Tastes

Neat. Day after neck pour. Opened this last night but didn’t have the opportunity to get my thoughts down. I still have quite a few OKI’s left, I’m obsessed with LDI/Seagrams era MGP, and I love New Riff. I am just excited to have this beautiful bottle on my shelf. Talk about glorious oak. Oiled and freshly polished oak. Oaky McOakerson. Oakiest MGP I have ever had. Reminds me so much of WT17 too. Velvety oak. Red velvet cake even. Vanilla royal frosting. Hint of apple but also finding cherry. Charred caramel. A nice dark honey. I’m finally getting past the oak today. Neck pour was just OAK. I am having fun exploring this now. Butterscotch too. The nose has this overall buttery quality. Mouth feel is silky. Lots of honey up front on the tongue with the oak peaking in stalking me. Bright and sweet mostly though. It’s very rich and silky. The oak is omnipresent. Leather, varnish. Rich caramel accompanied by the rye. Apples and cherries again. It’s interesting. For a 15 year bourbon, it plays these high, mid range, and low notes. The WT17 BiB similarities are still there for me with the oak / cherry combination. This is sweeter though. The vanilla and butterscotch on the finish is so good. The red velvet oak is the best part. It appears right after mid palate and escalates up as the other notes are running down. There is a rhythm and song to this one that doesn’t follow a linear path and makes it really interesting to pick apart. All of the instruments aren’t playing the same thing but weaving in and out in a dance. It’s getting better with each sip. Initially disappointed in this one’s first impression (over oaked) but it truly just needs time to open up and the time to be explored. My favorite pours can make my soul dance, this doesn’t quite go there. My soul is certainly tapping it’s foot and feeling the groove though.

Neat. Neck pour. Bourbon Junkies Baking Bread pick. 6 y 2 m. In the nose, Cinnamon toast - sour dough toast. The bottle is called Baking Bread so maybe that is stuck in my head. Powdered sugar. Apricot preserves. Vanilla extract. Lots of rye. There is a hint of fresh grass, but it’s not MGP youngness. It’s the rye I think. Keep getting a nice milk chocolate undertone too. Mouth feel is average. Powdered sugar and vanilla on the tongue initially. Wow, that packs an unexpected punch. The cinnamon sugar and rye spice are so balance and just comes out punching hard. Lots of vanilla. A very nice butterscotch. So sweet. Baking spices and bread notes on the finish. Hint of chocolate and mint linger. Finish stays for a long time, getting a big Kentucky hug. So much butterscotch. Slight nuttiness coming through. This is an intense MGP pour. Mid-palate it just escalates and punches with flavor. It is very delicious but no stand out quality I can hang my hat on. It’s just a really solid pour that turns up the volume half way through. Among the 4 to 6 year MGP bottles I have, this is close to the top.

Neat. Neck pour. Found this unopened in my collection. I bet it’s 10+ years old. It’s a 375 ml, perfectly sealed and stash. This is fruity. Strawberries, apricots, even some lemon - has this acidity to the nose. Hint of toasted walnuts. Lots of vanilla. Light oak. Honestly, this nose is better than I was expecting. It has more character to it. Watery thin texture. Subtle sweetness and grain up front on the tongue. Transitions to vanilla and combination of apricots and apple. Slight hint of oak on the finish. Zero depth here. Little acidic and sour. Geez, the aftertaste reminds me of aftertaste of licking a 9v battery. Not a fan. The nose was nice but the taste is a let down. One of my least favorite single malts I have explored.

Neat. Sample. My experience with Japanese whiskey is slim. Nikka Straight from the Barrel is the only one I own (and gone through a few bottles). Excited to explore this sample. What impresses me about this nose is the immediate depth and balance. Lovely sweet oak, honey comb, apple, maple syrup, caramel, hint of chocolate. Really fun to explore. Like stepping into a local, independent candy makers shop and just being overwhelmed with amazing fragrances. Nice, oily mouth feel. Very sweet immediately. Vanilla, honey and apple. The honey is pretty consistent across the experience. Yeah, it really matches the nose mid palate and into the finish. Caramel, butterscotch, honey, apple with this underlying oak wrapped around it like a blanket. Just quite lovely. Hard to imagine a better dram for this Sunday afternoon as I have a quiet moment taking in some sun staring out the window.

Neat. Sample. Just did a head to head with this and the 2019 GTS this. 2020 won but both were amazing. I have 1 ounce left and I figured I should take some notes. This is my first time with the 2020. What struck me on the nose was the balance between the oak and the cherry. Both are so rich and pronounced. Then there is this fresh baked sour dough bread. Hint of chocolate, powdered sugar, and charred caramel. Really impressive on the nose. Mouthfeel is thick but not quite creamy, the most lack luster aspect. Hint of semi sweet chocolate on the tongue initially. The oak and cherry balance really take over on the taste and dance back and forth. That cherry Buffalo Trace note is here times 10. Slight baking spices, more oak, leather and chocolate on the finish. What really throws me off, threw me off blind, throws me off now. I had this only pegged at 105 proof blind. Now knowing what it is, still hard to believe this is 130 proof. It just sips so easily. Such a good GTS batch. That cherry note is the stand out for me on this one. The oak on the finish is so good too. Simply top tier in every way.

