Malternative Belgium #16 Le Roi de l’Automne 50,4%

MALTERNATIVE BELGIUM #16 LE ROI DE L’AUTOMNE 50,4%, LOT 75 G.C COGNAC LAURICHESSE

Leave And Let Dry

First Laurichesse on Hors d’Age, and I begin with an IB version bottled by Malternative Belgium and The Whisky Jury. Laurichesse is a very young brand (they began selling cognac in 2018) founded in 2015 by the owner of Paul Beau, Olivier Laurichesse. With 40 hectares (in Grande Champagne too) and his own distillery, he has also inherited old stocks from his father, which leads us to this Lot 75 reviewed today. 50,4%, G.C, bottled in June 2022. Let’s go!

Colour: Amber, orange lights. Regular heavy tears.

Nose: Full of candied citruses, mainly orange and tangerine at first. You get a great wave of warm spices too, something between safran and cinnamon. Very elegant nose. Nice leathery shades immediately followed by a light freshness on cardamom. Still opulent citruses notes, quite heady with obvious orange blossom notes and hints of lemon peel marmalade.

Palate: Acidulous/oily texture. Intense black pepper aromas are counterbalanced by wee tangerine juice notes. A tad of fresh fig too. The second palate gets some rich licorice syrup aromas, but it remains very fruity, this time on quince jam and plums liqueur. Nice mouth length.

Last Notes: Aside from light resinous notes, you also get subtle musk scents and some vegetal tones, combined with peach juice and young pineapple notes, it could easily remind you of something between Barbados and Jamaican rum. Back on the palate, it gets richer aromas. This extra air has given more exotic shades to this G.C. Incredible rancio with a nice evolution from overripe apricots and mangos to walnut kernel and leathery tones. In the very end, you keep a nice freshness on thyme glued to the sides and the top of your palate. Bang!

That’s another winner unearthed by Pieter. It reminds me a bit of Navarre’s Vieille Reserve (43yo+, G.C, 45%, wild rancio with a great evolution) in some aspects, maybe even more precise.

My very subjective note: 90+/100

Malternative Belgium website