Michel Couvreur “Blossoming Auld Sherried” K&L Exclusive Malt Whisky (750ml) $279.99 View

The chance to work with Michel Couvreur on a special K&L whisky project was something that David and I had been dreaming of for years. We had heard the stories. This crazy Belgian had moved to Burgundy in the ’60s, carved out a wine cellar inside a mountain, only to fill it with Scottish single malt whisky instead of Pinot Noir. He set up camp in Beaune, ordered new-make spirit to be delivered by tanker, and drove down to Jerez himself, selecting his own sherry butts to ensure the finest quality casks for his contracted spirit. Unfortunately, Michel Couvreur passed away in 2013 from pancreatic cancer, thus ending the career of one of the industry’s most courageous pioneers. Luckily for us, however, apprentice Jean-Arnaud has carried on after studying under Michel for more than a decade. When we visited the underground cave, we were all in total awe. The tunnels of dripping stone go on forever, and the amount of whisky stored in this secret lair is jawdropping. We put our trust completely in Jean-Arnaud and are happy we did. Our peated version of the incredible sherry expression is a seamless creation that drinks like the best version of Johnnie Black ever, mixed with the most supple and soft expressions of Macallan. It’s a lush, unfiltered, creamy, caramel-laden dream of a whisky composed only of malts 12 years and older. There’s a bit of peat on the finish, but the soft sherry is the star. (NOTE: do NOT cut the hard wax seal, use a wine opener to go through it)

Michel Couvreur “Peaty Overaged” K&L Exclusive Malt Whisky (750ml) $79.99 View

Michel Couvreur established his business selling Burgundy wines in the early 1950s in Scotland. In 1978, French friends suggested that he add a top-quality Scotch to his portfolio, which began Couvreur’s interest in the whisky industry. He believes that the oak whisky is aged in has an outsized influence on the character of the finished product. He also strongly prefers sherry casks for the maturation process, and has gone to great lengths to source what he believes are the finest casks from Andalusia. The Blossoming Auld Sherry is a recreation of the legendary malt whiskies of the Victorian era. An era when sherry and Scotch were both kept on hand in the cellars of England and Scotland’s great estates and drawn for consumption as needed. Matured in one single butt of the freshest possible Montilla-Moriles casks, this whisky is redolent of that great wine of Jerez in a way that’s simply not available in modern bottlings. This ultra-saturated butt from a solera started in the 1950s at Toro Albala is one of a kind. Couvreur is the only producer able to buy from the venerable Bodega and they receive the choicest butts delivered still wet to the cellars in Burgundy. The cask was kept in medium humidity for the majority of its maturation before being moved to the wettest part of Couvreur’s cellar where extractive atmosphere is at a maximum. Age is inconsequential in terms of the quality here, but it is indeed older than all but the most expensive of Couveur’s offerings. A triumph!