Tastes

I have yet to find a better food+whiskey pairing than BBQ+Brimstone. This stuff is liquid BBQ in a glass! Smokey, sweet, dark chocolate, a hint of spice, and a lingering meaty finish. Like the aftertaste of eating some delicious Texas BBQ. Do yourself a favor and pour yourself a glass of this while sitting down to eat some really good smoked BBQ. SO. DAMN. GOOD.

I may be a sucker for cognac-finished whiskey (Jos A Magnus, Sagamore Cognac, Glenlivet 14yr, Brenne), but this stuff is VERY good! Layers of complex flavors from both the sherry and cognac finish gives this an extraordinary amount of depth. Hell of a deal at $50 found at Costco.

I'll start by saying that I love Angel's Envy Rye (which is also finished in rum barrels), but I don't love the price at around $85. I was excited to see two new rum-finished ryes hit the market this year, first the Redemption and now the Tempelton. While all 3 are made using MGP-sourced 95/5 rye, they are different ages with different amounts of time spent in rum barrels. Angel's Envy is 6-7 years old and finished for 18 months in rum barrels that previously held Cognac. The Redemption is just 2 years old and finished for just 3 months in Jamaican rum casks, so it's very young with a very short finish (and it's not very good). This Templeton Rye Caribbean Rum Cask Finish is 6 years old and finished for 6 months in dark Jamaican Rum casks. The additional age and the additional finish puts it miles ahead of the Redemption, and I'd say about 70% as good as the Angel's Envy - though it's not quite as dessert-like, maybe due to the lack of the Cognac notes. But what you do get are your classic MGP rye notes up front, with a nice finish of tropical fruits, coconut, over-ripe banana (think banana bread), a bit of orange zest, and oak spice. Really, really tasty stuff, and I highly recommend giving it a shot if you're a fan of the Angel's Envy Rye. I was lucky to find this for just $29.99, which is an absolute steal since that's cheaper than the regular Templeton 6yr Rye, although I've seen it as high as $49. I'd say it's a buy at anything under $45. My rating of 4.25 reflects a base rating of 4.0 at MSRP, with an extra .25 for value based on what I paid.

Great bottle for the money if you like the typical Beam flavor profile. This tastes like a slightly richer version of Knob Creek, but not quite as rich as the KC SiB 120 proof. It's also very similar to Baker's 7, but less nutty. Solid bottle for $32!

Outstanding daily drinker! At the time of writing, Belle Meade is made from a blend of MGP's 60/36/4 and 70/21/9 mash bills (at a ratio of 1.5:1) resulting in a final mash bill of 64/30/6. I'm generally a huge fan of MGP's higher rye mash bills, so it's no surprise that I absolutely love this stuff! It isn't quite as tasty as the Remus Repeal IV which has close to the same combination of mash bills at twice the age, but it tastes like a "lighter" version of that. Not as much vanilla or barrel spice from the oak, but the core flavors are still there - dark brown sugar, caramel, rye spice, butter, vanilla, and it finishes off with a medium length semi-spicy finish. Disclaimer: I was able to snag a case of this on clearance at Costco for $29/btl and that bumps up my rating by 0.5 points based on value. At the regular price of around $39-$49 depending on location, I would give it a 3.75.

I like the regular Woodinville Bourbon, and I usually love the barrel proof version of stuff that I like - but not the case with this one. I've tried a few different bottles which are different single barrel releases, and I wasn't impressed with any of them. This barrel proof version is too harsh, the oak is overpowering and not well integrated, and as a result it lacks a lot of the more nuanced flavors of the 90 proof bottling.

Being a fan of higher proof bourbons for their more intense flavors, this is one of the rare bottles where I prefer this lower proof bottle over the cask strength. While I do prefer the cask strength for Maker's 46 (and all the private select stave variations), for the regular Maker's Mark this seems to be the sweet spot with a high enough proof to keep it from feeling thin like the 90 proof, but not too high to where the flavors are overpowered by ethanol - which is what I get in the Cask Strength (110+ proof). This is exactly what you'd want - regular Maker's cranked up a few notches to improve the overall flavor, mouthfeel, and finish. And it's a hell of a deal at $30 around here! Gonna stock up on a few backups as they seem to be disappearing from shelves, and it is allegedly a "limited release" so I don't know when/if they will be restocked.

This batch IV of the Remus Repeal Reserve comes about as close to a perfect 5 start bourbon as any bottle I've ever had. I'm a huge fan of a high rye mash bill, and this combines MGP's 21% and 36% rye mash bills together at a 3:1 ratio, all aged at least 12 years - and I love that they tell you all of this right on the front of the label! It is a quintessential bourbon profile with a great balance of sweetness and spice which coats the palate, and finishes with a lingering oak dryness and rye spice. I have been a big fan of RRR since the first batch (which is now underwhelming in comparison to the others), and this latest batch is the best one yet!

This is my new favorite daily drinker! The nose and palate are right down the middle of a classic bourbon profile, full of caramel, vanilla, a little bit of cinnamon, toffee, and a faint hint of spice on the finish (it's clearly a low rye mash bill). There's nothing offensive but at the same time nothing that makes it really stand out - except the price. I'm able to pick this up for just $27, and at 107 proof that gives it a pretty outstanding proof:price ratio. For that it gets bumped up from a 3.5 to 4 stars based on value. Note that this is a single barrel release, so YMMV.

This might be my new favorite rye! This Old Pepper Distillery Single Barrel Rye is a blend of MGP 95/5 and their own distillate, which spends 2yrs separately in new charred American oak, then they are married together and finished at their distillery in KY for nearly 2yrs in 24-month-air-dried toasted oak barrels and bottled at 110 proof. The result is a KILLER rye that drinks way below its proof and has a great balance of sweetness and spice. Starts off with some marshmallow, baking spices, burnt caramel (crème brûlée), and finishes with some oak spice, brown sugar, dark chocolate, and honey. Move over Michter's Toasted Barrel Rye, a new toasted barrel player is in town! I still can't believe I picked this up for only $40, definitely going to stock up on some more!