Grant's - Ale Cask

This Grant's expression was in a Twitter tasting recently, and it was a though one for me to get some proper notes on being not a fan of beer and the hop bitterness. Bottled at 40% and finished in casks that previously contained ale.

The notes I got of the nose started with the smell of well... ehm... hop. That was too easy? Yeah... Ok. Hop bitters, malty and a sulphur metallic feeling. Notes of elder flower, earthy, fermenting apples and a sharp citrus notes.

On the palate I find notes of vanilla and loads of caramel and oak. Dry crumbly red apples, mocha, dry spices, kurkuma, banana, pear, cherries and black current. A short finish with a heavy layer of caramel and oak ending in dry earl grey tea mouth feel. Scoring an 6 out of 10 for me.

Coming back to this one more then a week after the tasting and letting it breath for quite some time it seems to become a bit more mellow to me. The nose shows me less hop and more malt. It has become sweeter and fruitier, the metallic and sulphur almost having faded away it looks like. The palate is to me much like the last time I wrote down my notes on it. Some more powdered sugar, lemon and candied ginger notes come to the front now. The heavy caramel and oak layer I got before on the finish has been replaced by a fudge, sticky sweet, malty, fruity medium length finish. A dram I feel does not hit all the spots for me, and very sweet, but surprisingly more pleasant to me then before. Funny how this works. Raising my score a bit to 6,5/10

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