Paul John Christmas Edition 2019...

Paul John Christmas Edition 2019 (46.0%): After missing last year's Christmas Edition and listening your friends raving about it online for an entire year fortunately the 2019 edition reached the US shore this holiday season. The whisky is a blend from Paul John's older stocks finished in ex-Pedro Ximenez casks and it started to hit the store shelves already. Huge thanks to Koray Kaan Özdemir a.k.a. Whisky Monster and Paul John for kindly sending us a sample bottle for this review... That being said as you can see from the picture on the left we did hit our bottle pretty hard during the Thanksgiving weekend and it doesn't look like we will be slowing down anytime soon. I better start working on my tasting notes before it's too late...

Color: Medium amber, orange blossom honey with thin but slow moving legs.

Nose: A classic Paul John nose I can pinpoint from a mile away: Sweet tahini, roasted sunflower seeds and chocolate mousse. Cinnamon dusting, love in a mist seeds and Dulce de Leche. Steamed milk, more sesame seeds and white chocolate. Yep... It's Christmas all over...

Palate: Cinnamon, ground cloves and cooked raisins. Honey, Mexican hot chocolate with cayenne pepper and touch of gentle smoke. The smoke shows itself more like heavily roasted nuts instead of peat or char. Kinda sweet and edible... Honey roasted almonds and hazelnuts. Well textured, spicy and sweet. 

Finish: Long with sweet spices, Zante currants and again roasted sesame seeds.

Overall: Well, they were going for a Christmas theme and for my two cents they pretty much nailed it... All I can think of right now is pairing this with a mug of hot chocolate or eggnog on Christmas Day just before lunch while watching snow falling down behind the window. Not mixing it though but pairing it... It has the right amount of sweet, spicy and nutty notes with a perfect amount of smoke and warmth. Merry Christmas folks..! Grab a bottle before it's too late. I am not even sure if this bottle can make till Christmas in this household. Probably it won't...

Price: $85

90/100