Background
With the success of Velier’s unaged Worthy Park releases, it was only a matter of time before we got an aged expression of WPE. This official bottling of WPE was pot distilled from molasses in 2017, tropically aged for four years in ex-bourbon, and sold by K&L Wines at a cask strength of 65%.
Tasting
On the nose: soot, burning plastic, pine needles, rotten banana, brown sugar, lime peel, sea breeze, vanilla frosting, and black pepper. It definitely smells like WPE, but it isn’t quite as fruity as the unaged WPEs I’ve tried.
The palate, however, is more fruity than the nose led on. I get lime and orange peel, brown sugar, mango, grapefruit juice, raspberries, overripe (but not quite rotten) banana, vanilla pudding, freshly cut grass, and more black pepper. The oak influence is very light.
Verdict
It’s good! The distillate is so dense with flavor, but I don’t think it has been improved by its relatively short aging period. In fact, I like it a good bit less than the unaged WPEs I’ve tried. While I do think that this could be really good with a longer maturation, four years in the barrel just wasn’t quite worth it for me. I look forward to trying older expressions of WPE as they become available, but for now, I’ll stick to the unaged stuff. (6/10)