American Whiskey Review #23: A Midwinters Night’s Dram Act 7 Scene 5

Distillery: Blend

Bottler: High West

Region: Blend

Price: $90

Cask Type: Finished in French Oak Port Casks

ABV: 49.3%

Age: NAS

Color: 1.8, Old Oak.

This is the fourteenth in my Countdown to Christmas series where I’ll be posting a review a day until Christmas. You can find the entire series here.

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Nose: It starts off with really, really old and wet wood notes. There’s rye with a heaping of vanilla and a hint of dark cherry. After a few moments though, there’s citrusy note that reminds me of oranges that have been used to make sangria. They’re not just oranges anymore, they’re dripping in a dark, red fruity alcoholic mixture.

Palate: Just as the nose teased, it’s full of old wood and sangria oranges (specifically blood oranges). The sangria orange note really dominates throughout and is joined by a little bit of rye spice. Towards the back end, there’s a slightly sweet and savory note that reminds me caramel popcorn.

Finish: Medium to long in length. It’s really creamy, my tongue feels like I’ve just taken a sip of heavy cream. The caramel popcorn returns along with the old wood.

Conclusion: This is the second of this years Midwinter’s Nights Dram’s I’ve tried this year having previously had Act 7 Scene 2. Both of these have had a lot of well-aged wood notes along with some caramel popcorn notes. It’s really interesting to see the fruity notes express themselves a little differently, Scene 2 had a lot of cherries and this one had a lot of sangria oranges. While I prefer the sangria note over the cherry one, it doesn’t quite mesh as well with the rye, caramel, and popcorn. Still, a very good dram. Would I buy another bottle? Yes, there are more scenes to try!

Final Score: 86.

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American Whiskey review #23, Rye Review #4, Whisky Network Review #180

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.