A5 Double Trouble

Description

A5.5 Pitch dark fruit

A gorgeous nose, dripping with dense rancio and things like chewing tobaccos, plum wine, bodega funk, orange blossom and then wee complexities like cinnamon liqueur and muscle rub vapours. Reduction brought Battenberg cake, orange wine, crème brûlée, boot polish and wintergreen. Highly aromatic, mature, and expressive. The neat palate displayed liquorice and chocolate liqueurs up front, then fir resins, toasted wood spices and plum wine. With water we found superbly classical things like booze-soaked raisins, eucalyptus oils, strawberry cough mix and mentholated tobaccos. Some leaf mulch and bitter chocolate in the aftertaste.

A5.6 Le mouton, le cerf et le noir bitume

A glorious aroma, riddled with classic aged Armagnac characteristics in beautiful harmony. Corinthian raisins, hessian, old style rancio, pipe tobacco, apricot jam, and fig chutney. Everything in its place and perfectly balanced. With water we got orange cocktail bitters, aniseed, red liquorice, strawberry wine, and old leather books. The palate was initially surprisingly rich and spicy with dark grained breads, rye spice, wormwood, long aged balsamic and menthol pipe tobaccos. Reduction brought blood orange marmalade, mint jelly, Darjeeling tea, toasted fennel seed and wood spices like cinnamon and clove. A long, lingering and wonderfully complex finish followed on…