Tastes

Barrel 325646 Nose standard if distinct Beam sourness(mash?) peanut shell, brown sugar and baking spice. Still one of my favorite noses. No real burn or ethyl fume even at 108. Starts sweet, nice brown sugars as the peanut and leather kick in so does the high proof burn. This actually gets very hot in the middle and stays warm to the finish when all that heat subsides with some oak and tobacco nibs. There's really nothing extra here, it's Beam and if you like the Beam profile in a big bunch, you should really like this. Very representative of the "Beam profile", this SiB reminds me of the Distillers Cut release that came at a slightly lower proof, a little less of a full punch profile but also about half the price. This is one SiB I could easily see spiking with a bit of branch water to tame down the heat. Maybe not a great deal but really what SiB worth drinking is going to be considerably less than 40USD? Cheers!

I was given a well opened, by that I mean exposed to air for a while, sample of Stellum. I'm not sure it needs the extra air but oh well, from the top of the glencairn it is soft, sweet spices and hints of dark caramels. Certainly a pleasing nose, if not really an exceptional one. Out of the gate up front we get the sweetness of the moderately aged high rye stock, the warm peppery cinnamon kicks in through the middle, the caramel sugars show up just in time, before it all just disappears. No real long finish but very smooth going down. A lack of barrel bitterness makes this again, a pleasant, just not exceptional drink. The vanilla caramel corn notes combined with the rye spices are enough to make it a fairly rounded and full profile, just don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. I like what Barrell has done with this, after all they are pretty good at crafting these blends, if it came in for about 10 dollars less and well below the 50$ mark it would be an easy thumbs up. Considering I can buy Rare Breed for about the same, for me it's more of a one off kind of deal. Assuming they are trying to make this a mid tier permanent product, this isn't a bad start. All and all it's nice drinker, but I would look for deals on this rather than just go out and buy it. Cheers!

While the low proof Turkey rye is a worthy bottle that certainly earns a spot on any drink mixers shelf, what about the 101 version? Is it better? Let's find out. Right off the bat the nose is a fruity rich spice bomb, a true rye drinkers nose. The barrel strength amazingly yields next to no ethyl burn. Nose: 5.0 The front indeed gives up some of that orange citrus and cinnamon, yet another Christmasy drink. The well aged flavor is apparent, no harsh bitters, just some feint wood barrel notes and hints of cherry vanilla and leathers. All I can say is if you drink this rye and are not impressed, there really has to be something wrong with you, or you just aren't really a "rye guy". The Turkey 101 rye just brings it, in an amazing manner and with all that barrel proof richness you might expect from far pricier rye's that too often just don't deliver. If that's not enough you can find this for under 30 dollars or less than 1/3rd of what you would expect to shell out for Peerless. It really doesn't remind me of the Russells profile the way the lower proof Turkey rye does, instead it seems to have a bolder yet more balanced profile. Recommendation, under 30$ BUY(buy extra and stash it), because this is less expensive doesn't mean waste on mixers, use the cheap Dickel/Bulleit etc for that, this is a dram worthy of drinking neat. I'm giving an extra .25 for the value but really it probably deserve more. Get it now while you can, (or kick yourself later). Cheers!

Nose: Rich dark cinnamon bark, ethyl forward, hints of vanilla. I decided to let this open up for about 20 mins or so, to see what would happen, glad I did, not that it wasn't pleasant enough but after letting it breath a bit, along with the cinnamon bark and vanilla you get: hints of apricot and white pear, a nice almond note and some orange circus peanut marzipan. The complexity really opens up and this is completely better than the old MGP Boss Hog in my view. Front loaded with brown sugar, vanilla followed with the ethyl laced oak with some apple cider tartness through the middle this subsides pleasantly into a warm cinnamon finish. This is too bright to have a lot of malted sugars, though the finish does enjoy just a bit of maltiness. Those sweet fruit notes from the nose aren't all that prevalent here, there is more of a nice warm honey on rye bread feeling, with just a bit of allspice and dill notes as well. While the nose opens up to be a smashing 5.0, at the 250 ish USD price this generally carries I would hope for just a bit more complexity in the body, that price point-complexity ratio is going to bump it down somewhat on the final score. The age and proof still make this a walloping good rye to reserve for a special occasion. Cheers!

So I ran into someone pushing the Chattanooga brand at Total Wine, turns out it was none other than Tim Piersant, co-founder of the Distillery. My first question was about the obvious change in labeling, to which he explained the old 1816 label represented the MGP sourced product and the new label is the start of their sourcing. After a short convo about age statements and their relevance (they are doing a line of Solera now) I decided to go ahead and pick up the limited Port finish bourbon since it was already looking to be in short supply. He claims there are a total of 6 different mash bills combined (they are number ID'ed on the bottles) and dropped a hint that the Port barrels were significantly "wet" so there would be no doubt about the finish traits. Noting that ALL of their in house mash features a larger malt component and that is what they seem to be banking the brand on now. He did mention some wheated expressions that would be dropping in the next year. So off the top, it has the true sweet purple grape juice notes on the nose you might expect, yep, there's Port in this here whiskey. The nose carry's the full value of the tawny sweetness and hints of some darker malted undertones. Really pleasant. The first thing I get is malt and tawny sugars, it's a very sweet though still somewhat complex dram, the corn sugars and barrel tanins are tucked in with the dark malt and wine. Toward the finish the dark chocolaty malt takes over but the welches grapes hold on for the ride. It's quite an interesting and off the beaten trail expression, a heavily dark malted bourbon with tawny port sugars just isn't something you see daily. I will give CW full credit for deriving a really dark chocolaty tone of malt, if you like that with some sweet grape juiciness, you are going to like this. My sample bottle is opened for a week now and right at the shoulders. The poop: Mash Bill: B0001, B0005, SB055, BL8025, BL8016 BL7113 Cooperage: 55 gal, Toasted and Charred Oak Filteration: Non-chill Finish: Tawny Port 6+ months Age: 3+ years Batch Size: 6-7 barrels So they don't really tell you what the exact mash bill is which is something I don't like, but they give a large amount of the other extraneous data which I do like and complemented Tim on. My impression is that you're gong to enjoy this largely based on your enthusiasm for those dark malted notes and combined Port sugars. I'm finding it a really enjoyable profile even though it's little like the typical bourbons I usually enjoy. If it sounds like your thing, then the 50ish price isn't going to be that hard to swallow for such an offbeat specialty limited edition. Cheers!