Tastes

1 liter bottle. Pours a deep gold color. Not too leggy but has a very viscous, oily body that you can see cascading in the glass. The nose is butter, coffee creamer and stewed apples. Honeysuckle and pear. The smoke is very wispy: it manifests itself as a tin of vanilla tobacco. The taste is additional butter and creamer, but with a more pronounced smoke at the swallow, like a drag of a menthol cigarette. There is a citrus that is like a sugary lemon drop or lemon meringue, with equal parts sweet and pucker. Mashed apples and vanilla creme. Mint leaf and lemongrass. A very pronunced pine needle and forest soil component I'd never picked up before. The finish is tobacco ash and potting soil. Pine sap and charcoal. Pear and apple skins. Coffee grounds with the creamer to match. It's got a gritty, ashy aftertaste and feel to boot. There is also a strange cooling sensation, like menthol. This melds with a metallic barrel tannin finish. Glenlivet 12 "Double Oak" is a very solid, buttery Scotch with just a bit of smoke and some grassy, earthy components. It may get a little more mileage out of name recognition, and it's not as good as I remember when I would order it at a bar (context matters), bit it's a solid selection at the right price.

Honey orange color, cough syrup color. The very first aroma is pure fusel alcohol: it's like the exhaust from a 2002 Saturn SL1. Charcoal. A surprising amount of plastic. Yes, there is some sawdust, some kindergarten glue, and the peppery spice of rye and the barrel char. But all of the secondary aromas pale in comparison to the gas tank full of fumes coming out of the glass, even after it sits out for a bit. The feel on the palate is oily at first, and then dries out afterward. Black pepper and Cinnamon spices at first, with the bitterness of carraway seeds. Some rubbing alcohol, followed by the sawdust from old wood. The tail end is milder: orange peel, citric lemon rind, and an herbal character. Finishes ashy: sawdust, black pepper, lacquered wood. There are plenty of barrel tannins that sit on the palate for a bit. There is a heavily perfumed finale; floral but also pungent. The finish is decidedly harsh: the floral and tannic elements fade and the ashy harshness remains. This particular type of Bourbon doesn't really work for me.

Honey orange color like cough syrup. Leaves a bar graph of lace around the middle of the glass. The first sniff is finished wood, like a lacquer or paint varnish. This dovetails into some sticky kindergarten glue. There is a lot of barrel wood that manifests as sawdust at first, then becomes prickly and spicy like rye or black pepper. Buried somewhere under there are a handful of almonds and one strand of black licorice.  The nose definitely benefits from breathing, because at first it's just consolidated fusel alcohol. The flavor first has a hit of rye and black pepper. Shortly after, wood char takes over, and lo, it is black. The oily texture matches some of the resinous, oily wood notes. In the middle of the sip, there is a sweeter respite -- toffee and brown sugar -- but it never strays too far from it's blackened center. Finishes first with charcoal briquettes, then a kind of grassy/earthy second wave, which matches it's chalky, ashy remnants. Then there is a flurry of interesting, rather contrasting elements: chocolate, hazelnut, maple syrup, and more black pepper. The tail end has a citric, lemon-drop tartness that I assume is the barrel tannins It's not a harsh Bourbon, but it's not an easy sipper either. It's mildly challenging due to the combination its proof and its heavily-wooded components.

A dram in honor of Burns Night '21. Justerini has been carrying Brooks for years and I'm not afraid to say it! Pours a pale old gold color. A little leggy, but respectfully so. The nose is butterscotch and coffee creamer. I'm getting very mild barrel tannins; something approximating sherried wood. Cabbage and sulfurics. There is a tiny bit of peated smoke, which is surprising; earthy potting soil. The flavor is a burst of butterscotch, red apple skins, butter and cream, immediately followed by tobacco ash and smoke at the swallow, almost like when you accidentally took a swig of a bottle with cigarette ashes in it. (But not in a bad way.) More of the barrel stuff that's half-puckery, half-sherry sweetness. There is a real perfume-like flavor in the middle of the palate. The finish is like sipping a bottle of perfume, along with that sherry afterglow. A very distinctive cigarette/tobacco end that reminds me of Sundays at my grandpa's. (He had both cigarettes and J&B in the cupboard.) A curious white plastic at the tail end. I can only imagine that this was the very first Scotch for countless young men and women, and while this one isn't complex or particularly outstanding, it'll do in a pinch when you need to mix in something a little smoky but don't want to use anything from your single malt stash.

