The 2nd of Sponge’s Zallinger-esque trio is likewise drawn from a refill sherry butt – only it seems to have tipped over the edge of 25 years old into the dizzying heights of being 26 years old. The Decent of Sponge – Phase 2 is made up of 532 bottles at 57.7%.
Nose: Surprisingly umami to begin – miso and cream cheese together with brown bread, bung cloth and lamp oil. Demi-sweet honey and old, worn lemons sit alongside mineral notes of granite, rock salt, clay with a final lift of papaya and orange bringing welcome fruity sweetness. Dilution expresses milk chocolate and buttery pastries together with earthy dunnage.
Taste: Opening with sherry – sharp but sweet – strawberry boot laces, balsamic and a hearty seasoning from salt and pepper. Bitter waxiness washes around the palate alongside leather satchels, hay, chopped walnuts and pickled ginger before honey provides a tempering sweet lift. Thought-provoking combinations. Water provides old orange liqueur and pan fats together with some lime sourness.
Finish: Long with waxed lemons and mentholly cask char.
Much deeper on the sherry influence than the chiselled Whisky Sponge Edition 38. Here the cask does more of the talking and as such, the profile could be considered to be broader overall. Nevertheless, this one had plenty of ‘thinky’ moments and should you be more inclined toward the sherried side of things, you might want to swap this score and Edition 38s around. But for me…