Tastes

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.

The classic bourbon from the king of the taters, boofalo trace! Nose - Vanilla and corn forward with classic boofalo trace oak. I don't really get much in terms of caramel. There's surprisingly a lot of alcohol on the nose here, using a copita and it's making my nose burn. Taste - Oak actually is the predominate flavor on these, that classic slightly funky yet smooth and mellow boofalo oak, just like smelling the rick houses on site. Sweet oak that's really how I'd describe this as. Not funky oak, not nutty, not peanut buttery, just clean classic oak and sweets. I remain at a loss as to why people hoard this but I love this for under 40 bucks as a cheap sipper, but even at 40 I think we're into questionable value. That said of the common trace products, I do think I like this just a hair more than Eagle Rare. 1.75, just below average but 40 dollar whiskies are well below average priced whisky.

So store offered me this for 180, was with some rye fans so figured I'd share it. Nose - vanilla, oak and crazy rye spice forward. Taste - This is just crazy over the top rye spice and sweetness. I guess I should get into some notes but it's kinda just all over with mint and honey mustard and cereal, and then just all kinds of baking spices and what not like crazy. I mean it's ok nice spices and flavor but it's lacking any signs of high end whisky for this crazy price. So here's where I'm at and confused. It's flavorful and I'm enjoying the flavors but the 11 years doesn't come off here at all. It's not really more complex than a willet 4 year. I continue to come away feeling the blender for Kentucky Owl, Dixon isn't any good at blending. He's just throwing together intense flavors and sometimes they don't fail. If you're a rye fan this might be a 3.0, but for me this is a 1.75. It's flavorful but unhinged.

2020 has been complete crap, but the whisky world must go on. And on that note, if anything can save us, it's gotta be peat. Nose - The bourbon dominance here stands out. Sweet sweet sweet malt, overwhelmingly vanilla dominate. From there I get that classic octomore barely, and then clay putty and dirt from the peat. This isn't complex at all, it's very simple. It's however really nice. As it opens up I get some kind of baked bread...not a fancy note by any way but that's what it is. Perhaps not fully cooked and you might even have a sugar cookie with frosting on it. It's all vanilla and mellow peat. Taste - The flavor follows the nose with just a dominate sweetness here. There is more bitterness from the oak, something I never see with octomore, There's alcohol as well, very sparky but not off putting. The flavor is again that vanilla bomb, but it's moving to these minty and oaky notes, nice charcoal, and maybe even a smoked mash mellow. I gotta say, this is my new favorite octomore. It's killing it. It isn't mind blowingly complex, but it's well well worth the price. I'm going 3.75 here. It's awesome.

I've said this often but I hate reviewing basic peated whisky. I just suck with tasting notes. This is batch 3 if that matters. Nose - Pretty basic peat profile with a touch of citrus fruits. The overall profile here is pretty clean, much more in the caol ila peat vs the southern islay. Though some of the sweet citrus here does give me some flash backs to lagavulin, but the peat is nothing at all like their profile. I have a cadenheads 11 year example of peated bunna that blows this one so far out of the water that it's insane. Taste - You do get that this is younger whisky, some ethanol and bite is here and off, but overall the citrus sweet and clean mellow smoke is here. There's some mineral notes and light clay. It's a touch salty as well. There's however no real peat punch, it's not rich, and it drinks kinda thin. I'm tasting what feels like a 40 dollar bottle and I believe this was a good bit more. I love bunna but this isn't a winner from them. 1.5, it's below average but peat lovers will enjoy it and while I think it's over priced, it's a nice change of pace if you have the money to over pay for this one.

So another bottle from my chicago trip, this one i opened yesterday morning after starting my day with a lag 25 year....yes this was my "second breakfast" lol. nose - a billowing sweet cloud of awesome comes off this. Sweet candied fruits, vanillas, almost a red fruit rollup meets complex sugary oak. Wow it's awesome. Taste - The opening is sweet, fruity, mellow, with baking spices, some nutmeg, tannin, it's complex but not overly so. Its far from a stunner on the up front taste and then we have the finish. And oh what a finish and a LONG finish. The finish starts with a spike in the alcohol that leads to tootsie roll chocolates, there's a lingering spice and heat that lasts and lasts. There's a savory element here too but it's swarmed with sweetness all around. So it's pretty epic overall. This is far more a clean and subtle dram from Craigellachie vs their more sulfur infused 23 year. That said this is wonderful whisky. To make it all the better it's a damn steal at 200 bucks. This is a Craigellachie for those who are a bit agnostic with the brand but love rich complex sweet dram that are balanced with unique complexity and one of the longest damn finishes you'll have. 4.25...yes it is THAT freaking good!

A rather epic trip to chicago this weekend sent me home with a few nice bottles and the opportunity to try some absolutely EPIC whiskies. This was kinda the cherry on top if you will, and always difficult for me to find bottle and Binny's just had one good to go for me...though a few bucks were spent and they were more than happy to take care of us that day. Nose - so I always associate ECBP with this caramel bomb with heavy oak and just intense sweetness. Instead where I get a bit more a dusty oak and light sweetness. Even the abv seems tamed. Don't get me wrong there's proof here and there's a lot of aroma and sweetness, but it isn't what you'd expect from an ECBP and nothing like the normal dark chocolates and deep character I expect from the last two C batches. Taste - So I'll open with a totally stolen line but salted pretzels (all rights for that to Jason at The Masha and Drum who told me that last night). Then it transitions into those dark sweets, heavy caramel and then actually more salted pretzels on the finish again. This is dry ECBP with a focus on balance perhaps in a way I'm not used to. But what is it balanced too? That's a weird one. I know heaven hill often has that dusty corn note similar to beam but I've never had it in an ECBP and I'm getting it here. There's still some deep dark caramel and oak and fruity elements we have all come to love, but this dusty element is new. Overall, this is a touch disappointing but still exceptional by today's sub 70 dollar bourbon standards. Score - so I was pretty harsh on A120 for the heat and I've praised B520 for being just awesome. This off the cuff is about the same as A120 for different reasons though 3.0 seems a hair low. But for now I'll score this a 3.0 but it's a weaker 3.0 than A120. Both might need to be bumped to a 3.25 or maybe just the A120. I'll have to re-review. This is an ECBP I might not buy a back up of, if given the option. That would be a first since I learned how to life hack my spending into good bourbons.

Nose - The nose is and I know this is odd but it's new make malt and an interesting vegetable note. There's starting to be a nice baked good here as well, sweet white bread almost with some sweet clay notes. Now opened up and I'm getting just a sweet baked good and alcohol. Taste - once again alcohol. OK, sweet sweet malt. This is just sweet new make elements. Little if no oak or wood notes. I get some mint and then just more sweet and then an earthy finish. Water brings down the alcohol and perhaps brings out more nuanced sweetness but I'm still just kinda thinking pastry/bread and earthy and vegetable notes at the end. It's clearly peat but it isn't what I think of as peat in general. So I know this wasn't he most favorable review in terms of notes and tasting. It's not a complex whisky but what it does it does fairly well. The abv is a gut punch and the peat is a touch lacking if you were hoping for something special. My bottom line? It's basic boring whisky at a great proof and it's different. That to me a 1.25 star whisky and one I'd not tell you to not buy. I just can't recommend it. I also should note I think this was a bit under 80 bucks and for that price, I'm not sure what to think. CS so there's value but not very good and there are better malts at lower proofs available.