Impact
Appearance 4.7 / 5
Color: | as red as 65% can get – auburn to aubrown |
Surface: | finish a perfect plaque |
Temper: | luminous |
Snap: | it got snap & shears clean too |
Aroma 8.6 / 10
straight into the deep woods – cedar chest filled w/ chocolate ‘stock’ (what beef is to soup); slight wax; chantilly head (sweetened whipped cream) backed by butter; but turns 180 degrees on the breakwall to a blackberry cheese ginch
Mouthfeel 13.4 / 15
Texture: | even & so smooth it concentrates the experience on the flavors |
Melt: | automatic |
Flavor 45.2 / 50
chocolate au lait (caramel) -> sweet cocoa medley: blueberry -> cherry -> pineapple / kiwi -> coasts to melon... all in a linear progression of an ever brighter sunrise into the slightest tart fixture -> backcrosses around cherry, but more fermented this turn toward the back -> sets into chocolate-almond dusk
Quality 18.4 / 20
Choice chocolate; controlled balance neither amped with citric acid nor pinned down with bitter wood. Delicacy rather than strength; tons of charm (& has more of it than the gold standard for this origin – Amedei’s – which also makes for the less sublime). Keeps getting sweeter as it goes along til the nut finish.