Tastes

I recommend this with a small ice cube. It's gotta a ton of burn that benefits by proofing it down ever so slightly. Pours a dark caramel/orange color. Spindly spider legs go all the way down. The nose is first of all, just a ton of heat: all sixty percentage points came to play. Dusty peanut/nutty aroma. Prickly sawdust and barrel spice; orange peel. There is a hint of plastic. As it opens up, caramel and toffee bloom. The burn hits the all levels of the palate, and it sticks on the lips and singes the roof of the mouth. It also burns all the way down. You get a taste of spicy orange peel/Potpourri, then spice akin to rye/cinnamon. The prickly spices manifest as ribbon candy. The corn/corn syrup smooth out the end. Then heavy oak and finished wood emerge at the swallow. The finish is a continuation of the oak char at the swallow, which is rich and dark; sawdust. The finish is dark chocolate, along with a spicy spiced-orange candy; cloves. The barrel tannins are extra metallic the longer you let it linger. For $42 or whatever it was, this is a very good value. It definitely benefits from dilution,and even a half-pour will get you where you need to be on a stressful Bourbon call.

Pours a deep honey color with stout sticky legs. The sherried barrels in the aroma are redolent of port wine barrels; that sherried wood pops, and takes on an almost cherry cough syrup component; red licorice rope. There is a second wave in the nose--if you're patient enough to not chug it all--of broccoli, peppery wood spice and cloves. On the lips, I immediately get spicy ribbon candy. Then an initial flavor or coffee cream and buttered popcorn. Then comes sugar plums, lemon zest (or Lemon Pledge, if you prefer) and caramel/toffee. The finish is deep and rich: dark chocolate,black licorice/star anise, tanned leather, sherried wood, plums, dates and raisins. The long linger leaves tobacco, astringent stainless steel, and puckery barrel tannins. I feel like I get something new every time I have a dram of this beauty. It's a very complex, rounded, dark fruit-forward Scotch whose dozen years in the barrel is time well spent.

Pale honey color. Leaves a thick collar around the glass. The nose at first is metallic: astringent, a jar of nickels. Once you get past that, it's buttery shortbread. A bit of milky coffee creamer. A touch of butterscotch. Not terribly complex. The taste is more of that stainless steel metallic stuff, and another hit of milk. Some vanilla creme. Red apple skins and a little citrus. The finish lingers as very metallic. The silvery metal flavor is it's most defining characteristic. A little barrel tannin pucker. Mild toffee. It's not a bad whiskey, especially for price, but there's just not much to it. If you need a mixing whiskey this one will work. It's not exceptional on its own.

A very pale honey color; appears oily on the inside of the glass when you take it for a walk. Nose is sulphurics at first: vegetal, like broccoli water. Then it eases into something akin to freshly-made applesauce with the skins still in it. Buttery cream and vanilla. Just a hint of lemon drop at the end. The taste is a combination of that buttery cream and vanilla frosting, followed up quickly by bitter,  citric lemon. The lemon adds a double-whammy work the barrel tannins, which add a not-insignificant pucker. A surprising amount of heat goes the distance at only 86-proof. A lot of clove when you give it a chew. When you add an ice cube, the vanilla blooms and blunts all the harsher stuff. The citric bite remains, but the tannins soften. Recommended. The finish is metallic, like sticking your tongue to a metal flag pole. ('Tis the season.) A good amount of dark chocolate and coffee grounds follow. There is a mild barrel char that resonates as a kind of plum/date character. Sawdust at the very tail end. I'd have to say the Tyrconnell is slightly overpriced at $40, but it's very solid and quite pleasant.

