I want you to think of some of the most stressful events that can happen in your life. Moving to a new state? Sure! Buying a house? Absolutely! Having a baby? No doubt! Changing careers? Of course! Now I want you to imagine doing all of those things at once. I hear what you are saying, dear reader. No one can be THAT stupid. Well, I would like to introduce you to myself and my wife. We are those idiots, nice to meet you.
This may seem like a meandering story that has very little to do with whiskey, but I really want to give you the background on why this one was so special to us. Lindsay and I had been living in Maryland for almost 3 years when I would complete my last set of orders in the Navy. Leaving the service is a chaotic time for the reasons I mentioned above but because we like to play life on "hard mode" we decided to add a newborn to the equation. I grew up in Ohio and my family still lived there and her family was close by in PA and NY. I still had some connections in Ohio and a better chance in the job market so that is where we focused our search. The Navy will move you but will only store your stuff for a short amount of time so the pressure was on to find a house. In order to know where to live and how much we could afford we needed to find jobs. I had been applying for a while online with no luck and time was running short. I was standing in the recovery room just hours after my son was born and I checked my email. I had a message from one of the companies I had applied to say they would like to conduct a phone interview! I wrote them back explaining my current situation and they were more than happy to schedule it for the next week. Two phone interviews came and went and they wanted me to come to Ohio for an in-person interview.
I took some time off, packed my newborn and wife into the car, and drove over 8 hours back home to prepare for a busy week. We had also set up house showings with a family friend who was a realtor. We had another time limit on this excursion though because I was in a wedding in Texas at the end of the week. Nothing like packing every life event ever into a month. Interviews were conducted, houses were looked at and an offer was put in and the offer was accepted all in a few days. The issue now was I didn't have an offer from any company so we couldn't move forward with the house. On the way to the airport, I got a text that said the job offer should be ready by 11. I took off at 1130. 11 came and went and I was boarding my flight to Texas. As the plane started rolling I went to turn my phone on airplane mode when I noticed a text that said the company had just sent me an email with my offer! I could do nothing with that information now...unless... I bought the extremely overpriced wifi on the plane. For these kinds of life decisions, I made the purchase, and while on a flight to Texas I signed all the paperwork for the house and accepted a job. The wedding went great and I was back on a plane to Ohio so I could drive back to Maryland to finish the remainder of my time in the Navy and get a move planned.
You would think that after all this craziness it was bound to calm down... and normally you would be right. However, that is not how Lindsay and I operate. Even the most mundane tasks seem to turn into great stories because things always seem to be a little more interesting than they need to be. So flash forward to my last day in the Navy and we make the drive from Maryland to my parent's house in Ohio with 2 dogs, a newborn, and both cars are filled with our stuff. We negotiated an early closing date because the Navy didn't want to wait and was going to put all of our stuff in storage, wait a month and then contact us to schedule a date to bring it to us. That sounded terrible so we made a lot of people's lives harder than they needed to be (because they are angels) to make sure that didn't happen. The move-in date was locked in and everyone knew what was happening. Well, except the Navy. They didn't relay that information to the drivers of the moving trucks so I get a call a week before our initial closing that says we are moving it in 2 days early because that is better for them and if you can't make that date we are putting it in storage and will deal with it later. The lady on the phone was actually quite nice and felt bad but her hands were tied. So we called all the parties involved and coerced our already fast closing date to move UP two days so we can get the keys. Thank goodness everyone was amazingly supportive and we signed the final paperwork an hour and a half before the movers would show up. Certainly, that has to be the last of drama now right? Wrong. The hits of this move keep coming in a hilarious fashion. First is when you sign for a house you can't "technically" move into it until you get approval from your realtor that everything has cleared for insurance reasons. Well, we didn't have that kind of time, and we were becoming friends with the previous owners so we "technically" broke into our own house, using our own keys, so that we could let the movers into our own house.
Finally, inside the house, the movers call and let us know that they are there but there is a pretty big problem. The semi-truck can make the turn to come down our 600ft driveway and even if they could there is a power line in the way. This means they are going to have to hand-carry our ENTIRE house down the driveway one box at a time. Also, because of humor, it was supposed to rain later that evening so we kind of a time limit. Luckily we live in a rural community in Ohio where people are amazing. Our new neighbor, who we have not met yet, has a dump truck that he is willing to drive for us. Feeling awful I also call my brother in law and we helped the movers unload their truck, unto the dump truck, then off of that into the garage so the truck could go back for another load. It took all day but everyone involved was so amazing. I made sure to buy them food because I was so grateful and apparently that is not a normal thing to do. PSA, if you ever move, treat your movers nicely because it is a hard job and people don't appreciate them enough. When the day was coming to an end our house was in no way set up, but our stuff was at least protected from the elements, and that is a start.
Around this same time, Angel's Envy released their yearly cask strength and we had to find it. I had been searching online feverishly trying to see when the local places would have it in stock. I was also starting a brand new job where I had no past experience to fall back on so I didn't have a lot of free time at work and couldn't call off. Eventually, I found a place near our new house that apparently had it and they opened in 1 hour. Every time I waited till a place opened and called they were sold out by the time I got off the phone. This time I wasn't taking the chance. I texted Lindsay and explained the situation and the risks of this perilous mission. She gladly accepted, packed up our newborn, and drove to the nearest liquor store at 9 am on a Wednesday. My sweet little wife with a baby carrier in hand walks into the store and politely asks, "Do you guys have Angel's Envy Cask Strength 2019 still available?"
The man behind the counter looks at her and says, "Yeah... if you can afford it." in a very demeaning way. Lindsay has a little bit of an anger problem when it comes to disrespect and she was able to put it on full display. "Well actually I wanted to buy two but I can always go somewhere else," she said with all the fury of a woman scorned while flashing the credit card at him. The worker, now realizing she knew her whiskey tried to apologize and show her other whiskeys she would like as well. "Just the Angel's Envy will be fine" she replied curtly, paid, and left with the newborn on her arm the whole time. She truly is every man's dream wife and she was stupid enough to settle for me. In all fairness, I probably should reevaluate her other decisions because her decision-making process is obviously questionable if she thought I was a good match.
After all that effort and chaos how was the whiskey I hear you asking? Well for me it was my favorite of the Cask Strength line. It was a little sweeter than the others but I liked that. It was nice to sit in our new house with boxes everywhere and just focus on the whiskey. Amongst the chaos and stress Lindsay and I could sit on our deck and look out at our new area and enjoy the time together with a great whiskey. Even though it is 122.4 proof there was a minimal burn to it. Enough to remind you what you were drinking but not enough to distract you from the flavors.
Angel's Envy Cask Strength 2019 is 122.4 proof and was very smooth. There was only a slight burn of alcohol in each sip. These are the listed notes but I don't always get all of these. I am curious to hear what you got.
Nose: Light notes of apples and honey, as well as peach, apricots, overripe banana, and black tea. Opens into toasted oak with a slight char and faint floral notes.
Palate: Big honey flavor with apples, butterscotch, and toffee. Mellow vanilla notes with a hint of oak and toast. Mild acidity, like biting into a ripe peach.
Finish: A lingering, medium-length finish that doesn't overstay its welcome. Pleasant tannin notes that trail into black tea.
I would recommend trying this if you were ever given the chance. Normally cask strength whiskies are a little hot for me but this one was just the right burn. Neat is probably the best way to have it but a few drops of water does open it up. Overall, I would definitely try Angel's Envy Cask Strength 2019 if you come across it.
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