Tastes

Mahogany color with legs that stick to the glass like a spider web. The nose is dry peanut and sawdust, followed by heavily lacquered wood; sherry-barrel and soaked cherry. The richness of the cask adds prune, plum, and pungent stone fruit character. Toasted marshmallow. Prickly winter spiced too, like the label says. A white plastic paint bucket (without the paint). The taste is dominant sherried barrels infused into every particle. More of that prune and spicy sugarplum. Lots of what seems like barley sugars and dry yeast character. A little chew brings out the nutty character, without losing its bite. The feel is gritty sandpaper; it prickles like a carbonated spirit, though I think that might just be the yeasts. The initial burn is a little jarring, but subsides as the palate is coated a bit. The fusel/gas flavors, however, do not abate; burnt matches. The finish is mild tobacco, peanut, plum, toasted coconut. Ashy feel and flavor on the finish. As it lingers, that barrel spice and sherry just lay out like a carpet on the palate. Cherry juice. This is a superior Bourbon: it's very rich, and it uses it's strong flavor profile to blunt any burn there may have been.

Auburn colored. The nose is at first apple skins and candied apples. Second wave of black licorice, a tawny character redolent of soy sauce. Vanilla cake frosting. Banana creme. A feint amount of wood spice and sawdust, and more than a little corn syrup. The flavor is metallic like a jar of pennies. A strong burn on the way down. Brown sugar and toffee. Bitter, gritty coffee grounds. Chocolate and cinnamon converge with the brown sugar. Has a buttery quality in the feel and at the back of the swallow. The finish is prickly wood spice. Tobacco and coffee grounds. The brown sugar and molasses. The end is just slightly bitter followed by sugary sweetness. Hay. There is a dusty, nutty quality that brings up the rear. Also a lot of cola in the tail end. This is a very good Irish for its price point. I actually think I prefer it to Redbreast.

Deep auburn-orange color, with stubby legs. The nose brings some serious astringent alcohol heat; metallic. If you pull back, that turns into newly-finished wood, when the lacquer is still sticky. Orange peel and Potpourri spice. Corn syrup and brown sugar/molasses. Mild peanut dust. The first sip is very sweet at the front of the palate: sugary toffee, corn and brown sugar. The middle is more dry and nutty. A little chew reveals it's more dusty quality. Adding a little water is recommended here: the nuttiness really bursts out, and it dovetails perfectly with a bloom of oak char and sawdust. Finishes as charred oak and vanilla tobacco ash. Coffee grounds that doesn't quite get filtered out. Flecks of bitter dark chocolate, like a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. The finish is long and lingering; it's dry and dusty long after the glass is empty.

The aroma is barley and heather. There is a minty scene that is like menthol tobacco. There is a briny sea salt that is mild but noticable. There is a sugary caramel, toffee undercurrent that sticks all the other scents together; corn syrup. Some orange zest; Potpourri. Also some vegetal/broccoli sulphurics. The front of the tongue is mint-leaf, then a second wave of sweet honey. There is a deep, dark chocolate that's almost like charcoal. Leaves a burn on the tongue that is like taking a drag off a cigarette. Vanilla creme. The finish is tobacco, with a coolness at the tail end. There is a woody end also: it doesn't seem extremely sherried, but definitely some woody stuff at the end. This Scotch would pair perfectly with a pipe filled with vanilla tobacco. It's by turns cooling and smokily charred.

50 ml sample bottle; honey-colored. The aroma is a dark, burnt cookie bottom. The stout malts manifest themselves as a alternately dry and oily: there is some nutty, toffee nose, and some charcoal; but it also contains an imperial stout richness, that have an oily plum, cherry and raisin. The oiliness has a fusel, gasoline component that is not subtle. It's an off-aroma, like paint-thinner or a black magic marker. The first taste is deep molasses: it's sweet like a buttery toffee cookie, and that burnt cookie malt adds a bitter balance. That said, the brown sugar is dominant, and it just tastes a little processed. The sugars are pungently sweet like a creme brulee. It would pair beautifully with a darker dessert, actually, because the sweetness dominates. The finish is more of that bitter cookie bottom: dark and chalky, but then there is some plum and date, then an ashy tobacco end. I like the idea of this whiskey: the barrel's effects are very noticeable. But that said, I'm not sure it's entirely successful. It's neither fish nor fowl: it's not a satisfying stout experience, and it's not balanced enough to be a satisfying Irish whiskey. A pour is enough, a bottle, for me, is too much.

