Tastes

A worthy rival for Buffalo Trace and more widely available.

Nose: barnyard, leather, peanuts, dusted with powdered sugar Taste: vanilla, nuts, honey, caramel, breakfast cereal. Sweet and balanced. Would make a good comp for Buffalo T. Finish: mildly spicy tannic medium length Beat out Baker’s 7yr in a blind test. Finished second to Belle Meade Reserve.

Orange blossom, caramel, choclate, salt. Complex, spicy, bright, surprising. Footnote: the expert reviews on here routinely sleep on Barrell bottles. Curious what’s up with that. For example, Four Roses Small Batch scores higher (92) than this (91) which is silly.

Nose is spicy and woodsy with green apple jolly rancher or lemongrass on the side. Palate follows through with toffee, caramel, pecan, and lemon-lime-green apple. Spicy and sour-earthy finish, very long, but a little medicinal. Knob C 120 proof and E Craig Barrel Proof would be good comps.

I tend to get good barrels when i buy these. Depth and complexity on this one, oak, spice, creme brulee.

A big spicy apple pie of a bourbon. The king of the apple pie bourbons e.g. Belle Meade cask strength, Dickel 13yr, Knob Creek 12. I rarely say this but on this occasion the expert review got it right.