Tastes
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Plantation Fiji 2009 (2019 Release)
Aged Rum — Fiji
Reviewed June 28, 2020 (edited September 3, 2021)This is quite spicy. There's a lot of bitterness and firework hogo. It's a bit meaty too. The palate has an huge richness to it and the flavor is very full. It can be a bit oppressive, but pay it more attention and the flavors develop more. Vanilla and butterscotch come out with some odd hints of Cheetos and some grainy (wheat and rye) notes. There might be a hint of corn (or banana?), but it is minimal. The spices taste a tad like Christmas but clove is the most prominent by far. There are some suggestions of fruit but they are minimal. Alcohol can be spotted, but it is largely overwhelmed. The fireworks are really strong and although I do enjoy the complexity that is somewhat present, the balance is off. This is in the 15 to 16 range.55.0 USD per Bottle -
Plantation XO 20th Anniversary Rum
Aged Rum — Barbados
Reviewed June 28, 2020 (edited August 25, 2022)It has a sweet, caramel flavor that shows off a little wood but not enough for it to taste as old as it supposedly is. It has less wood than Ron Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva. There are some varied flavors going on here. There is a little tartness in the background. The flavor is largely balanced and there is some complexity, but it is very sweet. Sweet with some mild allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Wood from the barrel is present and so is caramel (maybe a hint of browned butter is there to suggest toffee). The flavor is fairly sweet but it is also balanced. The nose picks up a mild burnt flavor from the barrel that is reflected in the palate in a seamless manner. There is no alcohol flavor here. There might be a hint of banana, but it is minor. I really appreciate the balance. This is a great example of rum for those who can handle sweet liquor. It lacks the rich toffee notes of Ron Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, making it less enjouyable in my book. Ron Diplomatico might get a little Aggressive with the wood and smoke, imparting a biting and lingering bitter flavor, but that also provides some contrast. The mix of flavors is perhaps more subtle than in Ron Diplomatico, but it is also less robust and mouth-watering, and the subtlety can easily be lost. It's a very good example of standard rum, but it doesn't have that delightful, aged richness. If Ron Diplomatico is a bourbon, this is a sweet rye. There are a lot of successful mild flavors going on here, but they are easily overwhelmed, much like in an American Single Malt. There is a surprising smokey flavor on the finish, which does a lot to lift this up from the generic rabble of lightly aged rums. Not quite as good as Delord Bas Armagnac 1981, but surprisingly close in quality. It's sweet with caramel and banana hogo (fireworks). It's not amazingly robust or complex but it's a pretty nice drink. Certainly, it's can't be objected to as a mixer. It smells woody and caramel.with sweet butterscotchy notes and maybe a lite banana. The palate has a nice balance of Christmas baking spices that have a bit of a white pepper and clove kick to them. The hogo is there, but it blends well. The tropical fruits and banana do come out, but they aren't obtrusive. It tastes a bit like cola in a way that reminds me of the Plantation Trinidad 2003. This is a very nice drink that is easy to sip even though it is a bit sweet and immature tasting. I would happily sip this. The balance is very good. There are some nice flavors in here that are distinct from each other, bit it's on the sweet and mild side. Fireworks, butterscotch, some toffee, tropical fruits, some baking spices. It's a bit too sweet and weak, but it's quite good. It's sweet with lots of brown sugar and some caramel and also some delightful baking spices, including a lot of cinnamon without much harshness. There's some nice tropical fruits, with banana being the most prominent, but a bit of mango also being present. It isn't super woody, but it is fairly rich. The mouthfeel is moderate or a bit less. There's a tad of prickliness like the faintest Sichuan peppercorn, but it's super super subtle. There's some sweet and rich coconut too. It's very good, but it lacks the richness and punch that I really want and it's a bit too sweet and weak. It's oddly delicate. It's a very good Barbados rum, but Barbados is kind of a flat type of rum.35.0 USD per Bottle -
Surprisingly rich for such a cheap drink. There are chocolate and peanut brittle taking cemetery stage. It's sweet, but also has some rye spice and tartness to it. More of the rye comes through than I'd like and I wish there were less cinnamon, but it's still a good, rich drink. There isn't a ton of complexity, but it has such nice, balanced richness for a rye. The smoke that makes its way in is nice and not overpowering, but it gives the drink body. It has some cherry richness and sweetness that make it really nice. There is unfortunately a little leather hanging out here, but tlit isn't too bad. This is a surprisingly good sipper and comes at a great price.42.0 USD per Bottle
