Crown 3 Year Old Single Grain Port Wine Cask Finish

Crown Spirits, a new Belgian bottler from Bruges, has launched three single grains in 2021, each a single cask at cask strength and each time at the very young age of 43 months – of which the first 30 months on a classic first fill bourbon barrel and then a finish of 13 months on a special cask, in this case, a port cask. Only 46 bottles were released at a cask strength of 60.1%. The distillate was distilled by Filip Braeckman of the distillery of the same name in Oudenaarde. Pronounced nose on pine wood and apple fritters, sprinkled with some cloves and nutmeg. Although I was expecting a lot of red fruit given the type of cask, I remain somewhat left hanging in that respect, but that is more than made up for by notes of apricots and maple syrup. Nice sweet and spicy nose. Nice and oily and again not burning at all despite the sky-high alcohol content. Nice integration. And in terms of taste, it is a sweet and sour feast on both raspberries and pink grapefruit with some honey in the mix. I really like this. And once again I am delighted by a nice long, sweet and spicy finish. The difference with the version on the red wine cask is significant, which once again emphasizes the importance of the wood. This was enjoyable.