Tastes

Warehouse 1; Floor 1; 63.85% abv. BevMo store pick Nose: Caramel flavored nail polish. Dense brown sugar. Dark molasses. Palate: Strong alcohol. Oily. Classic bourbon flavor turned up a notch Finish. Long. Bitter tannins mixed with sweet corn syrup and burnt brown sugar. Lingering mint after taste fading away. I need to stop expecting that cask strength single barrel automatically equals honey barrel. This was good but ain’t no honey barrel. Saving grace is the price which I think was priced same as the regular single barrel at approx $40. Not sure if that was intentional or not but who’s complaining. I went back and bought two extra bottles before I tried it cos you just don’t find this type of bourbon specs from a well-established and household name producer for that price but if I had a time machine, would probably have gone back and bought just the one. Don’t leave this one too long in the glass. For some reason, it oxidizes faster than any other cask strength bourbon I’ve had. Turns into an undrinkable mess after a few hours in the glass. Cheers PoD!

Went through a whole bottle of this but didn’t take any notes. So, this is from memory…as unmemorable as the experience was: Working Title: Young, brash and reckless[ly not great]… ...and in conclusion: All spice and no play, makes James a dull dram. The End. Next...

UPDATE: Bottle Status = Half-way mark. Yup, I called it. This keeps getting better. Incremental complexity and richness with each new tipple . More balanced flavors keep revealing themselves with every sip ...pineapple, apple crisps, condensed milk. I still get the “malt” notes but they’re ensconced in yummy delicious flavors that are closer to the sweet side than savory. Just when you think the ride is over, bam, tropical mango. As you’re getting used to that, hello, honey dew melon! And so on, and so forth. I think I’ll get another bottle for the proverbial road! Cheers POD!

As Booker’s slowly but surely enters the realm of hard-to-find and overpriced collectors item, it’s time for my first Booker’s review. I went back and forth for what should be my 50th review and eventually landed on this. That it is coming as my half-century review may be appropo because while it’s not that special of a milestone, as say, my future century mark review, (READ just as Booker’s is NOT a special, once in a lifetime bourbon, by any stretch), it somehow feels like it needs to be acknowledged. You see, I have been collecting Booker’s since 2015. I’ve grabbed a pair of each batch since 2017. I always fancied the classic, yummy-smelling wooden box as a kinda cool packaging that other distillers should emulate. So this review may also be perceived as an ode to the last of the Mohicans because at the rate of price increase, there will come a time in the near future when I’ll no longer be seeking this product. Shame. How did we go from a $49.99 / bottle to now $100+ (and climbing) for a bourbon averaging 6.25 years old? I was able to find this batch at a local retailer for “reasonable” $69.99 and decided to clear the shelf because I thought this was probably the last time I’ll find it for that price. Whaat? Shame. Ok need to remind myself this is not a raving rant medium. Let’s get to the experience shall we? Neck pour Nose: Dry-roasted peanut skins, vanilla-laced ethanol fumes, cherry cotton candy, chocolate fudge, light/low calorie caramel toffee , paint varnish. If you allow yourself some patience, you will be rewarded with a good, balanced aroma that evolves to much greater heights over time. Palate - Follows the nose slightly with classic bourbon notes mingled with corn cereal and peanut trail mix. Water opens it to more fruity aromas but elevates the bitter oak tannins on the mid-palate. Finish is long and clingy. Continuation of the palate with an underlying backbone of wood spice and bitter tannins coming all the way through. You could say the wood influence balanced the finish from becoming too sweet. Warm Kentucky hug to close out. Overall: Not bad. The neck pour wasn’t mind-blowing but was not disappointing either. Follow-up pours after a few days yielded a much better experience. I think this is slightly above average but not sure how I feel about it relative to the “Booker’s hype”. So I’m holding my definitive judgment on the Booker’s line until I spend more time with this bottle + try other batches in my stack. Keeping hope alive that other batches bring something different and unique to the table. Side-by side to Old Forester single barrel cask strength (review coming) and the 15Yr George Dickel 15Yr single barrel cask strength , I give the GD a slight edge over the Booker’s with the OF coming in 3rd place but barely. In fact it’s closer to an interchangeable 2a & 2b. Ranking-wise, for my taste, I would go 1-GD 15Yr SiB Csk strength, 2a-Booker’s 2020-3, 2b-OF SiB Cask strength Cheers POD! PS: Going on another dry month starting tomorrow, as part of my self-imposed “1-dry-month-per-quarter” experiment this year. We shall see how long it lasts. Wish me luck!