Beautiful sticky legs, with a sticky feel. Aroma is port wine vibes: plum, prune, raisin; very sugary, like fruitcake. Strong yeast presence. Brown sugar, and stewed apple. There is a lot of grainy barley. Flavor is more yeast and stone fruits: plums, dates, what have you. It's so sugary sweet; reminds me of a grainy barleywine. There is a heathery, herbal flavor. The woods peek out at the end, and they are more sherry barrel than any oak. Cinnamon spice. Finish is dark/semi-sweet chocolate and walnuts, but very smoothed out, with only a trace of bitterness. Cherry and sherried barrel wood. Sour red wine. The smoke only comes out at the end, and it's mild vanilla tobacco. It reminds me a lot of something like Glenfiddich or Tomatin: sherried and full of red-purple flavors.

The nose is a dry, nutty aroma. The conventional wisdom tends to be walnuts. It's followed by nutmeg and hazelnut; still quite dry. Brown sugar sweetness, some maple, but rather bereft of molasses/toffee; drier cereal grains. There is some oak, but any oily character is blunted by the nuttiness of it. Kindergarten paste. There is a whiff of cinnamon/rye spice. The palate is mild wood, with a little peanut dust, walnut and hazelnut. The oak char comes out here, adding a barrel spice that isn't too far from cinnamon. Corn flakes,the kind with sugar...so I guess Frosted Flakes. Plum and prune swoops in at the end. It's leaves an oily, oaky burn on the lips. The burn at the end is a (yes) nutty tobacco. There is a rich, dark chocolate ending. There is some astringent, metallic business at the very end. This is a surprisingly good Bourbon for its price. It's rich and complex, with no off-flavors. It's in the rotation.

One of those small, flask-ish bottles you find behind the register. It's a beautiful maple syrup color (foreshadowing?). The nose is old wood, like a dusty warehouse; sawdust. Elmer's glue, as expected, with corn syrup. The taste is molasses, toffee and sweet syrup. The dust from the bottom of a jar of peanuts. The corn syrup is smooth and unobtrusive. The burn is nearly non-existent, to the point I had to check the proof. A droplet of water brings out the corn stuff. The finish is some sort of corn and maple syrup hybrid. Burnt oak ash on the sides of the tongue. Additional water makes the rye/cinnamon pop. It's no mystery why this is the most popular Tennessee whiskey on earth: it's mild, sweet, drinkable and will mix beautifully with the cola of your choice.

The nose on this is maybe unlike anything I've had at this stage: a mosaic of bing cherry, spicy cloves, brown leaves, sugary syrup, prickly ribbon candy. The sugars -- mostly chocolate covered cherries -- are just off the charts. It's borderline Cognac, or a tart, sour cherry liqueur. The cherry is really the dominant factor in the sniff, it rides that 94-proof deeper than the COVID test goes. Taste is more of that sour cherry. The prickly nature manifests like ribbon candy, black licorice, cloves, and potpourri. Also some lemongrass, mint, and herbal character. Some prickly oak dries out the syrupy stuff. Molasses/toffee at the swallow. The finish is borderline cherry liqueur. I am not sure what kind of barrels this is aged on, but it adds a deep, woody character to match the cherry; mahogany lingers. With the overwhelming amount of barrel tannins, I'm guessing sherried? It's got a sweet, puckery finale, with more of that cherry liqueur. This is a dessert digestif if I've ever had one, an apt pairing with a chocolate lava cake or something that could match it's overwhelming richness.

Nose is molasses, toffee, mahogany wood. Leafy forest floor. Touch of cinnamon spice. The burn is, and I can't stress this enough, SIGNIFICANT. Flavor is cinnamon; charred wood. The burn is a dark tobacco ash that approximates charcoal. The finish is ash, and almost a chili pepper smoke. It's absolutely tremendous but it's a beast. UPDATE 11/16/2020: Leggy with a mahogany-brown color. The aroma is milder than expected for 115-proof: molasses, toffee, honey. Mild finished mahogany. Brown leaves and an unraked forest. Rye/cinnamon spices; it comes off a little like a mild curry. I highly recommend letting it sit in the glass for about 10 minutes to let the really heavy fumes waft their way out. With a few droplets, the sugary aromas bloom and the heat drops in the nose significantly. The cherry juice also busts out. The burn hits you in the first sip, in a big way. The first sip burns the tip of the tongue, behind your bottom teeth, and on the way down, where the very first sip reminded me of bright orange cough syrup. The second sip is dry finished wood with the sawdust still on it. This is nearly impossible to maintain straight, so adding a little water is a must here. Even with a few drops, the burn is no joke. It's a physical alcoholic burn, not so much a spicy one. These flavors are much more pleasant diluted with a few drops from the Brita. The finish is straight up tobacco ash, with a spicy cinnamon and almost chili-pepper flake burn. This thing is a beast: it is chock full of flavor but it's quite challenging. It's really no wonder they banned alcohol in the '20s.