Tastes

I've heard mixed reviews about earlier batches, but batch #3 (66.05% ABV/132.1 proof) is simply outstanding bourbon. Takes the Buffalo Trace flavour profile and just takes it to its limit: cherry, apple, sour cherry liqueur, cherry pie, apple crumble, charcoal, caramel, wood smoke. French vanilla, peanut butter, raisins, molasses. Milk chocolate. It's barrel proof and it's hot, but it's surprising how even just a teaspoon of water renders it genuinely drinkable, with a creamy, silky texture. Cherry cola and plums. Cinnamon, Werther's candies. Fruit Gushers. The finish goes on for a long, long time.

A great whiskey, but one about which we need to have a serious talk--because while it's fantastic stuff, it's also a) not *that* much better than the more readily available Weller Special Reserve and Old Weller Antique (or even non-wheated Buffalo Trace bourbons, like the standard Buffalo Trace), and b) as good as it is, it's also not worth any of the price gouging, the hoarding, and the endless whiskey hunts. Flavours of cherry, apple, gingerbread, Christmas cookie. Cinnamon, pear. Tropical fruit, vanilla, hints of chocolate. Sponge cake and gold medal ribbon ice cream. Some peach and kiwi on the taste. Light mouthfeel. Not an over-the-top, overoaked twelve years spent aging. A bit of hazelnut flavour. There is a hint of that twangy metallic off-note I'm increasingly finding in Buffalo Trace bourbons, though. At the end of the day, it's great stuff, but absolutely not worth totally losing your mind over.

Particularly for the price (sub-$30 in Canada), Dark Horse is a pretty fabulous whisky. A lot of people take shots at Canadian whisky for the law that it can contain up to 1/11th additive, but the Dark Horse actually brilliantly uses that law to its advantage, mixing in a small amount of sherry and some bourbon (rumoured to be pulled from the stocks that would go into Old Grand Dad/Basil Hayden's). Flavours of oak, vanilla. Toffee, caramel, and a very bourbon-y kind of vanilla. Fairly big rye spice, some herbal character, charcoal, berries, brown sugar. Raisins, sourdough bread. Peppery rye spice on the taste; sweetness with a spicy twang. Licorice. Faint wood smoke. Supposedly Beam-Suntory is going to begin distributing this in the US under a slightly different name, and frankly that's a pretty smart business decision. It's tasty stuff.

[This review is of the 10-year-old age stated Canadian version.] While Pike Creek is head and shoulders above the typical Canadian whisky, here's the problem: Canadian whisky as a style is already quite sweet, and port finishing tends to add sweetness, so what you've got here is sweet upon sweet with not enough rye character to really bring it back from the edge. Flavour is a cross between a typical Canadian and a port- or sherry-finished Scotch: vanilla, oak, holiday spice, a bit of rye and dill, some breadiness. Berries. Nuttiness, dark fruits and brown sugar. Not bad, but Alberta Premium Dark Horse pulls off the "wine-finished Canadian whisky" trick a lot better, and both Lot 40 and Wiser's Legacy are better exemplars than Pike Creek of the so-called "new breed" of Canadian whisky.

Whisky critics like to talk this one up because they know it's also the source for a lot of great American ryes like Whistlepig and Jefferson's and Lock, Stock, and Barrel. But the truth is that Alberta Premium is a fairly typical not-quite-bottom-shelf Canadian whisky. And that the method by which most Canadian whisky is made means that it doesn't actually *matter* that this stuff is 100% rye, because a good percentage of the finished product is distilled to such a high proof that the constituent grain isn't recognizable, anyway. Flavours of vanilla, toffee, maple syrup (lots of maple syrup), distant grass, light fruit. A touch of oak. Some distant rye spice. Young and simple. Alberta Distillers is capable of making great whisky, but it doesn't really end up in ths bottom-shelf blend.

For $18 or $19 Canadian (which it is, ever so occasionally, on sale for in Alberta, Canada), it's a steal. But in no sense would I classify it a *great* whisky. It's made by Alberta Distillers, which means there's that family link to Whistlepig or Jefferson's Rye or Lock, Stock, and Barrel. But it's worth pointing out that those companies are sourcing the really cherry barrels of flavouring whisky from Alberta Distillers (which in part explains the price of those brands), whereas something like Alberta Springs is, typically of all Canadian whiskies, a mix of flavouring whisky and "base" whisky (the latter being distilled to a higher proof so that the flavour of the grain is removed and the barrel flavours can take over). Still, for what it is, it's hard to complain. Flavours of dusty rye, rye bread, menthol, caramel, vanilla, butterscotch, herbal, cinnamon, black licorice, green apple. Pickle juice. Sweet. Terry's chocolate orange. Wood sap and baking spices.

A whisky that I go back and forth on. There's no off notes, and nothing I find unpleasant, some really interesting flavours. . . . And yet I'm not really sold on this stuff. Flavours of citrus and the sea. Big pineapple and tropical punch, and a huge amount of sea salt, seaweed, and brine. Honey, heather. Cashews. Apples and pears. Just a touch of vanilla and caramel. Vinous. Taste is very watery and weak. An apt comparison might be eating a fruit platter as an ocean wave crashes over you. If nothing else, this stuff is certainly crying out for a higher ABV.

Without offering my own formal notes, it's worth pointing out that Distiller's tasting notes are way off the mark here: as another user below points out, Benchmark isn't only a) made from Buffalo Trace's #1, low-rye mashbill, b) BT's #1 low-rye mashbill is one of the lowest rye content mashbills used by any bourbon maker, anywhere. Distiller's notes here would make a lot more sense for Ancient Age, which comes from the higher-rye BT #2 mashbill.

A good whisky that I think is hurt by a couple factors beyond its control: one, that it's just another of a number of heavily sherried whiskies widely available at this age and price range (Aberlour, GlenDronach, Glenfarclas, etc., etc.,), and two, that it's outhustled by its cheaper, younger sibling, the Glen Garioch Founders' Reserve (a whisky I find much more singular and much more interesting than the 12, though also very different in terms of its flavour profile). Flavour here is a big wave of floral--heather, lavender, dandelion--over a base of pears in syrup. Spicy. Malty. Red berries. More fresh fruit over time. Vanilla, brown sugar, some earthy notes. Add to that some hints of creme brulee and nuttiness on the taste. Nice stuff, but not something I find myself returning to frequently.