Tastes

Oh what is wrong with me? I buy whisky with no chance? Oh well So bottle is stupid looking, thanks Nike designer. The butterfly is kinda cool, I guess? Or tacky? Anyway no value in the display, but props on the synthetic cork. nose - a good depth and body to the nose. Vanilla sweetness, clean oak, but the alcohol is still there in spades. I'll see how water works. Water makes the oak more clear and it's a nice oak. Taste - Barton is known for being clean but this isn't just barton. This remains super clean whisky but there's a depth and backbone to this one. It's rich and flavorful, but not complex. This is generic bourbon but there's a depth and mineral note on the back end. The focus is creamy and rich, but not spicy or that rich dark sugar's sweetness either. Water teases out more sweetness. This is good but I can't really describe it as it's barton, it's boring and yet good. Balanced and even is really what barton does. So score? Well the bottle is a 0, lol. Ok the bourbon? 2.5. Above average but lacking.

So this will have me complete in my reviews of the local barely range. This one is also a sample I hate to say, but here we go. 100% bourbon casks here. Nose - well yeah a bit uneventful front so I can see where the wine casks were helping before. That barely and springbank sweetness is still here. I'm oddly not getting a lot of funk or peat or salt here, it's there but this is a softer version. I do get a touch of apple and pear, slight. Then some oak, wet oak. Young whisky for sure but well done malt and good casks with a nice abv. Taste - Chocolate, salted caramel, oak, earthy notes. Finish is long, intense, and coating. Guys, this is why I LOVE springbank. The malt is so complex with that mix of peat and funk and just the dunnage warehouse epic....and then they turn it up with freaking locally grown barely? Everything about this is youthful rich bourbon casks and spirits but springbank does it SO WELL. This is just truly epic distillate where mistakes don't matter. Now back to objective reviewing. Yeah it's a bit young, the spirit is a touch hot. It's good, very very good. But am I in love with it? Yeah...I kinda am lol. Will you be though? And that's the rub, do you REALLY love what springbank does? if so yep, it's for you. If you're more into older or more wine finished bottles from them, this isn't for you. This is SPRINGBANK at 11. I'm a 3.75 for this one. It's great and I could do this all day, but an assertive younger whisky that's got great distillate is still just that, even if it's my favorite of favorites.

This review shouldn't exist. I have way too little of this to even try and review it, but I MUST because I need to mark this day and this memory down. So I won't dwell long on politics but lets just say these last two elections have been a drain on me, and dang near everyone else alive. It seems we in the US have a new President, we'll see, and while the stress of no longer having to listen to and deal with the day to day insanity seems good, god we didn't really upgrade. So in celebration of ending my least favorite president of my life time and to drowned my pain for a new president I hate too....lets do something SPECIAL! A whisky selling for near 1k and while I have less than half an oz...I'll do my best guys. Sorry to bring in politics but that's why I'm pouring and perhaps that's important to know the mindset of the drinker. Happy and yet not happy, 2020 in a nutshell? Ok nose - Oh my! Salty sweet and oaky. I get the love already. I can't make out this fruit on here but there's a glorious fruit with sugars and salt on it. The overall profile here is candy sugar and sweetness to 11 with salty and peaty notes to balance from the springbank. I'm not picking up distinct barely just yet. Ok going back in the local barely element is there, but it's candied barely, you can tell the age of this has shifted it form a the newer spirit forward expressions and this which has good cask maturation coming in. Still at 16 years the spirit hasn't lost its vibrancy. Taste - Rich and malty, chocolatey, savory, salty, a mars bar, and then swallowing a wonderful peaty and earthy springbank finish. OK now getting some more chocolates and even some dark french vanilla, and just oak and peat. Man this is peated. The nice barely from springbank is coming in. A second pour and that finish is amazing and the peat and barely and sweetness. Tootsie rolls are coming out both the vanilla and regular. I hate to score this on such a small sample but this is better than the first 10 year. The richness and depth is just perfect. 4.25. No, not a 1k bottle but god bless this is good.

So I got a very small sample of this and plan to re-review tomorrow or the next day on the second half of this one. Nose - This is bright and really fresh. Almost taking me to one of those commercial for ocean spray where fruits and sea water slash you in the face. It's clean and without much fuss and no element is jumping out. Digging deeper however I start to get earthy note, barely, and oak. The fruit that was never strong subsides. Then the whisky starts to yield to sweetness of the malt. Nothing complex, nothing exciting. Just nice pleasant sweetness. Overall this is less cask forward than the 9 year and less fruity and sherry forward than the first 10 year. I'm however finding it less interesting than either. Adding water and sugary sweetness comes out but so does wet saw dust and salty sea air. Taste - unlike the nose the taste is much more bold and over powering. Sugary sweet, salty, and oak driven with a long oaky and smokey finish. Water increases the sugars, very classic cane sugar, then in comes new make springbank peated glory. Barely quickly takes over and dominates the finish and mouth. Unlike the 9 year which I think is new make forward with some citrus notes, the new 10 brings in some bourbon cask sweetness and while young the youthful exuberance is exciting and leads to a lot of detective work as I try and figure this bold flavor bomb out. This reminds me of a bookers bourbon, big, BOLD, rich, pushing loudly forward with the distillery character as well as the local barley character, but kinda lacking in the depth and complexity and ultimately drinking like a far less expensive whisky. As I love the complexity of springbank and the barely notes, I cannot drop this one too far down, but to read that this is 30% sherry and 3% port...I'm barely finding any distinct cask notes, or at least I didn't until I added a 3rd rather large drop of water. With that yes some of those notes do start to bubble up, but none the less I think this one is a step down from the last edition. 3 stars, good stuff, but only buy if you're a springbank geek.

