Milk & Honey 3 Year Old 2019 for Buds & Barrels

Tom Haseldonckx, the man behind the cool webshop Buds & Barrels and one of the initiators of WHISKE – the whisky and spirits festival Kempenland in Belgium – has released a very unique bottling. This is a particularly young Milk & Honey malt from Tel Aviv, Israel, that matured on a Rye cask. As far as I know, that's a first for M&H, so I'm very curious. Funny label, by the way, with barber Gert Rombouts of Haarbazaar Deluxe in full action, while behind him the bottles of Buds & Barrels' shop-in-shop. Enjoy an authentic shave while sipping a little dram? Count me in! But back to this unique whisky... bottled at 67.5%.

The nose is very good. Milk & Honey's DNA holds up nicely despite the unmistakable influence of the cask. Brown bread, gingerbread, anise and chocolate. Slowly but surely, some fresh fruity notes of pineapple and apricots are emerging, but they cannot compete with the dark notes of chocolate and brown sugar. For science purposes, I also nose it with a teaspoon of water. That makes the nose sweeter with notes of fried banana and almond paste.

Although the ABV is such that you want to keep telephone number of the fire brigade at hand, it can – if approached with respect – be enjoyed neat. But it is very powerful and particularly spicy. And yet the alcohol does not burn away the flavors. I get a delicious continuation of the nose with an additional dose of cocoa and apricots. Delicious. Diluted, the flavors remain intact and the intense spiciness of the rye is expressed even more, while at the same time it gets a sweeter edge.

The finish is nice and long, even with water. Sweet, spicy and warm – how could it be otherwise? Excellent.

This is another M&H that goes straight to my heart. Taste bomb with a twist, which can be enjoyed both with and without water. On the site of Buds & Barrels some of the 124 bottles are still available at 89 EUR. I quickly ordered two, because it is apparently going to be a cold winter. Not at Whivie HQ, that’s for sure.