Teeling 18 Year Old The Renaissance Series No 4 – Pineau des Charentes Finish

The most recent release in Teeling's popular Renaissance series – each time their 18-year-old malt finished in a different type of cask – dates from August 2021. This time the malt got a finish on barrels of Pineau des Charentes. And I really appreciate that drink in itself. Can hardly go wrong anymore, right?

And we're off again! A great fruity nose on banana, peach and mango, but less tropical than the previous three releases. Here it becomes very quickly a warm apple pie and apricot pastry. This even reminds me more of cognac. It also has something mineral, like I smell it from a stone cup. Strange, but very pleasant.

Although the body is on the light side, the taste is very, very good. Tropical fruit supplemented with a lot of wood spices. It shows much more bitterness than its predecessors, by the way. Grape seed and licorice. That makes it a lot more drying, too. But it can handle it well.

The finish is long, deeply sweet and pleasant. Again I have to think of cognac, which is not so strange, of course.

I confess that it is my least favorite of the four, but that is very relative and says little about the quality. Because this one is also absolutely excellent. Thanks, Benny.