Quick Hit Review: This is pleasant. Displays all the classic notes you would expect from a well-made bourbon, although a bit more on the lighter , sweeter side. Suffers from low proof which keeps aromas and flavors of the nose, palate and finish somewhat muted and nuanced. If there was ever a 7 course whiskey dinner, this would be the appetizer, as it does a great job setting the stage for what’s to come but is definitely NOT a main course. Sláinte PoD!

The overall experience feels VERY formulaic. Not sure how else to put it. It looked, smelled and tasted like someone went in the lab to “construct” a Highland Park whiskey using some supposedly “true & tested” formula. As in... (and here please imagine a John or Jane Doe in a lab coat)... take equal parts single malt distillate, add x parts heather peat, then quarter parts sherry + y liters of water. Then shake and let sit for z hours. Then more purified water, and add 1/one millionth parts iodine + cold tar = Highland Park whiskey. Don’t know the exact formula but you get the point. Simply put, this pour has NO soul. I didn’t know there’ll come a day when I would describe whiskey in such an esoteric way but here we are. Sure it tastes like whiskey. Sure you can pick up some peat. And sure, you can feel the sherry. Then what? I guess HP was counting on the adage that says “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck”. Except it’s not. More like a plastic facsimile. Luuuucy! Ahem, I mean Hiiigghlaand Paaaark! You got some xplaining to do! Glad I got this on a close out sale for less than $35. I guess that’s why it was discounted. Skip this one. You should have no FOMO on this with confidence 1.25 - 1.5 ⭐️ Sláinte PoD!

Getting back to tasting with some bourbon. Dry January. Check. Chilly February. Check. March madness. Checking. Let’s begin. Saw this at TW for $60 and figured that a well-aged, single barrel + cask strength Tennessee bourbon for that price was a decent & promising way to get back into the swing of things. Also helped by the fact that it came with a 10% promotional discount on top. So on the specs, I was thinking this was a GREAT deal.... even as my “too good to be true” red flag was on overdrive. Most 15Yr old bourbons on the market are typically north of $160 - $250. So I’m either on to something or about to find out that you get what you pay for. Can’t be that bad can it? Let’s jump in. Nose - sweet vanilla-flavored nail polish remover. As I bury my nose deeper into the glass, I get a deeply-perfumed, light & floral maple syrup. Then an aroma I can best describe as caramel-dipped oak and vanilla-soaked leather comes through in a clutch. If you can imagine the smell of a cologne modeled after grade A Canadian maple syrup + vanilla bean extract and toffee, you would be spot on. SUPER perfume(y) the nose was! But all the aromas were playing in a well-orchestrated concert. No distinguishable alcohol burn even at cask strength, which speaks to the time in oak. This nose is unbelievable! This nose is divine. This nose is something else. Can’t wait to taste! Palate: Enters sweet and creamy but with an immediate accompanying oak bitterness...bordering on being over-oaked. Coin toss. Another sip. Scratch that. It crossed deep past the oaky borderline and is a full-on oakville citizen. Oh no! Some water and air time opens this up significantly. Now I get stewed fruit jam intermingling with hard toffee, chewy caramel and dark brown sugar. The bitter oak now softens up and balances the fruit. Mouthfeel before the H2O is dense and oily, leaving a thick coating. Mouthfeel with H2O is still oily but much better balancing the bittersweet line. So far, the nose definitely promised more than the palate delivered. Finish is looonng...and bitter. Leaves a clingy oily coating on the inside of your teeth with a burnt vanilla after-taste on your tongue and a flickering of mint on the side walls of your inner mouth. TMI? Overall, there’s just too much oak influence, which is disappointing. The bit of fruity spiciness was pleasant but didn’t completely mitigate the bitterness. I’ve always thought I would be a fan of more oak but this is a bit much. Rating: No question, the nose is a 4+ star but palate and finish leave something to be desired. I started this at 2.25 stars but it has improved with time + H2O. I find myself going back for more, which counts for something. I’m landing at 3.5. It IS good or becomes good...with some patience and proper coaxing. Yes, there’s probably a more appropo, albeit risqué, analogy that comes to mind here but I’m keeping this PG-family rated. I may come back later with updated review + score as I suspect this will continue to evolve...or maybe it’ll just be my palate adjusting. Who knows... Sláinte PoD!

