The palate is dense and juicy right away, but still with a structured sweet oak in the background. Fresh coffee, brown sugar, red cream soda, and continuing to grow more buttery and saturating on the palate. Just a kiss of oak.

The finish is silky and long lasting while still being juicy and satiating. Spiced dried red fruits, cola, warm buttered biscuits and strawberry jam with lasting sweet oak.

About: Any barrel pick that ends with a few dozen empty glasses is a good one! That s exactly what happened when I visited Macauley Minton of Dark Arts. Macauley and I met at Wilderness Trail where he ran the barrel program. During his five years there he played around with barrel blends while groups selected. At the end of the tasting he would offer a pour of Macauley s Blend . Over the years he even started adding some of these blends into the blind selection process. Even more surprising (impressive) his blends would be selected as the favorite. That gave him the confidence to split out on his own and start Dark Arts.