Colour: Light gold.
Nose: Fresh and aerial nose, it’s quite expressive but far away from the heavy high esters profiles. The ripe and candied pineapples leads the way, then we have mangoes, bananas, candied lemons, marzipan, oranges, khakis, white peaches, fuel, a very shy wood, glue, polish and a slight smoke in the background. Does I need to say the alcohol is very well integrated and that this is well balanced?
Mouth: Nice oily texture, it reveals it’s strength in that mouth. Lemon meringue pie, ripe pineapples, bananas, green olives, vanilla, candied lemons, some chunks of wood burning, wood glue, almonds, fresh paint, grilled sardines, engine oil, basil and oregano. This kind of mouth remember some of my favorite ’92 vintage like the Masam or Compagnie des Indes ones, great!
Finish: Long, powerful and drying. The typical dark smoke fill the whole mouth, mentholated freshness, roasted pineapples, glue, polished wood and candied fruits.

Overall it’s very different than the ’93 release, less « extreme » as we could expect it. We’re clearly in the same idea than the two other members of that new trio, classy and well executed. If you found the ’93 too hard you should really give a try to this one.
My personal preference goes without any hesitation to the ’93 but (unfortunately for my wallet) I really enjoyed this one as well, for the more calm days, let’s just say.

Score: 90