Cotswolds Distillery Founder's Choice Batch 01/2018 60.9% NV

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Serge Valentin (84)

This one's been fully STRised, it seems. American oak + red wine + heavy toasting + heavy charring, this set-up hasn't become totally unseen these days, has it. Colour: deep gold. Nose: the deep charring certainly offsets a large part of the red wine's influence and this little taster sure won't be the first to complain, even if the raspberries do not seem to have said their last word yet. Orange cake and cassata, sweet oak, barley syrup, Italian brioche, one preserved cherry… It sure isn't a monster and it's way less extractive than the Finger Lake, at a similar age. With water: orange squash and a little hardwood smoke. Or perhaps beech? Mouth (neat): bready, fermentary, doughy. Oh and pungent. A little strawberry eau-de-vie, which very few people are actually producing on this planet. With water: nice, caky, bready… Notes of gooseberries lift it a little bit. Finish: balanced, while some grist and tapioca would be to be found in the aftertaste, in addition of oranges and perhaps a spoonful of strawberry yoghurt. Comments: very very nice, very balanced, but I would tend to like Cotswolds better at a civilised strength (46-50).

BOW (86)