The wine finishes in the Untitled No. 13 really comes out on the first sip, bursting with plum and date followed by dark honey, oak and cinnamon. It’s quite sweet and tasty, and not too hot. “Chewing” brings more sweet bursts of sherry and brandy in the form of honey, prunes, concentrated sun-dried grapes, plums, cinnamon, oak, anise, and sherry-influenced funk. On a side note, you have to try sherry to truly understand the funk that comes from Amontillado, Oloroso, or Pedro Jimenez sherries that are aged without the yeasty flor protecting it from the air.
There’s a really nice balance of wine sweetness, bourbon sweetness, spice, and wood. The oak is tame, primarily contributing cinnamon and nutmeg and less tannic bitterness. I’d expect the 10 year old bourbon and Cognac to be quite tannic at times, but it really isn’t, likely due to the finishes. The most noteworthy thing for me is that the wine and brandy finishing are certainly more intense on the palate than on the nose, and it’s very flavorful.
The finish is nutty and sweet from the sherry followed by tapering oak tannin and alcohol tingle that fade into oak and a sprinkle of cocoa powder. The oak and cocoa keep going and going. With “chewing”, the finish is sweet, fruity, funky, and oaky. The fruit and sherry funk from the palate carry into the finish mixed with roasted oak. The oak stays for a while as mint appears. I wish that the sweetness lasted longer because it can get a tad too bitter on the finish, but a minor complaint at best. Taken as a whole, I am loving the flavors – the sign of an excellent bourbon.