hs305 scored this whisky 80 points

...some experiments are bound to fail, like this one. French red wine casks are always a tricky affair because of their high acidity and bold profile that rather fight with other flavours and rarely integrate. This bottling is a perfect showcase of this effect with an additional unpleasant cardboardiness - it is rather unusual that I do not finish a sample but why should I drink such a dram?
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The colour is deep gold and the nose offers exactly what I feared: A fight of peaty-malty and acidic-winey aromas over dominance that leads to an profile which falls apart in discord. The cognac cask is not recognisable at all, most probably it prefers a neutral position given the fierce battle of the two opponents. No, I do not like this nose!
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The taste is disjointed too and the battle rages on. Sometimes the sour-sweet winey flavours are about to take control but then the bitter-sweet malt-driven forces push them back again. The cognac cask still is not detectable, maybe a renegade? I do not like this taste either...
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The initial mouthfeel is hot and bitter-astringent with an unpleasant cardboardiness. The finish is rather short and adds no new impressions but the unpleasant cardboardy feeling grows stronger and is disgusting now. Water somehow cools the combatants down and smoothes the dram but it is not able to negotiate a cease-fire, unfortunately. And the cardboardiness rather grows with the reduction...