Description

The whiskey has no age statement, but the distillery says it is given some time to mature and “finished in different styles of wooden cask” that includes Limousin oak, a regional tree with particularly expensive wood prized for Cognac aging. More detailed analysis on Caskers specifies that the whiskey is aged for five to seven years in casks of Limousin oak as well as cherry and acacia.

Tasting Notes: Bastille 1789 Blended Whisky
Vital stats: French-made blended whiskey with no age statement, aged in a variety of casks, including Limousin oak, and bottled at 40 percent alcohol by volume.

Appearance: Poured into a glass, a dram looks like a bright, golden amber, much lighter and more transparent than the average whiskey, but still within the range of conventional.

Nose: An initial sniff carries a wave of what generally smells like a finely spiced citrus tart, with an undercurrent of sweet, slightly tangy orange overlaid with notes of cloves, cinnamon and a touch of ginger and lilac. Sniffing a little longer yields a more earthy combination of vanilla, clove, pepper, and oak.

Palate: The first sip settles on the tongue like intensely sweet, yet smoky vanilla syrup. Within those basic flavors, notes of ground pepper and clove steer the combination in an earthier direction, while hints of sweet apple and pear balance things the other way. The spiciness grows a bit, but overall the sweet and earthy flavors maintain a relative balance until swallowing. At that point, the sweet vanilla with a hint of oak and smoke seems to wash over the mouth, but that’s slowly eased aside as tingles of clove and pepper gradually begin to tingle toward the back of the mouth.

That tingling sensation gradually builds in intensity for an unusually long minute or so, hits a crescendo of a dull roar, and then fades back the way it came to a syrupy vanilla coating on the tongue.