Tastes

2oz neat in Glencairn at The MacMillan Whisky Room in Mosaic District. Nose is all baking spices with mild wood and herbs. Very pleasant. Taste is slightly subdued, adds in some apples and grains. Lite lingering finish with a touch of red hots. Nice. 9/15/19

1/2 oz pour neat in Glencairn as part of the "Peat Monster" flight at The MacMillan Whisky Room in Mosaic District. Followed up by a 2oz pour in rocks glass at home two hours later provided by Breezy. Nose has dark muted smoke, mild cinnamon, lite grains. Taste is much more bright, great sweet spices over smoky peat. Really quite nice overall. 9/15/19

1/2 oz pour neat in Glencairn as part of the "Peat Monster" flight at The MacMillan Whisky Room in Mosaic District. Nose has mild peat, smoke, salt. Taste is a bright explosion of peat, sea salt, smoke. Lingering smoky briny finish. Nice! 9/15/19

1/2 oz pour neat in Glencairn as part of the "Peat Monster" flight at The MacMillan Whisky Room in Mosaic District. Smoke and peat, some sea air. Taste is heavy smoke. Strong, good. 9/15/19

Poured neat in Glencairn at home. Nose has vanilla, caramel, baking spices, stone fruit. Some heat coming through. Taste has more spice and heat, apples, clove, orange peel, lite meadow grasses, red hots. Long lingering spicy finish. Great stuff. 9/14/19

Read some reviews of great single malts under $50 which mentioned Old Pulteney 12, then read the review on Distiller. Looked it up on VA ABC site, and found that it is no longer to be carried in VA, so it was 1/2 off and only three stores left in the state have it. One of which was a mere 2 miles out of the way on my drive home from work today. So I bought this 750ml bottle for $23.09. Last one in VA for 100 miles. I would be lying if I said I am not hoping for greatness. Here goes . . . Poured neat in a Glencairn at home. Nose is rich, with apple peel, seagrass, caramel. Taste has notes of pepper spice, mild peat, brine, ripe apples, vanilla, tobacco. Lingering spicy bittersweet finish. Interesting and fairly complex. At $45 this would be a bargain, at $23 this was a true steal. 9/11/19.

2oz pour neat in rocks glass at Liberty BBQ. Tons of smoke and bbq in the nose, with peat and brine. Taste is more of the same, adding in some spice and char. Ton of peaty smoky goodness going on here. Perfect with BBQ. 9/9/19

Liberty BBQ. Last ounce in the bottle, poured neat in a rocks glass. Mild peat, butter, heather. Taste is really smooth with a slight finishing kick of smoke and spice. Really good. 9/9/19

Purchased at a Maryland Liquor store that was preying on the ignorant and/or desperate, selling anything remotely rare for over 10x retail. Stagg Jr. for $599.99. Weller Special Reserve 750ml bottles for $399.99!! So egregious, I feel compelled to call them out with specificity: Tri State Liquors 96 Souder Rd, Brunswick, MD 21716 (301) 834-4448. The Mellow Corn was slightly overpriced at $16.99, but not terribly so, and I had never seen it in a store before, and had heard generally good things. So I swallowed the pill and gave these jerks my cash. I do hate myself a bit, on principle. 750ml pour neat into Glencairn at home. Nose is definitely corn, as to be expected, with a little heat and dry grass. Fairly mild. Taste has more corn, definite heat, with the grass from the nose now watered. Not exactly mellow, but certainly drinkable. This is a one-note affair, but interesting and cheap enough to put on the home shelf. 9/7/19.

750ml poured neat in Glencairn at home. The packaging really throws the notion of "the softer side" at you, so I am not expecting strong notes of anything in particular. Nose has mild peat and sawgrass, green apple, tobacco. Overall mild. Taste has some black pepper on the front, with apple, leather, touch of oak, then finishes with some lingering spice that is a tad bitter, but not too much so. More assertive than the nose. I rather like this, and would not pick "softer side" as the predominant descriptor as they do. For me, that is selling this short. I think the time in the bourbon and sherry casks has imbued some nice spicy and stonefruit notes. This was on sale at VA ABC for $33.99, and that is a real bargain. Very glad I picked this up. 9/5/19.