Tastes

Given that they're contractually forbidden from saying anything, most of the fun here is in trying to place the source of this juice. My own personal guess is "all over the place," as I get flavours I associate with Barton, Old Forester, Beam, and Heaven Hill. The whiskey itself is decent, but low ABV and unremarkable for the asking price. Flavours are custard, banana, light charred corn, vague vegetable mustiness, light rye, orange peel, cherry coke, mint, and clove. Taste is alternating sweet and dry, tending after the sip toward an interesting herbal, dry, menthol/eucalyptus quality.

Distiller's notes are dead on here: this is one of the best Canadian whiskies out there (and at a beautiful price, though it's been gradually climbing as the manufacturer has come to realize its value). Forget what you know about Canadian whisky before trying this one. Any family resemblance is incidental. Flavours befitting of a 100% rye: sweet rye, floral rye, spicy rye. Like a bakery at Christmas. Clove, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. Especially cinnamon. Brown sugar, raisins. Fresh pears. Hay, grass. Dill pickle. Light vanilla-butterscotch ice cream. Taste is peppery, full of Christmas spice, light oak, fresh rye bread. Fresh and preserved fruits. A borderline transcendent whisky for me; probably the whisky that made whisky as a category just downright "click" for me.

I am not a huge fan of the Jim Beam flavour (something about that peanut buttery yeast flavour throws me off, and it pervades so many of their products), but Booker's is as good as that flavour profile gets. And it's impressive that there's such a reasonably priced, widely available true barrel proof bourbon available on the shelves year round. This'll put hair on your chest, but the accompanying richness of flavour is worth it: huge cinnamon and baking spice, vanilla, red fruits and orchard fruits, maple syrup, a kind of meaty, bacon-y note (pork fat?), tobacco, cake batter, bitter orange. Damn beautiful whiskey, especially as the bottle sits open and some of the high-proof intensity fades a bit.

There is no bourbon/Tennessee whiskey on this green earth that so acutely serves as a reminder that bourbon/Tennessee whiskey is made from corn. This stuff is just distnct corn flavour throughout. Cornmeal, corn-husk, corn flour, creamed corn. There's also some sugar maple, vanilla, pencil shavings, barrel char, and light banana. But your tolerance for this one will depend on how okay you are with drinking alcoholic corn juice.

It's a divisive whisky. The hoi polloi love it (my mom refers to it as "the good stuff") and the whisky snobs deem it absolute garbage. The truth probably lies somewhere between. It's not what I'd consider a great whisky, but it's far from the worst. It aims for what I'd call a kind of "bourbon-lite" taste profile--a lot of bourbon-y notes of vanilla and wood without the aggressiveness of a lot of American whiskeys--something palatable for a mainstream audience. And it achieves that, but in leaving out that intensity, it also makes a lot of enemies. Flavours of big vanilla, butterscotch, maple syrup. Gravel or pebbles. Varnish? Ever-so-slight dusty rye and baking spices. Citrus pith. Some bitter woodiness. Would never seek it out, but you can bet your ass I'd never turn it down, either.

It's not *bad*, but "muted" is defintely an accurate description. Maybe even an overly generous one. This noses and tastes like it was pulled from some absolutely tired-ass casks. The fact that it spent 18 years in said casks compensates somewhat, but at the price and prestige you're paying for, that's still pretty unacceptable. Flavours are floral, heather, lavender, berries, honey. Light leather and tobacco. Grass? Faint fake popcorn butter. Surprisingly hot and spicy in the mouth for such an old spirit. Sherried, minty, slightly salty. Bittersweet.

Kind of the sweeter, softer side of Wild Turkey. The WT profile is there (deli brining spices), but they're a bit more muted under waves of mint, caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, chocolate, peanut butter, and maple syrup. Slightly fruity, even, on the taste (raspberry? something vinous?). It's a quality whiskey, but it's hindered by the low-ish ABV. For the price, I think Wild Turkey Rare Breed or even Wild Turkey 101 are the smarter purchases.

I'm not personally crazy about the Wild Turkey flavour profile in general (something about it has always left me vaguely unsatisfied), but the quality/craftsmanship is always there. And WT deserves all the credit in the world for putting out a barrel-strength whiskey of such consistent quality for such a solid price (I can grab a bottle in Canada for $45. The next closest barrel strength bourbon available is $65 or $70). Flavours are vanilla and brown sugar wrapped in leather and tobacco leaves. Orange peel, toasted oak, nuts. Wine gums? Body is oddly thin for such a high ABV. Lots of rye spice and brining spice (I often think of a good deli when I think of Wild Turkey--caraway, dill, clove, something slightly meaty and smokey).

Another one that--based on the $13 pricetag--is so much better than you'd expect it to be. Again, not setting the world on fire, but enough flavour and enough interesting stuff going on to make it a decent purcahse. Big caramel-custard flavours (that I get in a lot of Barton whiskeys), boozy, Werther's candy, milky, slate/stone/limestone?, candied vanilla, corn husk. More spice on the taste than the nose--big cinnamon, clove, ginger. Chocolate, bitter orange. Not bad.