Neat. Neck pour. So happy I got my hands on one of these today. My favorite store comes through yet again. Damn, this nose is special. Oh my. Maple and powdered sugar. Candy cane. Lemon cake. Cinnamon and clove. Blood orange. Royal vanilla icing. I could just sit here and spew random notes over and over. This is a crazy good nose. So thick and viscous. Dark on the tongue, brown sugar and cinnamon and slight citrus. Oh come on. This is so good. Yeah the lemon cake and vanilla icing translate mid palate but oh it’s so much more. The maple syrup and powered sugar translate on the finish too. The blood orange lingers. Cinnamon and clove on the legs. Did Jack Daniels just release the best rye ever???? This is an insane pour. Seriously. My expectations were high and apparently they were too low.

Neat. Neck pour. Party Source pick, 6 to 6.5 years. I’ve passed on these before when I have seen them at 4 to 5 years. But this was barreled in Sept 2014. Hard to resist a 6.5 year store pick for only $35, even if my expectations aren’t high. And my expectations are high, this is a great nose on a Wheated bourbon. An abundance of caramel and vanilla. Lots of pepper, clove and cinnamon. Even some chocolate. The vanilla is a royal vanilla frosting. Gosh, there is also some nice strawberries. What the hell! Creamy mouthfeel, equal parts sweet and peppery on the tongue. Vanilla frosting is really coming through but it is peppery and spicy as well. There is so much flavor in this. It comes in waves and it hits unexpectedly. Mid palate I was disappointed at first. Slight caramel, fresh bread, cinnamon but muted. Just as the disappointment settled in, boom, flavors all over the finish and there are a few waves too. Chocolate transitions to cinnamon transitions to caramel and leaves with the strawberries. Ridiculous value. $35? How? This is the best value buy I have made in a long long time. I think this could beat Boone County 6 year Wheated and those cost close to $100. Can’t wait to start throwing this into wheater blind flights. It will surprise some people.

Neat. Neck pour. So excited. Discovery 3 is amazing and people are saying this is better. Discovery 3 had MGP though and this is all Kentucky bourbon. It is really going to need to be lights out to beat Discovery 3 in my book. The nose is pretty incredible on first impression. Very dark. Chocolate and coffee were the first two notes to hop in mind. Really rich caramel. A medley of fruits - apples, blue berries. It’s getting lighter the longer I sit with it. Lots of spices. Cinnamon, clove, brown sugar. It’s good but a bit muddied, like it doesn’t all fit together. Nice, creamy mouthfeel. Very sweet, vanilla forward on the toward. Powdered sugar too. Transitions to this absolutely fabulous chocolate and caramel combo. Nougat. My god, this is a liquid Snickers now that I am getting a hint of peanuts. Oh my, it’s unrelenting on the finish too. There isn’t a varied journey with this one, the flavors that hit mid palate just never cease. The oak is really coming through now on the finish. Liquid candy. I do miss the MGP, but this is a strong whiskey. I just did a quick comparison and Discovery 3 has the better nose, but Discovery 4 is just more delicious. They both make me happy dance and that is all that matters.

Neat. Neck pour. Dep’s LP2 Medium Toast. I have really been enjoying these Down Home Toasted Finish products. The bourbon was decent, batch 1 was maybe just too young and the toasted barrel rounded it off. The ryes have been amazing. Then I found this. I have heard these are around 4.5 years old. On the nose, it reminds me a lot of the toasted barrel bourbon. There is a decent amount of grain coming off the glass, slight bubble gum. Tons of butterscotch. Toffee too. There is a hint of charred marshmallow but just a hint. Also getting burnt toast flakes, like the build up of flakes at the bottom of the toaster. Butterscotch really dominates, it’s a candy nose. The toasted barrel finish isn’t presenting itself as much here as it did on the Rye. Perfect creamy mouthfeel. Love that. Butterscotch again, on the tongue immediately. Like pouring butterscotch syrup straight on the tongue. The char is heavy too on the tongue. Transitions to more butterscotch and some really good marshmallow cream. Like fluff. Butterscotch and pepper on the finish. Starting to get some Grannysmith apples throughout, sweet and sour. It keeps morphing and the candy is subsiding a bit and giving way to a grain. First impression is that it is too young and the toasted barrel finish didn’t mask it or overcome it. The butterscotch note is a really strong one when it hits, but it’s a bit too expensive for just a one note, youngish product. I am hoping Down Home gets their hands on older stock some day. I want to try this stuff toasted at 7-9 years. Thus far, if you see this series and can only buy one - get the Rye. The Ryes are incredible. This is just okay.

Neat. Neck pour. Gallenstein pick. 105.8 proof. Curious about these for $90 when the annual cask strength cost $200. The proof is a little lower I suppose, but that isn’t worth an extra $110. I’ll compare to the 2018 cask strength at the end of this. The nose is very subtle. A light peanut is the first thing grabbing me, but then there is a confectionary sweetness surrounded by berries. Blueberries even. Little caramel with those peanuts like a peanut brittle. The nose is pleasant but takes too much digging for little value. Mouth feel is very syrupy. That port is really coming out front, very sweet. There is more flavor to this than I was expecting. Mainly those peanut brittle notes for me, there is a brine to it to which really rounds out that specific flavor. Then the port influence comes back at the end and lingers a decent amount. Comparing to the 2018 Cask Strength. Geez, very similar on the nose. The 2018 is better. Stronger flavors, more port influence. Sweetness is more pronounced. They are very similar though. So it is good, but overpriced for what it is. It doesn’t have a stand out feature or note, it is just good all around. The cask strength is a step up but no where worth double+ the price. This existing for $90 makes it too hard to justify the cask strength at $200+.