This is a quick hit review. Initial reaction from neck pour. I’ll come back later with detailed notes. Just wanted to acknowledge @Ctrexman @Richard-ModernDrinking . Consider yourselves officially influencers. I ran out and grabbed this after reading your high praise review. I henceforth proclaim this bottling, The Curious Case of Benjamin Burton because EVERYTHING about it is counterintuitive. Or, it may be more appropriately called Freaky Friday since I cracked this open yesterday, the last Friday in November 2020...and because clearly, an American single malt has switched bodies with a Scottish highlander. It noses like a bourbon and drinks like a scotch. It’s young juice but tastes older. It is aging backwards and tasting forward. It IS good whiskey PoD. Good whiskey it IS. Stay tuned for the upcoming breakdown.

Ever heard the expression “fine from far, far from fine” [up close]? Have you ever had your eye on a good looking girl, often day-dreaming about possibly hooking up with her (because, good odds). Then finally getting a chance and found the experience so wanting that you not only decide to never date/hang out with blonde, blue-eyed women ever again, but also question your own judgment? Well, ummmm, enter Knob creek maple finish. I cracked open this bottle several months ago and when I nosed it, it held so much promise I couldn’t wait to get my tongue on it (This is Not a Luxury Innuendo, Monsieur Compass Box 😊). Maple syrup, dark brown sugar and charred caramel interwoven in a mist of vanilla ethanol filled the nose. However upon first sip, I was like, what have I done!? Never again! It felt like I was drinking watered-down grade A maple syrup with my bourbon. If you look up the phrase “cloyingly sweet” in the World Dictionary of Phrases, which by the way does NOT actually exist (sorry for the tease @CKarmios @DigitalArc ), you would be greeted by a picture of this here dram. God, it is sweet!!! I’m not going to waste your time breaking down the palate and finish. I’ll just say take concentrated simple syrup + brown liquid...and use your imagination. Because I do believe in second chances (and sometimes 3rd & 4th chances...depending), I went back for another taste this weekend. Being a glass-half-full proponent, I had hoped that good ol oxi-D would work some magic on this over time. Nay I say unto thee, a fools errand it was! Another hope dashed. There’s only so much oxygen can do. I mean, it gives us life. What more do you want? All that said, what I did find was that a tiny, deftly placed dash of this KCSM “bourbon” transformed my home blends into something quite interesting...and dare I say, occasionally extraordinary. It turned some of my run-of-the-mill bourbons into so called honey barrell bourbons. And I swear, a [deft] splash of this with a few ounces of a 12yr cask strength dram from a big name, top-shelf producing Cambletown distiller, whose name shall remain unspoken (mostly for fear of being destroyed & ostracized by this distillery’s fanboys for attempting such sacrilege... @cascode @ScotchingHard @dhsilv2 @Rick_M @Soba45), turned the blend into an approximation of a “decent quality” sherried Islay (think bowmore 15yr). Don’t ask me how it happened. It just did. Thusly IMHO, this is a complete write-off as a neat pour by itself. But in blends, deftly handled, it’s a whole ‘nother story. And so follows the dilemma. Do I score this based on the positive impact it has had on my home blends? Do I score it on its own merits alone? I’ll perversely borrow Pat Riley & LBJ’s “let’s keep the main thing the main thing” and go with the latter. 1🌟 it is. I guess I could go below 1🌟 but gotta draw the line somewhere and give baseline score for effort. Cheers PoD!