Tastes

Laphroaig Cask Strength - batch 007 - 112.6° Nose: exactly that chalky type of paint/finger-paint you used to use in preschool/kindergarten. Calcium salts, petrified dill weed. A bit of umami wakame. I expected more iodine and bandage, as well as peat smoke, but the manifestation @ higher proof is markedly different than the standard 10yr. As it opens, s dry fireplace ash, then still-cooking applesauce. It's surprisingly inviting, like your austere cabin home in Islay. Inviting for a high-proof! It's still unmistakably robust (manly) though. Taste: the first sips is brimstone! White fire breathed by Smaug! Creosote and a mixed-wood open fire next to a small, rusted iron coal stove... on a goat farm. The burn is quick and clean, passionate and intense, yet direct and "calculated." It's rapacious. What is most striking once you're past the initial heat of the proof is the impressive and assertive minerality. This isn't just salt (NaCl-): it's calcium, magnesium, lime, and different carbonates, as well as sulfates. The palate is crisp and woody, but somehow buttery and dry, like both a young and a wood-aged Chardonnay or Chablis. And yet, the minerals give it such a fullness, along with just enough wood tannin to create a complete (and intense), somehow "refreshing" experience. The malt sweetness is almost entirely hidden behind savory, medicinal, and umami sensations; it IS there, but you really have to seek it out. Finish: the finish is just like sweeping up the ashes of the raging ember spirit that burned down your cottage and adjacent family farm. It's more of the same from the nose and taste, building character in you, and telling you to squelch your tears without apology, but in a relaxed, understanding, and abiding tone of voice. Water almost completely tames this animal... at least just bringing it towards the level of domestication in the standard 10yr, with the bandages, iodine, and heather being more noticeable. Still, the dilution, sadly, detracts from the magnificent display of mineral composition... like shaving the mane off from the alpha of a pride of lions. This is a deep, stern, and experienced drink. A man's drink, not for any puff. But it has stores to tell that you could listen to all night, if you are the type to bare it. 4.7/5.

This blend could walk a tightrope! It is all of its components separately and together from nose through the palate and into the finish. Campfire smoke with both charred oak and burning hay components, sweet corn, fruity wheat burn, and then botanical rye and dry old wood. All of it nose, taste, finish. In that order, sequentially, for each component. Amazing!

Russell's Reserve Small Batch 6yr Rye Nose: salty fruit salad, very ripe figs and very ripe warm kiwis, or maybe some Fuji apple banana mandarin orange mix. Either way it's ripe and fruity in an inviting and festive way. No alcohol notes. Taste: right away you taste the salty fruit salad, with some dates thrown in, and then comes the rye, big time. The aromatic and bitter rye overtones poignantly expressed in this spirit present as caraway and white carrot, with a savory and pleasantly vegetal sweetness balanced with a similar quality of bitterness. Finish: lingering and bitter, herbal, and much like having chewed on fenugreek and bishop's weed and their seeds, with a "parched" kind of dry warmth. Here in the aftertaste is where the dry and lightly charred oak shows through after the roar of other pleasant flavors, with a bit of allspice peeking from behind the curtain at the very end... and then an encore of rustically-floral goldenrod, Japanese knotweed, and Queen Anne's lace. This drink is all across the board and hits just about every Rye flavor note in cadence, from salt to fruit to cereal to herbal to aromatic to wood to spice to floral. A real treat with incredibly full flavor, easy to drink, an equally easy to chew. At LEAST 4.5/5 I will always have to have a bottle of this on my shelf, especially at under $50/bottle.

Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Rye Nose: Not betraying any higher alcohols, just orange cream soda, bright and carbonic, with crispy vanilla and a velvet citrusy overtone. Taste: chewy rye cereal and cream soda with navel orange, reminiscent of Cointreau, and then some of the more polite expressions of fennel and coriander come to play. Finish: soft and gentle tingle that so neatly and quietly ties the sweet cream, orange, and aromatics together with finesse. What really sets this apart--and adds to it's surprisingly delicate nature--is the distinct aftertaste of floral dandelion and violets! So smooth for the proof, this is a dangerous treat and an interestingly fruity and floral expression of rye with much less heat and astringency than expected. 4.5/5

Very Old Barton N: "Typical" bourbon notes, so nothing exciting, some vanilla-sugar-dusted pencil shavings T: Whoa! Peaches and cream with the secret pinch of nutmeg... the fresh fruit and sweet milkiness that the nose would never betray. F: Buttery-crusted apple pie with mulling spices and sweet, bark-y Chinese cinnamon What a super value. Nose is nothing special, but the taste is undoubtedly delicious, especially for the value of a bonded bourbon.

Rowan's Creek Bourbon N: spiced apple butter, apple skins, a slight pecan nuttiness, and vapors like a calvados T: Calvados! Tawny port. somewhere between the savoriness and roundness of a dry fruit and the lighter flavor of something freshly baked fruit. F: silky, raisin-stuffed bagels, and Pannettone cake Willett has done it again with the fruitiness, but this is more like a holiday drink with the apple and baked golden raisin character.

Rebel Yell 10yr Single Barrel N: Corn syrup and maple blend to make for Straight Aunt Jemima pancake syrup, some vanilla from the pancake itself T: Thick, maple sugar, extra smooth peanut butter plus corn sugar... and then milk chocolate. It's a Reese's Cup! F: as the Reese's cup perception fades, there is a slight black walnut bitterness to tidy it up. Luscious without being cloyingly dessert-y.

Hooker's House Bourbon - Pinot Barrel finish I will start with the disclaimer that I can see why many would dislike this whiskey; it has many different flavors than the usual bourbon and the wine tannins can confuse things further, especially for those not familiar with those flavors. However, I do not believe there are objective flaws with this whiskey other than the fact that its flavor combinations are polarizing. I happen to really enjoy the weird stuff going on all at once. N: spent peanut shells, maple, bookshelves, and the wood of an old wharf T: herbal, medicinal, thin, digestive herbs, and perhaps juniper. the pinot tannins seem to manifest themselves in this fashion like an Amaro F: dry and tannic... like a temperate-climate grown pinot