Van Winkle 12 Years Old Special Reserve Lot 'B' Pre 2007 90.4 Proof 45.2% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (85)

Colour: full gold. Nose: this is a complex one, it’s not overly extractive and no vanilla bomb. Sure there’s some vanilla but there’s also some nice notes of tangerine liqueur, sesame oil (nice roasted notes), even argan oil (don’t know what that is? Stop moaning, google is your friend ;-)), nuts, marzipan… Very nice indeed. I like the balance and the absence of ‘vulgarity’. Mouth: very concentrated this time, with the oak’s spices to the front and some cappuccino and honey just below the spices. Also some orange liqueur and quite some ginger. A lot of ginger, and a lot of liquorice and white pepper. It’s big, very spicy bourbon. Finish: long, spicy, clean. Pepper and cardamom all over the place and some Irish coffee in the aftertaste. Comments: another spectacular one, with nose and palate that are quite different (seems to happen more with bourbon than with scotch). A very spicy palate.