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Pierre Ferrand Original Formula 1840 Cognac
Cognac — Grand Champagne, France
Reviewed June 28, 2020 (edited April 15, 2021)Wow, this looks orange and smells bitter and meaty with some strong tequila notes. The palate is bitter and very orange with some hits of orange peel but also just generically off-putting. The fruit and floral (orange blossom) elements are absolutely there and help the flavor, but it tastes disgustingly sweet. The rich meat tastes a little rotten. It's gross and out of place at the very least. The flavors are discordant. Some alcohol does come through. That gross meat gives way to some medicinal bitterness and a hint of mint at points. It's gross, bit more explainable in that way. This finally becomes a kind of interesting drink with a hello flavor and texture to it somehow. It grows on me as it goes on, but I never love it. It's hard to figure out what it's good for. It has a bit of a scotch seaside element to it, bit mostly in a confusing way, kind of like how some brandies taste like rum. It's just not good. It's far to discordant and it has too much of an alcohol flavor to it. I find this difficult to sip at the best of times. There is a lot wrong here.30.0 USD per Bottle -
This stuff is cheap and a tad watery, but there is no nasty cherry flavor in it. It is a bit one-note, but that note is actually quite good, having a rich toffee flavor and is impressively smooth. There's a some red fruit to balance it out, but that influence is minimal and mainly makes it a bit richer. The finish is a little oily and vegetal, but in a good way. It's excellent for cooking, though if probably choose something less bland for drinking. It's smooth to the point that it tastes like water and it has a strong dose of vanilla, giving it a bourbon vibe. I kind of like it, but I sure don't love it. There is a measure of salty icing sugar, but if you sip it on its own it is thoroughly decent. There is just enough fruit for this to pass as a brandy, but there is also enough vanilla to make it kind of confusing. I wish that there were more flavor here so that it did not taste so much like water, but the fruitiness and vanilla on the finish are quite nice and most of the flavors are quite good. The nose has some orange fruits with a bit of white grape. It smells sweet, but tamed. The palate is sweet and not overly strong with some nice sweet marmalade flavor. There's also something a bit off like metal, but it isn't too bad. There's some vanilla and a bit of floral character, but also some icing sugar. It's excellent for cooking and should be fine for mixing, but I do want more from it for sipping. There's a bit of caramel, but it's light. It has a little bit of spice and harshness, but it isn't too much. This certainly doesn't taste like a VSOP - it's more like a VS. The nose needs some work and the palate is on the light and generic side. There's a bit much mineral. Still, it isn't that bad and I could imagine sipping it if the situation called for doing so. It tastes like a Cognac that is more on the orange side with some cherry presence. The burn is pretty substantial for 40% ABV, but it's manageable. A bigger sip does reveal some more off flavors though, so this isn't swill, but the mineral and metal flavors keep it from being excellent. This is pretty tough to drink, but it's definitely usable for cooking. There's a lot of powdered sugar in here and not a lot of other flavors, so it's definitely worse than Kahlua. The orange flavor tastes fake and it's just so sweet and off that it's really hard to drink. Ick.10.0 USD per Bottle
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Pendleton Directors' Reserve 20 Year
Canadian — (bottled in) Oregon, USA
Reviewed June 28, 2020 (edited August 4, 2022)It's quite mellow with some cinnamon, maple, vanilla, nuts, and oil. Higher ABV would be nice. It has a fairly creamy mouthfeel that I enjoy. It's a solid sipper, but nothing too complex or exciting is here. There's a bit of tartness and a dissatisfying bitter-tart herbal flavor grows as I drink more of it. It definitely has that unique Pendleton taste, for good or ill.115.0 USD per Bottle -
Surprisingly nutty. The nuttiness is interesting, but is out of place for a rye whiskey and overpowers the sour rye flavor. The rich oiliness could be fun on occasion, but is not fitting for a rye whiskey. Really, this tastes a lot more like a wheat whiskey. I appreciate the fullness and at the end of the day I have to appreciate it for what it is, regardless of what it claims to be. It wouldn't be my first choice to sip, but I would sip it. The dominant flavors are charred wood, butterscotch, tart rye, rancid oily nuttiness, and some vanilla. There is quite a bit of depth and some variation over the life of the drink, but there are some bad flavors of strong alcohol and oil here, as well as some weirdly out of place corn. It's like a bourbon mixed with a rye, but it also tastes like Cruzan Aged Rum. Definitely weird and more interesting than good.20.0 USD per Bottle
