Paul John Bold (2018)
Indian whisky is no longer a curiosity, but a full-fledged category. If you’d like to know a little more about Indian whisky, I recommend reading this excellent article by George Koutsakis. Really, do it, and then come back for my review of Paul John Bold.
Paul John Bold is one of the distillery’s peated expressions. The peat comes from Islay, but they used Indian barley, about which you can read more in that article I referenced above. Seriously, read it. The barley is peated at 25ppm, which is smoky to be sure, but nothing quite as heavily peated as Ardbeg or Laphroaig, for instance.
Paul John Bold (46%, OB, 2018)
Nose: Touches of peat, along with a whisper menthol and angelica root, followed by peaches, and tinned pineapple. Finally a whiff of smoked paprika powder, cinnamon and cured meat.
Taste: Beautiful oiliness, spicy (ginger, cloves, nutmeg) and fairly peaty. But there’s a sweet tropical fruitiness here again. Passion fruit comes to mind, as does mango. A fair amount of toasted bread too, as well as a pronounced oakiness.
Finish: Sweet peat, a tad dry. Medium in length.
Score: 86
Excellent! Maybe the oak was just a tad too active on the palate, but overall a nice range of flavours and a good balance. Recommended.
Thijs is a spirits writer and accredited liquorist from The Netherlands. He runs the blog Words of Whisky and contributes to a number of Dutch and international publications.
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