Confession time – with Europe cautiously opening up again I simply couldn’t resist hopping on a train to Paris for a week!

A highlight of the trip was meeting Benjamin Kuentz, the man behind Maison Benjamin Kuentz that has enthralled us with his creations. As one Whisky Lady had hunted down the 1st edition of Aux Particules Vines, our focus was on that series joined by samples of the 4th and 5th editions. After our tasting, we were connected with a Parisian distributor who had the 3rd edition however so far the 2nd edition remains elusive!

We also avidly discussed our impression of the 2nd edition of Aveux Gourmands compared with the original – which we found more pronounced in the buttery salted caramel.

I took advantage of this trip to bring gifts of my much beloved Chorlton bottles and other samples for us to enjoy together. One evening we sat down together to try:

• Arran Quarter Cask “The Bothy” 56.2% – A delightful summery dram
• Chorlton’s La Nouvelle Vague
  • Orkney 15 year 57.1% (Highland Park) – Dare I say – an unbelievably gorgeous whisky…. Wow!
  • Croftengea 13 years 53.9% (Loch Lomond) – Enchanting!

Before joining our Whisky Ladies in Europe, we held a virtual session exploring the quintet generously sent by the folks at The Belgian Owl.

• Trying the spirit with Origine provided interesting insights into the underlying qualities
• Their flagship Identité at only 3 years is friendly with delicious aromas
• For us, the 3-year single cask Passion was the only disappointment, coming across as a bit unbalanced and ‘not quite there’ the way Identite nailed it… and curiously lacking “passion”
• When we first tried the 4-year Evolution, we loved how it was a clear step forward from Identite, building on what we appreciated with the added maturity really augmenting the experience on the palate in particular
• And with Intense? Remarkable! At 72.7% we thought it would be too intense – not at all!

Curious to know more? Check out a few other ’round-up’ summaries:

• Whisky Lady – May 2021
• Whisky Lady – April 2021
• Whisky Lady – March 2021
• Whisky Lady – Farewell 2020
• Celebrating 1000 whisky posts!

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Additionally, there are the two ‘off-shoots’ with:

• Whisky Ladies of Mumbai blog with the continuing adventures of the lovely ladies in India
• Whisky Ladies European chapter insta with our new explorations in colder climes!