Tasting: Michel Couvreur Overaged NAS Blended Malt

Dram data:
Distillery: – (blended malt)
Bottler: Michel Couvreur
Distilled: –
Bottled: –
Age: NAS
Limitation: –
Casks: ex-sherry
Alcohol: 43%
unchillfiltered; natural colour
Whiskybase link

Tasting notes:
Colour: amber
The nose opens dark, rich and mysterious. A spicy dark fruit cake. Sweet dried raisins, plums, figs, thick juicy sherry, caramel, sweet cocoa, cloves, dark spiced biscuits all form a very harmonious blend. This noses well-aged and mellowed without being oaky at all. I’ve been nosing this for 15 minutes straight… The palate offers more of the same – and that’s a very good thing! Very sweet, almost to a point which might be too much for some malt mates, but I happen to love it. Rich, dark (PX or even paxarette?) sherry notes, a very dense and hard to pick apart dark fruit puree (definitely sweet, juicy raisins, plums, figs, dates, freshly squeezed sweet grape juice) combined with honey, milk chocolate, children’s instant cocoa powder, chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar with a hint of spices (cloves and some cinnamon and aniseed) on top. A very slight dry and bitter note in the background. The long finish starts out coating the entire throat with dark fruit goodness before proceeding to slide down ever so sweet, warming and gentle. Almost like drinking a strong PX sherry…

Verdict:
This blended malt is unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. Very sweet (borderline too much for some) and loaded with dark fruits and spices without any woody notes, this is not what I’d call “overaged” – this is right on the spot! Very dangerously drinkable, this goes down like a PX sherry and you might just end up drinking half a bottle over dessert…

Score: 90/100
(Nose: 92 Palate: 90 Finish: 89)

Thanks to Manny for the sample!