A pale gold color, with long and spindly legs. The nose is a smoky peat right off the bat; tobacco smoke and the ash it leaves behind. The smoke is easy and pleasant like a campfire from a distance. The second wave is spicy cinnamon and a prickly clove; earthy brown leaves. A hint of bar soap? That flavor is unadulterated, briny sea salt, followed by charred wood ash. The peat is hitting right in the sweet spot. Reminds me of a fine cigar. As you let it sit a bit, there is baby oil and a resinous woodiness. The following flavor is mint/menthol. There is a good deal of barley there, but you have to chew on it a bit to get there. Bitter or semi-sweet chocolate. The finish is tobacco ash, like dried out charcoal the morning after a barbecue. And that smoke lingers for a long time. Black pepper. The tannins and metallics bring up the rear. When I first had this, I thought it was a little flat and lifeless, so I'm glad I spent some more time with it to appreciate its complexities.

A light orange honey color. Surprisingly leggy. For years I had assumed Chivas was a tequila, because Chivas sounds more like a Latin American name than a Scotsman's. The nose is prickly white pepper, butterscotch and perfume that must come from the barrel. Vanilla fruit, dried. Fragrant garden flowers. Honey-covered candied apples. Candied orange wedge, like the kind you'd get out of the bulk foods section. The flavor is stewed apple, vanilla and honey. Some ripe melon at the front. The butterscotch comes out with a little chew. The sherry in the barrels hit the back of the palate and add some depth. The perfume of flowers (jasmine?) burst out. An herbal spiciness, akin to cinnamon that was stepped on, to use street parlance. The finish is mild tobacco and musty basement sawdust. It's got a pleasant, almond component. This blends nicely with some vanilla creme. Honeydew melon and kiwi. There is some barrel residue in the finish that reminds me of a mild brandy. Semi-sweet chocolate. A lingering spice burn lasts a long time. Chivas 12 is not a complex Scotch, but it's almost preternaturally pleasant. At the right price it's a great go-to.

Copper colored. The first deep sniff is uncommon citrus for this style: I get a ton of lime peel, orange zest, cherry and bitters. The citrus isn't just the normal spicy potpourri stuff, but some legit lime stuff. I'm then getting some mild oak char, as well as some brown sugar. The flavor is more of that orange peel and bitters. There is more of that lime, as well as some coconut, although I might just be think of the Harry Nilsson song. Vanilla; dark chocolate. It's both bitter and tart, and the creaminess of the coconut plus the tartness gives it a lemon meringue quality. A stolen kiss of perfume remains on the lips for a while. It actually plumps up the gums and the insides of the lips like a novocaine shot. At the tail end you do get some barrel char, and dried out tobacco ash and tea leaves. But strangely you don't lose the lime or the coconut-vanilla. The barrel tannins dovetail nicely with the bitterly tart citrus. The chocolate orange and ribbon candy lingers like "babysick" as the Scots might call it. This is the kind of bourbon that was made to be in an old fashioned or on the rocks. It's got a real pungent, bitter cherry and orange character in the finish that blooms when it's diluted and allowed to breathe.

A rich caramel orange-brown color. If you take it for a walk around the edges or the glass, it leaves a lacing of sticky drops around the upper third. The first sniff is deep finished wood, like a paint thinner or lacquer. The barrel spice is dominant. Gasoline/fusel and broccoli-like sulphurics. If you pull back an inch, you'll find peanut dust. There is a yeast-heavy, sourdough-like component that I guess comes from the wheat. Then you drop a little water in there, I get a little rubber, like a pencil eraser. The dry yeast stuff (wheat?) takes over when the gasoline heat is diluted. The taste is nutty first: almond, walnut. Brown sugar and some earthy, leafy business. The sweetness comes right after, like a soaked cherry. The barrel tannins leave a bitter little pucker. When you add water, sawdust and pencil shavings emerge. When you drop an ice cube into it -- which frankly I would recommend -- you get a kaleidoscope of cherry, orange peel, potpourri, lemongrass, coriander, etc The finish is oaky, with a sherry-forward sweetness. An ashy finish at the tail end, like a post-cigarette smolder. Tanned leather. There is an oily texture that manifests in the finish, like baby oil. For $30 this is a very solid bourbon, although I'm not sure I'm entirely on the wheat train yet. I definitely think this benefits from some dilution, specifically a large ice cube, which brings the proof down to a manageable level and let's the flavors bloom.