Gooderham & Worts 1832 Decanter (1950 Tax Stamp)

Here is another edition from Gooderham & Worts of the 1832 Decanter (was it a series?) The bottle itself is identical to the 1948 I reviewed yesterday, but this time it is packaged in a blue cloth bag with the G&W logo embossed on it in gold (kind of like a Crown Royal), within a box made of cardboard. The packaging is nice but not quite as luxurious as the 1948. There is no card with any additional information on it, not even the ABV.

The colour is a deep amber gold. On the nose is heavy oak, strawberries, mangoes, sourdough, rye spice, cloves and jasmine (?) Very herbal, floral and fruity. Huge wood smoke - that "old musty bookshelf" note is quite dominant. Rich leather. Star anise. Honeycomb - and even more with water! There is some serious age here, but unlike the other 1832 Decanter, the packaging gives no information about the age of the whiskies blended within.

On the palate there is dark caramel, dark honey, pepper, vanilla custard, milk chocolate, balsamic and liquorice all sorts. Quite sweet - the honey and caramel are very dominant. With water, however, it becomes a bit too sweet. Having said that, this is still extremely impressive.

The finish is mouth-drying with more oak, dark rye bread and cloves. Side by side with the 1948, it is still pretty amazing but not quite at its level. Both the nose and the palate of the 1950 are more on the sweet side, while the 1948 retains more complexity with better balance between the composite notes.