Tastes

Nose; crisp florals, lilac, sandelwood, faint warm spices and sugars. Palate: barrel oak, mild vanilla- caramel sweetness, considerably dryer than some of the high proof Beam lineup, hints of red fruitiness and plum jam(the sherry finish most likely). Finish: smooth, sweet, small tannins and more woods with little heat invites repeat sips. Overall this seems like a really balanced product which is not surprising given the Suntori influence on the finishing stages and the care in quality is evident as well. The Fred Noe bourbon at the base brings the expected results yet somehow the overall blend doesn't quite live up to the promise of the nose and otherwise expectation of this hybrid whiskey heritage. This is a great bourbon to share and will no doubt yield a myriad of opinions, but isn't likely to knock anyones favorite off the top of their list. If the pricepoint holds up it will be an easy addition for the home bar as a worthy conversational drinker.

Makers Mark has made itself a standard shelf bourbon with it's distinct capping style and standout squared genie bottle. Easily found and moderately priced it holds up well with the standards like Green Label Weller, Knob Creek, and Woodford, with it's warmer, softer wheated profile and modest burn. Nose: simply sweet and warm, hints of bread dough and barn door oak rise up with the mild ethanol burn. Nothing fancy and nothing to complain about. Palate: One of the nicer things about Makers is it actually carries forth the notes from the nose, what you smell is what you taste, light oak mustiness combined with the sweet corn/wheat mash and just tad of cinnamon heat. Mid-range sugar variants are a bit lacking as is typical with a lower proof, wheated mashes. Finish: The oak finishes off the overall flavor with a slight oiliness on the otherwise soft finish. Again, just like we noticed off the top, nothing too fancy and also nothing bad. Maybe the biggest difference between Makers and Weller(green label) is the barreling and aged oak notes in the Makers, something largely lacking in the green Weller. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Makers but like so many other "standards" you don't feel like you opened anything exceptional in this bottle. We'll take it happily in place of bar bourbons like McCormicks and be glad it's got a few things going for it besides the nice packaging. A good low end strait drinker or mixer you don't have to be embarrassed to have on your bar.

Nose: Loads of familiar sour lemon, faint hints of banana and mild barley bread, traces of honey floral, very pleasant, if straight forward glenlivet. Up front the sour fruit bitterness has the lions share, delicate sugars follow and fairly mild smoke and honey, nicely rounded and little harshness. For a "youngish" concoction the Founders Reserve doesn't seem second rate or "green" at all, and manages to finish with an impressive smoothness. Not much in the way of complexity but certainly not bland either, this is a sweeter scotch that bourbon drinkers would appreciate. Not sure what they were shooting for with this one but I doubt this will disappoint most Glenlivet fans out there as it seems like a good easy after dinner drinker. Would go great with a Fuente Short Story.

Nose: The pungent alcohol burn arrives first, followed with sweet florals, honey, rye spice. Lots of body and full characteristics of a barrel proof, promising. Hot spices and notes of toast and barrel guts ride on the spice warmth and subdued sugars, are first with less dark sugar complexity than is promised by the nose richness. Finishing dryer with hints of the cask mustiness and bits of acrid citruses. For an MGP product this is an all together different and unique offering with some very interesting characteristics. Adding a couple of thimbles of water and allowing this to breath for a bit - not much changes at the top, still a good bit of tangy richness. Little change as the harshness holds with mild sweet and spice and a somewhat easier finish. The buzz on this from whiskey review is somewhat warranted, but only somewhat. With the myriad of bibs, cask and barrel strengths available today the 1816 Cask isn't the standout it might have been say 10 years ago, however it speaks to the hard core bourbon drinkers among us and to date easily tops the arrivals with the Chattanooga label.

Nose: Sweet, fragrant, almost like ROSES, for a bib strength offering the FRSB is pleasant and devoid of harsh alcohol tones so often present in less refined drams. One of the best noses on a bourbon available off the shelf. Palate: Up front I get spice and a nice variation of mid-range sugars, not too dark or earthy, very smooth with just hints of leathers and soft floras, incredibly refined and well balanced and with just enough tangy sweetness. This goes down very smooth and warm, the accustomed harshness of so many high proof but lesser quality whiskies is just not there. Finish: Smooth, low or even no heat the delicate floral balance dissipates as evenly as it appeared. If I had to knock this top shelf product it might be in the overall smoothness not presenting as much complexity as I might like, but then that is also a side effect of an incredible level of balance as well. Also the hint of barrel oak really doesn't stand out much but again points back to the balance of even handed properties of a well crafted distillate. The darker, danker sugars are replaced with a lighter fragrant array of sweetness. and lack of any burn on the finish leaving that bit of rye spice notes on the tongue, there's just a lot to like about FRSB and not much at all to complain about. The beautifully rounded 4 sided bottle with embossed Four Roses logo and wood topped stopper perfectly accompany the contents. Wither you want a quick easy straight drinker or the base for a 5-star hotel Derby, Toddy or Old Fashioned, the choice of Four Roses Single Barrel will not steer wrong.

