Milk & Honey Elements Red Wine Cask

Israel is not really top of mind when thinking about red wine. We first think of France and Italy, right? But the Israeli climate is such that they too make beautiful red wines, it seems. Barkan or Jerusalem Hills come to mind. The third installment in the Elements trilogy from Milk & Honey in Tel Aviv was matured in Israeli red wine casks, which explains the color of this malt.

The nose offers marzipan, raspberries and red lace candy, lots of earthy notes (think roots of a plant or the bark of a young tree) and nutmeg. Hint of apricots too. Nice, but not earth shattering.

The body is good, but the wine casks seem to offer little more than some red fruit – raspberries and strawberries – and lots of tannins. It quickly becomes dry and makes me squint.

The finish is long – too long? – and drying.

Hmm… Not my favorite. This whisky suffers from too much tannins from the wine casks, I’m afraid. Around 60 EUR. Thanks to Buds & Barrels for the sample.