Today’s dram: The Sexton, single malt Irish whisky
Today’s tasting notes: Aroma is sweet and woodsy. Flavor is smooth and slightly sweet, with a warming bite in the finish.
It’s different. I don’t drink a lot of Irish single malts — they’re not terribly common, compared to Scottish single malts — but I enjoy one now and again, especially as they are a departure from standard Irish whisky. This one reminds me a bit of Highland Scottish whisky; probably I’m drawing that comparison from the sherry cask aging used here.
All in all, it’s enjoyable; I’ll probably keep this around for a cold night by the fire. Or, perhaps, I’ll fill a flask for company on a particular walk.
Today’s thoughts: The bottle lore on this one speaks of a graveyard by the River Bush, from which you can sometimes detect the aroma of distilling spirits.
It’s been awhile since I’ve walked a graveyard, but it was an old hobby of mine.
It’s an autumn sort of hobby, the sight of nature in decline serving to accentuate the stark stone reminders that mark our mutual finish line.
Works in winter, too, though. Then the cold breeze bites and the empty trees shiver, and everything says your time will come, too.
Many years I’ve sought such places in these final days of the year, when the festivities fast fade and the year’s last gasp is in the air.
It’s quite the melancholy week — a transitory time fit for reflecting upon the expiring year, all its good, all its ill.
It all starts again soon enough.
Today’s toast: To the dead: beyond the need for a dram, past all ambitions great or small, gone from the wheel.
lastgreypoet 