Tastes

Can taste the bit of maple but it’s less overpowering that I anticipated. It’s got a sweetness, but it’s not overbearing and strikes a good balance of vanilla and maple with tannic and just the right amount of heat. Good bottle. Unlike some bottles that can break down pretty quickly with ice, if you want it to smooth out and increase the sweetness to bring out the maple, add a couple cubes.

Real complexity to it that hits you hard. Caught some honey on the nose. Get big bold flavor of cinnamon and bite along with an undertone of sweetness with it. Overall an interesting change of pace from some of the others. Would call it a nice to have but not a must have.

I haven’t had this straight in years, and coming back to it I actually liked it more than I thought it would. The problem is that at 40% it’s “just a whiskey”. There isn’t really anything that stands out about it, which makes it not that exciting to sip, and not that exciting for cocktails. Good for those times you want a mixer in with your coke just to get a buzz and that’s it.

Nothing really complex to this. It’s a rye forward bourbon that is spicy and hot. Not much else really comes through for me. Good for cocktails, not for sipping neat.

Drinks like a high rye with a log of heat and spice. Unfortunately, neat I don’t really get anything beyond that. The high rye makes it a good cocktail bourbon, but this one isn’t for me when I’m looking to have something to sip on on its own.

Overall this is fine, nothing more nothing less. I do like it more than the normal BH, but honestly if it didn’t say “toasted” I wouldn’t have necessarily been able to pick that out. Smell is fairly sweet with fruity undertone. Pretty smooth even neat which isn’t surprising given the proof. A little ice doesn’t change the complexion a lot. Overall it’s fairly smooth and I get some apple/orange fruit flavor coming through, with some slight oak or nut coming through.

More out of the norm on this one, but neat this drinks pretty harsh for the proof to me. The main thing that comes through to me is smoke followed by some burn. With a little ice, it definitely gets a more sweet palate of vanilla. All in all, when I find this at the store at regular MSRP, it’s a fine pick-up. At secondary prices above $100, give me something like a knob creek 12.

Unique/interesting mix of a sweet smell but the flavor it having the more typically vanilla or caramel flavor. Even though on the nose you expect that, you get more fruit/herbal flavor profile without the sweetness. Not necessarily bad, but it kind of throws you off. It’s also not entirely smooth and doesn’t fully mellow out with an ice cube.

Extremely smooth. You get the classic taste of caramel and vanilla with everything being a step up from the SR. Hard to beat this for a non-barrel proof bourbon.

Straight fire. I have other barrel strength stuff but with this one all I get is ethanol/heat. Even with ice it’s still potent and can’t really get anything else to come through.