JL Pasquet ‘A la main’ Rateau 20.11 49,6%

Brand-new range from JLP. “À la main” is a tribute to producers and terroirs. This first bottling is a young GC from Nonaville bottled in 2026 at 49,6%. 

Colour: Hay, orange hues. Irregular heavy tears.

Nose: Extreme exotic notes. Papaya, mango juice, passion fruit. Crazy stupid nose. Floral and yeasty notes, with a delicious mix of NEIPA beer, lychee and Gueuze. Deep cereal notes, which is something you often find in 10/20yo JLP cognacs (mainly Folle Blanche, but also a few others). And still that fabulous wave of exoticism. From a technical POV, maybe it could be seen as a flaw. But from a spirits-nerd POV, that’s p*rn.

Palate: Extreme acidulous profile. Yummy tangerine juice. Deep mouth length on smashed basil and white pepper. Maybe a lack of complexity, but hey, that’s a 2011! It ends on dried figs and balsamic shades.

Last Notes: Even more floral with air, with great scents of rosewater and honeysuckle. Guava and mango again. It could easily be served for breakfast as a tangerine/mango juice. Alcohol integration is good, but could have been a bit better. It ends on violet berlingot sweets.

Wonderful solar profile, with an unseen exotic DNA for this age. Give it 10 more years, just to see what happens…And if you want to make a pause in your Whisky Live Paris speed run session and want to enjoy a nice glass of OJ, well, you know where to pass by. 

My very subjective note: 89/100