Color: Light shade of copper, orange blossom honey color with pretty large teardrops keeping their shapes for quite a while before turning into thick, slow and oily legs.
Nose: Beautiful baked apples, pear compote and apple juice notes jump right out of the glass. Lemon curd, chalk and plaster. After allowing it to air I certainly start picking sweet white wine notes: Late harvest Riesling and Sauternes... I bet a Jurançon would nose pretty much the same but I never had one before. Cooked mushrooms, moss and lemon cough drops. A few drops water add floral aromas: Jonquils, rose water and dried strawberries.
Palate: Red delicious apples, lightly spiced and sweetened cider and cinnamon sugar. Some nice bitter notes develop in time: Chamomile tea, lightly toasted oak and (I know it's an odd thing to ass but) some old Port. Adding carefully some water... Slightly burnt iron skillet apple pie, Lillet Blanc and oaked white wine.
Finish: Medium (would love to have it longer...) with vanilla, dried flowers and dry sherry.
Overall: It is a great Calvados, nobody can say anything otherwise but throughout the entire tasting I couldn't help myself thinking all the time: "What if they left this in its original cask longer instead of racking it..?" Although I could detect the add-ons on the nose I kinda had hard time to find clues of the Jurançon cask on the palate to be completely honest. In the end like I mentioned before it is a great bottling and totally different compared to the Kriek Cask Finish I posted about yesterday. A total joy to sip... Thanks again to PM Spirits for the sample.
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