The new and oldest Big Peat at 33 year old, one of 1500 bottles, aged in XO and Sherry casks, and priced under 300 USD. Checking some boxes! Nose - one of the most interesting experiences of the year. Cognac is dominate here. Earthy and classic "scotchy butter scotch" with slight orchard fruit, and billowing smoke. Deep whiffs into the copita bring out some alcohol bite. Marmalade and custards are showing up. I get an ever so light hint of wood, but more of an exotic oak, not your traditional oaks. There's an ever so light funky oak, almost a wet oak. Hint of confectionery sugar. Even a hint of grape (cognac?). Overall the net nose is leaning savory with salty elements and buttery notes balancing the sweet. 30+ minutes in the glass and spices are coming up, slightly baking spices and slightly oak spice. Complex as heck for sure, but I'm not sure I'm there in terms of greatness. Here's to hoping it tastes epic! Taste - well, i'm kinda less impressed. Second, pour as the first left me a bit underwhelmed. The opening is rich sweetness with light oak notes, rich sugars and a nice mix of that cognac and yes now sherry casks are clearly coming out. Then it transitions to mint and menthol and then loads of bitter oak. Super cooling on the finish after being warm and inviting up front. I'm digging it. So I'm at a 3.5 but I'll come back to see if it opens up. A good value but not great.

Re-review this time with batch 20-01 and it came out before the new 108.7 standard which was belle meade accepting they were putting out an inconsistent product! Nose - So there's a bit of a fruity and yet dry and not sweet element to the nose. Earthy oak notes are balanced with alcohol and bourbon in a really nice neutral level. That said the nose is really enjoyable. It's this caramelized sugar that means a dusty barn with some clean hay and some pastry crust with a really nice touch of savory on an otherwise sweet dram. Balanced in a way that's rare with single malts or bourbons. Taste - This is such a classic bourbon. The nose leads me to expect something a bit out there and MGP can be just that. This isn't at all. It's a rush of vanilla and caramel with an ever so slight rye spice and then just wonderfully balanced oak coming in to bring things together. The rye here is playing so wonderfully well with this creamy Sweet vanilla. Where buffalo trace is the definition of a classic bourbon if you're into 100 or less proof stuff, this is classic bourbon at 112 proof with a rye kick for connoisseurs. Medium finish. Slight funky elements and maybe the most vanilla forward CS whisky I can recall. I'm feeling generous as heck and want to go 3.0, but my rational self will stay 2.75. This batch at about 70 is an easy as hell buy. Heck get 2. These sell fast here but they're not impossible to get or even that hard, I've seen multiple bottles at multiple stores. Oh well, I'm just glad it means I can find better bourbon while other chase blantons for their cute little polo topper.

I'm back and bringing yet another Old Carter review. For those out of the loop the Old Carter line is whiskey that's been blended by a couple in I believe the Louisville area who have a back ground from blending wine. They generally are sourcing MGP and they pay absolute top dollars to get any barrel they want. They however dabble in just about everything from rye to bourbon to american to now....a Kentucky Straight Whiskey. So we know this one isn't MGP. I've not yet been able to figure out the source but when (not if) I figure it out I'll let you know. Nose - The nose is very floral, almost like going into a bed bath and beyond. I am picking up some distinct almost orange cleanser. Oak here is very much on the pine spectrum giving me a youthful note and this being NAS, I suppose it might just be that. As it warms I get a VERY distinct spice that I KNOW I've gotten on beers in the past, but for the life of me I can't place. It had me in the Juniper or Hibiscus...kinda spices added to a belgium white ale or something along those lines. And more of that rich orange cleaner note. Taste - That orange cleaner explodes on the front of the tongue. It's rich and citrus as really know other whisky has ever done. Once I swallow there's a wave of alcohol oak and floral spice. One hell of a big bold and crazy unique ride. Water brings out more oak and tames some of the drying effects of the high proof but not all. I'm not sure orange cleaner has ever been used as a favorable whisky note, I know it sounds awful to me, but I'm rather enjoying this. It's about as big a kick in the mouth from alcohol and spice as I've had. It's also just down right enjoyable. I have no idea what the Carters did here, but I'm in for a 2.75, very good whisky, but not getting into anything that's a real stand out. I wouldn't say it's a good value at 180 bucks, but it's so unique and different that I think it just might be worth a one time buy to share with friends and explore a different flavor profile than we're used to. I look forward to coming back to this bottle a few years down the road and seeing how it has changed and I look forward to seeing batch 2 to see how weird they go.

