Thy Distillery Edition Cask 61-62

A Danish family distillery on an organic farm crafts organic single estate whisky and grain spirits. This is a sample of one of their distillery exclusives, a blend of two casks (#61 and #62) aged for 4 years and bottled at 61.2% ABV. The aroma starts with new leather-bound books, salted sour tropical fruits, and hay, then creamy milk chocolate-covered espresso beans and light floral notes, followed by salted sweet and sour baked cinnamon apples, cherries jubilee, and prunes. This transitions to mild spices like anise, ginger, cloves, and ashy oak with a strong ethanol burn. The palate has a medium body, beginning with a very salty sweet and sour mix, followed by spicy mocha, then sour apple candy, maraschino cherries, and salted baked orange. This shifts to anise, cloves, and black pepper spice with a strong ethanol burn. The finish is medium in length with heavily salted mango, blonde espresso, chocolate orange, and black pepper. This began very promisingly with a nose of leather, sour fruits, creamy chocolate, and earthy spices, but the palate is a shock, like a challenge of stuffing your mouth with sour candy and licking a salt block. The intense salty flavor eventually recedes to the background of coffee, sour fruits, and unique spices before reappearing in the finish with a salty sour juice mix, espresso, and moderate pepper spice. I was hopeful for this, but it's just excessively salty and sour to be enjoyable. Hopefully, with more aging, those sour notes will mellow, and the distillery can find a way to reduce those high salt levels.