Pours an old gold, honey-yellow color. A jagged crown of spidery legs. The very first scent is heavy sherry barrel, perfumed to the hilt. It's followed by butter and half-and-half cream. The wood from the barrel really permeates the glass. Just the slightest peppery barrel spice. The first taste is more of that perfumey barrel-wood stuff. It's a combination of port wine, barrel char, and peppered oak. Sugarplums and sherry. Some red wine grapes and berries. At the swallow there is milky cream and just a touch of metallics, like a roll of nickels. The finish is surprisingly salty, with some white pepper and more barrel char. Tannins leave a very puckery lip-smack. Some treated leather, but even in the finish, the perfumes are this dram's defining characteristic.

Pours a straw yellow color and leaves a lacy collar around the middle of the glass. The nose is first a mild, boggy peat. It's not that smoky, but it's quite muddy. Toffee and sugary caramel, which softens up into a Werther's Original butterscotch scent. This is all followed by a briny sea salt and black pepper. Just a touch of flowery perfume: the nose is just terrific and very fragrant. The very first taste is rock salt on the front of the tongue: big, chunky rocks that I could spread on my steps in a Syracuse winter. The second flavor is a smoky bonfire or extinguished matches, with a black pepper chaser. The smokiness really takes over, permeating all the other flavors. There is chewing tobacco that pairs nicely with the earthy peat/soil. The finish is bonfire smoke and ashy black pepper. Vanilla tobacco leaves and the accompanying peat/soil. There definitely is some soft plastic, like a Band-aid. There is a citrus fruit element that seems like pear or green apple. There is an ashy charcoal component that lingers and mingles nicely with the peat.

Chestnut brown/dark caramel color. A thick crown surrounds the side of the glass when you take it for a walk. I recommend letting this one sit in the Glencairn for about 10 minutes before you first sip. The nose is first peanut and sawdust; it's a dry, dusty aroma. A little bit of classroom paste. The wood aromas are smoothed out and not spicy. (Is that the what French Oak does?) Sugary toffee and molasses, with just a hint of cherry. The fumes make me a little light headed. The first sip is dry and nutty. It's hard to tell where the peanut dust begins and barrel spice ends. Sweeter flavors enter in the second wave: cherry, vanilla, butter, coffee creamer and caramel. There is a prickly, yeasty flavor that I am assuming comes from the high wheat component, but a n00b like me can never be sure. There is a very distinct wood char at the swallow: toasted and tannic. The heat and those tannins remain on the lips and burn for a bit. The finish is dry, lacquered wood and tobacco, like a cigar recently-removed. Black licorice, cinnamon, and a significant barrel char that comes off like burnt oak. A chocolate orange. This one is a terrific value that brings complexity and a lot of really harmonious flavors that go equally well neat or on ice.

Pours a nice honey color. The legs are not numerous, but they are long and luxurious. The part of the aroma I can't shake is the initial gassy, fusel-like fumes, inhaling the exhaust of a Nissan Altima. (Only in my youth, I promise.) I know that most whiskeys are a little "hot" in the first sniff, but this one is straight up paint thinner, every time. Once you can get past that first face-slap of alcohol, there are some more subtle scents: vanilla, coconut, buttercream, lemongrass. But all of these play second-fiddle to the exhaust/rubbing alcohol. The flavor is more forgiving: vanilla creme, coconut, coffee creamer, buttery shortbread. A tangy bit of lemon drop. It's also very tannic, adding a distinct pucker. The flavor cannot shake the exhaust/fusel gassiness though. The finish is white chocolate, leather, tree bark, peppermint, and a mild chewing tobacco. A dry charcoal finish. This whiskey demands an ice cube or at least a heavy dilution. There is just too much fusel/exhaust to recommend it by itself. It's good to have in the cabinet in a pinch,or for guests, but it's just not an exceptional Irish whiskey, unfortunately.

Pours a honey-orange color, with short icicles of lacing around the sides. It looks sticky like honey pouring out the top of a cartoon honey pot. The aroma is very grainy, with what seems like a corn husk included in the batch. Vegetal corn/broccoli scent; sulfuric and a little gassy in the nose. There is something slightly off about it: it's a little gasoline/fusel laden, which is unexpected at only 86°. It's straight up coal, although there's no burn. The taste is orange cough syrup: not necessarily unpleasant but very medicinal. Some peppery barrel char. Spicy clove. The finish leaves a syrupy lacquer on the palate. Black licorice, some cinnamon spice. There is a minty coolness that pervades the tail end. It's still gaseous at the end, emitting a kind of gasoline-like coda. This is a highly drinkable whiskey, but it's just slightly off-putting and harsh.