Kempisch Vuur 5 Year Old Single Cask L11

Some 4 years ago I got to know the Pirlot whisky, released under the same name as their beers, i.e. Kempisch Vuur (‘Campine Fire’). I tried L1, L2 and L3 – in which the L referred to the Laphroaig quarter cask on which the malt matured – and found it to be very interesting indeed. Since then, it disappeared from my radar, but recently obtained a sample of L11, released in 2020. Time to reacquaint myself with this Belgian single malt. Sweet malt, freshly sawed planks, finger paint, peat and white fruit – that’s the nose in a nutshell. Smells very pleasant. After some hand warmth the peat becomes a bit more outspoken, but some beautiful notes of horse stable and citrus fruit kick in as well. Give it five minutes or more, you’ll thank me later. Good body: pretty oily. A dark and sweet note takes possession of my tasting buds. Raisins and chocolate precede citrus fruit and peat. Suddenly it becomes very tasty indeed and much better than the nose announced. Lovely surprise. Midpalate it becomes a battle between sweet and salt (sweet wins hands down), while the smoke looks on amused from the rafters. Good! The finish is long, smoky and sweet with a salty note at the death. Well, this is impressive and Belgian to boot. Pirlot can be quite proud of this. Thanks for the sample, Johan.