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Peerless Kentucky Straight Rye (24 Months)
Rye — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed June 28, 2020 (edited July 28, 2021)The nose is rich with a hefty dose of wood and some surprising umami. It doesn't smell like fruit or anything else sweet. The umami holds a bit of boiled beef and wet (though not moldy) cardboard. It smells big and bold, though not entirely appealing. The palate tastes lighter and younger than expected. There are some nice rich, bitter flavors here, but they can't hide the youth. There's some bittersweet cocoa that's really nice and pervasive, but there's also some cardboard that borders on being that Garrison Brothers sawdust due to the included brown sugar. I like the greater complexity in here than in Garrison Brothers, but it's still fairly harsh and discordant. It's much sweeter than the nose suggests, but with a youth and corn flavor. It's an especially good youthful whiskey, but it's still youthful. It's not as good as Sazerac, though it is complex without having any awful flavors. I'd certainly take this over Minor Case Sherry Cask. Brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, licorice, some herbal notes. It's also numbing with a fair amount of soft tannins. There's a fair bit of smoke, but no leather. The more I drink it, the more I enjoy it. There might be a hint of some fruit, but there isn't much. The sweet caramel flavor is more like slightly burnt caramel than butterscotch or toffee. Or maybe it's dark toffee. It's good. I'd be pretty happy drinking this. It's interesting and I'd put it fairly close to Booker's due to its higher complexity. Garrison Brothers should have been at least this. Still, it's young and harsh. I feel like the variance is high here, but I'll give it a 17 for now. I feel like it's at least a 14 or 15, bit it's hard to see it being higher than a 19 or 20.96.0 USD per Bottle -
The nose has pear, cherry, spice, and maybe a little orange. It's nice but mellow. The palate has this awful, cloying caramel flavor. It just pervades. There's some odd mushroom too. It reminds me a bit of Corralejo Reposado, but more cloying. Actually, the two are quite similar, but the viscous sweetness of this is too much. The fruits taste artificial as well. There's this gross grape jelly flavor that is hard to get past. The spices come through a lot in a Christmas way with some prickling more than in a fiery way. It's pretty awful. It's hard to describe how much worse than Hennessy VS and E&J XO this is. There's a weird honey flavor here with some bitterness and mushrooms. It tastes a bit like tar and gasoline too. There is some caramel and vanilla to give it some nice creaminess, but this is not all that believable in its insistence that it is brandy. It's simultaneously too sweet and too bitterly mushroomy. This doesn't taste natural. It's really awful.7.71 USD per Bottle
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It has a pretty bland nose. There's some vegetation and something a tad bitter and some hints of cardboard. Maybe a brief scent of lime. The palate is decently sweet with some nice lime notes keeping its agave sweetness from getting out of hand. There's some spice that goes well with the earth and there's a hint of smoke. It's decently rich and full, but not exceptionally complex. It's a sipper for sure, but we'll overpriced given it's relatively mild and flat profile. To say it's far from the punch and life of Cabeza and Fortaleza Blanco is a gross understatement. It's a sipper, but not a delightful one. Compared to those, this is sweet and mineral without much to say for itself. The mouthfeel is still decently viscous. It's smooth too, like a disappointing añejo. It's less sweet and off-kilter than Jimador Blanco. It also has less of an interesting spice profile to it, but mainly I appreciate the reduced syrupy sweetness. It also isn't as strong though. I'd take this over Jimador Blanco, though not for the price difference. This is a little bit richer than 3 Amigos Blanco, but possibly not as complex. It's a surprisingly tough call between the two of them. Ultimately, either is a decent sipper. Frankly, I think I like the 3 Amigos a little bit better, so I could see it getting a bump to a 13, but this is staying at 12 most likely. Herbal, spicy, vegetal, and mineral scents. The palate is spicy and minty with a bit of agave sweetness that is on the lighter side but brings in some vegetal flavors along with mineral. It has decent complexity and flavor, though it isn't anything too special. There's a lot of spicy harshness. It's sippable enough, but it isn't anything special. There's some green pineapple bringing in fruit. The finish is a tad chalky. Unfortunately, there are some flaws and it just isn't that interesting, though it is far from bad.32.0 USD per Bottle
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