Tastes

Caramel bomb. Nose shows heavy caramel, with juicy fruit gum and slight strawberry. Taste is predominantly caramel, again. Relatively short finish moving to drying spice. Overall, too much caramel.

This batch (early 2024) is significantly spicier (and less sweet) than the pour I tasted a few months ago. The nose is predominantly toffee and cinnamon, with a hint of leather. Palate shows more toffee, transitioning into red hots and spice. Finish is medium-short, with leather, then quickly moving to pepper and cinnamon on the tip of the tongue.

BT has emphasized approachability with this blend and succeeded. As an intro to bourbon, it is a neat (pun intended) and innocuous pour. The nose is sweet; vanilla with a bit of cherry and perhaps some hay. Palate provides mediu. body, light baking spice and cherry coke flavors. Finish is is fairly short continuation of the spice and cherry coke, quickly fading to a memory of sweetness. Good bourbon 101 (class, not proof) blend that will encourage a rapid graduation to a more sophisticated offering such as Blantons or Eagle Rare.

Batch 12: An orchard on the nose, mainly apples and plums, some nuts, with a bit of grass. The palate gives oak with a background of fruit and faint sweetness, transitioning to pepper. The pepper slowly fades, along with the fruit, for a long finish. This Distillery gets the vatting and solera casking just right. other than perhaps providing some nuttiness on the nose, I don't detect the peat (from one-half of the distillate).

Fruity (orchard fruits), with vanilla wafers and hay on the nose. Palate continues the fruit, sweet with some sherry and white pepper. Finish provides more sherry, a slight bit of smoke, and fades to lingering dry white pepper. Very pleasant dram.

Cherry pie, cinnamon and vanilla on the nose, with faint oak. Taste is sweet vanilla creme, with a rush of cinnamon and then evolving to dry oak and leather. Finish is fading cinnamon and oak. Delicious. I happened to arrive at a State outlet one morning just as the staff was Stocking a case of Eagle Rare. They advised me to buy it then because it would be gone by that afternoon. I didn't need any encouragement.

Nose shows shortbread, with some vanilla and slight grassiness. Palate begins with vanilla custard and moves rapidly to cinnamon with a hint of peppermint. Finish is continued cinnamon with undertones of dry oak. Overall, the components do not provide an integrated whole. Needs more aging.

Nose is not particularly strong, with iodine and slight oaky character. Palate begins with an echo of the iodine with a strong honey/brown sugar surge, flowing into a dark spice. Finish is medium length, with spice fading to oak. Not an unpleasant dram at all, but not one that grabs me and demands another glass.

Limestone Branch brand, but the label tells me it was distilled and aged in Indiana. Nose is grassy, with some ill-defined spice. Palate begins with grass, but quickly turns to pepper with lots of heat. Finish is consistent with the taste; pepper and heat that slowly fades leaving heat at the back of the pallette. I agree with others that this is too high an ABV and too young.

Given the high reviews the 291 product line has received, I really was looking forward to enjoying this bottle. Unfortunately, the Aspen wood was too much. It has a nose of maple syrup with a slightly woody background. On the palate, the Aspen comes through strongly, overwhelming anything else except a faint molasses taste. The funish is Aspen all the way. I get the impression there is a very good bourbon underneath the Aspen, but it cannot push through the dominance of the finishing staves.