Alcohol burn hits first with the char and coal hints, this has a burst of nose burning heat and medicine right up front that is entirely uncharacteristic of a rye. The spicy notes do present as it rolls back into the throat but the earthy tones of chocolate red forest fruit and orange bitter are always foremost with this very interesting dram. This is certainly worth a try for those who find ryes too often to be uninteresting and similar beyond a point of being a lot of green bottle clones of near identical rye spice taste. The bitterness could easily be a plus for scotch enthusiasts and the odd sweetness a nice treat for the bourbon lovers as well. Not unlike the Jack Daniels rye that adds some sweetness to the profile often lacking in more standard ryes. I find it a bit course for my taste but I can easily see a lot of drinkers taking to this somewhat unusual offering from Old Forester that just might grow on you over time.

As I expect more of you than not have already had a go at Eagle Rare, it still is worthy of the review. The descriptions pretty much say it all, a 10 year age statement is nothing to sneeze at unless you're the typical 50year old scotch consumer and to that I say "well done sir" but those of us who have to scrounge our good bottles off the shelves at the store have known about the "good stuff with the Eagle" for quite a while. The supply has held up better than expected for a bottle in the 30ish range and that makes this one of the "rare" values indeed. While Buffalo Trace may take some warranted abuse for the allocated bottle standards it is in many ways responsible for, you can't fault them or owner Sazerac for the way they have tried to make this great bottle readily available. In many ways this is the real "standard" for the BT/Saz distillery as it provides all the high quality and exceptional value for todays bourbon standard or benchmark. Certainly we would all drink Blantons every day, or William Larue Weller, Parkers Heritage or Rock Hill Farms, but the fact is those are too often out of reach or just not to be seen. Not only is Eagle Rare readily available it holds the line at a great price point and market availability that makes it a very worthy entry as an every day drinker. This is Buffalo Trace giving us a value quality that makes us NOT hate them for the obscenely black marketeered BTAC bottles we would all love to be collecting. For the few who actually haven't already tried Eagle Rare, take it from Beppe, get off yer keester and get some.. what are you waiting for?

Well, what a difference a cask makes! Just as the Stout edition was an overall positive experience and enhanced profile for the standard Jameson flavor, the IPA seems to be almost the exact opposite. Perhaps the IPA is the "Scotch drinkers" choice whereas the Stout is a drink for Bourboners but there is little that stands out other than the pale ale bitterness with this variant. As one taster noted a harsh bitter IPA leftover tone and little else, makes this not what I look for in these enhanced finishing designs, much bitterness with not even citrus notes as a distraction. I could go on but would only be repeating what an extremely bitter whiskey this is with no real redeeming quality added through the extra finishing stage. For the Pink Gin or Manhattan lover this might be the way to go, give it a try and see what you think. An Old Fashioned with no sugar was never my thing. Dryer than the Sahara and the Dust Bowl combined, for those who find bourbon far too sweet this may be the way to go. I'd much rather have a plain Jamesons over the IPA edition, and that really is all you should need to know.

Even for those like me who find regular Jameson a pleasant if mild libation that simply does the job while being nothing to write home about, this is far too interesting a concoction to pass up trying. And glad I am that I did. The afore mentioned "pleasant" Jameson nose is accented with spicy floral and sweet notes. A very nice start. Up front this is rich(far richer than plain jane James) and the malt mocha and sweet dark sugars jump out, I get just hints of citrus and rose wrapped in bold spice and chocolate, this is not entirely unlike a Black Bush variant minus it's notable cereals. On the backside the butterscotch smoothness kicks in and only a hint of the stout brew cask is left to remind the barley lovers in us that this was actually enhanced in a beer cask and not just over barleyed on the mash side. This is really an enjoyable treat and break from the tradition of plain old Irish and makes the caskmate concept a worthy choice, I find it far superior to the IPA edition and would heartily recommend this for the traditional whiskey bourbon drinkers bucket list. Like the other Jamesons, this one retains the smoothness and lack of heat, making it an incredibly easy straight drinker. A well done one off and great change up for the Jameson lineup.

Nose: large florals, rose-honey suckle, rye spice, candied fruits small herbal Front: oily sweet head with big spice portions and very notable barton wood flavoring combine with faint bourbon notes of heather vanilla and dark sugars. Finishes mild with warm spice and sweet after notes This is indeed a rare concoction of a nice rye bill recipe with some unusual herbal floral range and some very good bourbon base flavoring, I like what Buffalo Trace has done here, it's a lot of pleasant flavors and notes with nothing off putting and that includes the relatively mid range price tag you should find on this bottle. If you like a high rye bourbon you won't want to miss this one, an easy addition to the home bar and relatively mild but enticing drinker, with just enough complexity to make it a conversation starter, it just begs to be sipped through the night. Well done BT and cheers!