So I'm a huge fan of kavalan and these solist cask have been special. Sadly, they're not really priced to sell, so at 350 I had to grab this one. Now I'm a few oz into this and so far it's been disappointing, but it's also been CLOSED off. I'm hoping now that we're a bit more opened up and we'll see. Nose - ok so I used a copita which I generally don't do at this proof but it's been so closed off that I felt I should go here, seems maybe not a good call. I know this is a bad review but I get PX and oak. Leather is here, chocolates and overall it's a nice nose, but the alcohol is making is hard for me to get in there. Water really does help. This legit reminds me of a great glendronach px cask now, even get some light smoke, likely barrel, though this is pretty heave on that sweet, almost sickly so. Taste - ok it's chocolate and sweet sweet sweet flavors. Alcohol is a bit too prevalent. There's a nice nugget effect here. OK water brings this down and brings out a nice really balanced PX forward sherry bomb. Yeah the oak is really here and gives us a savory element too. OK so I don't understand at all why this was more expensive than the other casks in this collection. It's really nicely made as a px bomb. But it's lacking for me to give this a really high score. So I'm struggling on score so I decided to go to my shelve to see if I could help myself. Glendronach batch 8 and 15 year are my best comps as they are mostly or heavy on the px and well all 3 of these are completely different whiskies. So the batch 8 I scored 2 stars and this blows that away. The 15 year I over rated likely due to how excited I was with the price to quality but it's dang good. The kavalan has that older whisky thing up front, that refined oak and richness of years of age, sure it cheated with sub tropic temps and climate but it got there. The glendronach 15 comes off almost young and cheap up front, but then on the finish the 15 explodes, it's richer, it's more complex, it's bringing breadth to offset some lack of depth if you will. So the last test was to try a drop of 18 year glendronach to just square myself, a 23-24 year example. OK so the kavalan just punches through all of these with the rich up front flavor, it blows them out of the water. Not even CLOSE. BUT....the finish isn't even as good as the 15 year and it's far from the 18. The kavalan is all up front on the front of the tongue and it is exceptional there, but it doesn't hit other sensory areas. These other drams they really take off all over the tongue. It's weird. So dang, score? I started out at a 3.0 off the first taste. I then debated a 2.75, but then after some time I went back to a 3.75. But I'm going close to a 4.0 now.... So yeah I'm close it a 4.0. There's something about that intense power of this and the depth of the up front flavor and while the finish isn't epic as those others, it's really good. OK....final score 3.75.

I don't even want to get into why I dropped 100 bucks on this.. Anyway Nose - you know this straight up smells like an amber beer that's been left out a day with a high abv or maybe a German dubble. Basically....it's sickeningly sweet, caramel, brown sugar, simple syrup, barely, some mint from the rye, a bit of pepper, and just sweet sugary stuff. Taste - really more of the same, though I get more nugget vs just sweet sugars. The blonde ale is shockingly powerful on here, it really dominates the up front sweetness in a way I didn't expect. It does nicely take the edge off the likely very young rye but it also mutes the spices. Overall, I can't say this isn't unique and interesting, it is. But should you buy it? Hell no. 1 star, it's drinkable but only after a few. I can't believe this was 100 bucks and I hope nobody else buys it for that. 40 bucks and it's a nice weird experiment. 100, good god no. On the plus side the shot glass on the top is kinda cool and I like that.

So full disclosure, I loved the blenders mash for what it was and the price. So I'm kinda I guess a bit of a fan of these aged crowns. nose - sweetness comes right out of the glass. This really nice balanced sweet rye, spicy and menthol and then just well made sweetness. This one is giving me some vanilla and caramel, far more than I generally get on a rye, but I get all that rye spice up front. There's even some sweet cereal notes and hints of cloves. Taste - The taste is a bit more spice driven with all that classic rye spice you expect and then the sweetness is pleasant but it doesn't shift the balance from the spice, it just provides a nice platform to prevent spice over powering the experience. Anise and cloves and cinnamon, light mint, and an even so light touch of barrel just barely on the finish. Deep vanilla notes and some light fruits on the malt side. This is surprisingly a nice easy drinker with the complexity and depth I'm looking for. To be honest put this at CS and I think you've got a better rye than Kentucky Owl. At 80 bucks, I kinda feel you're better off putting your money towards a better bottle down the road but I'm not upset with this either. 2.25 score from me. I'm not a rye guy but I'm fully in on this has a good tasty dram that's just a bit too thin to score higher.