Tastes

It's a good idea to give this one some time after you've first peeled off the plastic and uncorked the bottle: right off the bat, this is fiery and young, but a few weeks of oxidization go a long way. Still certainly not for the faint of heart (if you're a less experienced drinker, you'll want water or an ice cube to make any sense of this), but there's actually a really lovely, elegant spirit hidden beneath the fumes and the flames. Strong smell of lemons and lemon zest, it's herbal and minty, old-school cough drops (camphor?), vanilla, barley sugar, light oak, and white grape/grappa. Taste, sans water, echoes those notes, along with some serious heat--a lot of raw ingredient flavours, slightly syrupy texture. But water actually softens things up while still retaining the core flavours (along with a nice cinnamon hearts-type tingle). It's far from my favourite whisky in my collection, but it's a really nice example of how ingredients come together and what raw, uncut spirit tastes like.

A shockingly young smelling and tasting whiskey, given the 8 year age statement. Earthy, peanut butter, peanut brittle, leather, chalky vanilla. Just a touch of honeycomb, apple, peach. There's some sweetness, but the whole affair is a bit thin, and proceedings are dominated by a green-ish, youthful, corn husk, vegetal sort of character. It's a non distillery product, so who knows where it comes from, but it has some flavours I associate with Beam. It's not heinous; it's just not remotely worthwhile at the price point: tastes too young, raw, washed out, and even a bit faintly sour.

It took awhile for this one to grow on me, but after about a third of the bottle, I get it. This is a unique whiskey--the nearest comparison might be to Canadian whisky, except I generally don't love Canadian whisky and this tastes like what Canadian whisky might taste like if it was any good. Interesting cotton candy flavour, maple syrup, vanilla, butterscotch, peach liqueur. Honey. Fresh, dry wood. Sweet but not over-the-top, and there's something like an almost "funky-cheese" flavour (or maybe an almost mushroom-umami-type note?) that's weird and yet actually nicely rounds off the sweetness that is here.

For a 20 year old bourbon, it's surprisingly NOT an absolutely over-oaked mess. Though, to be clear, it's still quite heavy on the oak. Without looking up the source of this juice, I'm guessing it's the Buffalo Trace distillery, because it's got a bit of that cherry/apple pie flavour I associate with BT/Eagle Rare. A lot of vanilla here, some custard, sawdust, pencil shavings, cherry liqueur. Slight nuttiness, in particular an almost candied nuttiness. A bit of citrus, like a charred orange peel. Quite dry, with a touch of maple syrup. Slightly chalky aftertaste. And surprisingly hot and alcoholic tasting throughout, considering the ABV and the time it was given to mellow in barrels. On the one hand, it's a good-but-not-transcendent bourbon at a fairly high price. On the other hand, you're never going to find another 20 year old bourbon at this price-tag ($99 Canadian) or this easily available. So, ultimately a judgment call: personally, I'm not upset I made the purchase, and I'm glad to have tried a bourbon this old, but what it's ultimately revealed to me is what most distillers in the US have been saying for a long time: the current craze for hyper-aged stuff notwithstanding, bourbon *really* hits its sweet spot between about 8-and-12 years. Anything longer and you're looking at a bit of a gamble.