond flour based cookie, best washed down with some coffee or tea.

Something Better : Arran Amarone Cask Finish (more fruity, same almond like nutty astringency)

Something Similar : Bastille Single Malt (more funk, less refined, same almond extract notes)

Something Worse : Brenne Single Malt (also aged in France… not suitable for consumption)

Notes : Thanks to the internets I had a passing familiarity with Michel Couvreur’s experiment/practice of aging barley distillate (or whatever you call prepubescent scotch) from Scotland in French wine caves. I knew some of the bottles could be downright remarkable, that Couvreur reportedly had access to excellent wet sherry casks, and that the damned things were a mess to open unless you had experience with wax sealed wine bottles.

I was pleased to see Michel Couvreur listed on the Craft Spirits guide, though I was a little disappointed that the Overaged was the only bottle being sampled. It was a pleasure to drink, though its flavor profile was a mismatch to my preferred. The strong almond notes were certainly unique and gave the dram a memorable quality. It really encapsulated every element of what ‘almond notes’ could be, from milky, to grainy, to dry, to fruity, to mealy, to crumbly. It is not a flavor profile I can see myself ever craving, so I doubt I would ever pick up a bottle of this unless it was to share with friends looking for a unique flavor profile. It could be a fun one to add to a lineup. I will be on the lookout for an opportunity to sample some of the other Couvreur bottles, especially some of their older or peated offerings, but I will not be rushing out in a hurry.