Tastes

2023 release. Nose - can I just say basic bourbon? OK Ok...I"ll say more. This comes off light and fruity, nearing caramel apples. As you dig in however the rich oak comes through, hints of leather, old spice, dusty cabinets, and of course vanilla extract. It's really nice but a touch muted and lends itself to upon first arrival just smelling like some less nutty than usual beam. Taste - Similar to the nose, the arrival is also pretty basic but exceptionally clean bourbon. Light fruits and vanilla. Thankfully, things turn up as you swallow and the finish gives you great beam oak notes (that dirty and rich oak they always give off), leathers, and a really nice level of spice builds up. A very nicely done 13 year old bourbon. Nothing outstanding here. just well crafted and put together. I'll give it a solid 3.25. I'd say about an 87 on a 100 point scale. At 150ish, I think think this is fair value.

So I can't find a code or anything here. This is the first release of the CS without a date so I assume this is where I should review it. This is nearing the end, I've been using this as my "I can't taste but want peat" whisky for a while...that'll let you know where we are going. Mike and I already reviewed on the channel, but this is months later and near the end. Nose - Bubble Gum going on strawberry with hints of cherry. Those sour fruits over a smoke pit...coal driven. Some mint, pine, and a touch of kinda glue sour. Overall really lovely. More pepper and lemon grass. Taste - There's a lovely sweetness, but yeah spiced. really spiced. Good smoke and peat notes. Good vanila and a good kiss of sherry. But god this is heavy pepper and spice. I"m not sure where this is coming from. Youth or maybe odd casks? I'm leaning youthful malt. I really hope this malt matures from this spice note and gets rounded out by the 10 year mark (which is coming out soon). I think this is going to be great at 10 years old. But this isn't there yet. 1.25 - potential here, but you don't need this. Maybe split a bottle 10 ways to try the distillery.

70 after tax basically for an 8 year 100 proof bourbon. OK...not great. From a CRAFT bourobn distillery? Oh...that's kinda fair! Nose - It's new riff. Whatever it is they do...they can't escape being new riff! But lets added raisened fruits and leather with dark chocolate notes. Taste - Again...it's new riff! If you know you know, right? But now we add a huge layer of both dark and malted chocolate notes. Hints of butter scotch sneak in. There's a depth and complexity around what is an otherwise kinda normal bourbon for those of us who like new riff. Bottom line...damn good for 70 bucks (after tax). I want to do something silly like 3.0 just because I'm the first review and I know I'm scoring lower than the community but 2.25 is a very fair score by my standards. This is well done really good bourbon. But it's nothing WOW level. They are showing 100% that at 10-12 years they might be putting out BTAC stuff. This is really going to a great place, not just good.

So review already up on top shelf whisky, but lets see. Nose - Dry, higher alcohol, and salty (really salty). Light sweetness, wine notes, and well springbank 10 notes. I know a cop but lets keep this simple, you're not reading this if you haven't had springbank 10. Taste - Nose is simple but the taste is really fun. This gives me bannana, malt, white grapes, salt, more salt, light smoke, touch of grape, and really nice vanilla sweet. Yeah rich peat is coming through as I sample it. Weird sour notes don't work great for me and it's a big issue. I love springbank and this is springbank. But this is a poor finishing on younger whisky. 2.75...a crazy score for springbank.

6000 bottles, mostly refilled sherry with a french oak refilled wine cask. Interesting. Always - these are neck pour reviews. Nose - Oh this is layered. Opening is sweet vanilla with red fruits. Digging deeper you get raspberry gasoline notes. Some hints of confectioner sugar. Clean smoke and touches of salinity. Taste - So lets just start, absurdly great mouth feel and just overall flavor! I get mixes of red fruits, cheese cake, rich smoke, savory meats. The mix of slightly acidic charred beef tips with red fruits is interesting. It's an interesting mix of cask flavors coming from those odd wine casks they used. OK - off a neck and first time with this. This is great. Price is 180 pounds I think...I think I paid a bit more given the 6000 bottles. Shipped and what not was about 300 for me lets say. I think this is a pretty decent buy. Not a must buy but it's good. I'm going to give this a 3.5, but I could go higher. Hoping this will open up a bit to make it better.

This is my 4th blood oath, never been impressed, but always found them interesting and even the rum finished didn't leave me feeling it down on these (maybe over priced). I'd decided I was done however....and then they did Oloroso Sherry AND used 16 year old bourbon? Well ok...lets give this a shot. 150 seems to be the standard price, not sure why distiller thinks MSRP is 130. Costco Price? To do this I like I tend to do....poured all my blood oaths to make sure I could provide a more nuanced difference. I have 19, 20, 21 and 23 here. Nose - Light on fruits with a big milk chocolate coco powder over rich leathery oak. Honestly, really exactly what I'd wanted here. I've always found the blood oaths are over the top on oak, especially given they use sub 10 year bourbons in the blends. But Oloroso and oak are a really nice combo so I knew this had potential. Light raspberry vanilla undertones as well. Vs the rest - this is by FAR the driest and most oak forward. The others all seem to have their own style of sweet. This one leans to that coco powder for sweetness while letting the back end carry a nice bourbon sugar note. This one just comes off more sophisticated. Taste - Flat on arrival yet silky smooth. Quickly however is erupts in flavors. But there's a clean sweetness up front. Followed by this kinda soapy note I get on nearly all of these blood oaths (especially the cognac....of course the other "normal" cask finishing). Oaks and leathers then rise up, a lot of tannins. Then on the back end red fruits, raisins, prunes, figs, all come forward. Really setting this apart from most bourbons is a clear 3rd if not 4th wave of flavors on almost what I'd call the after finish. This is an exceptional sign of quality. I'll get back to final thoughts however. The comp? Well the Cognac which I really have liked today is coming off really soapy bitter, i mean it's still sweet as heck xo cognac here too but theres this note I can't get past. Good mouthfeel, more oily than dry. Good. The Sauternes is drinking so weird I think I mixed up the rum and sauternes. But yeah...it's not coming off like there's much of a finish. Drying, over oaked, poorly blended bourbon vs the others. Rum - again I can't believe I didn't mix these up but I'm digging it. OK maybe a hint of a flintstone vitamin giving me some sour fruits. But it's pretty good. So overall and vs the others. I like this one a lot. 150 bucks good? Yeah, I think in 2023 with today's prices this is about right. It isn't a wow bottle and it isn't a must get. it's a reasonable value that gives you a really nice complex experience but I'm not sure it all comes together to be the sum of all those fun parts. Where the vs comes in is that compared to this all the others had seemingly overt flaws that can be off putting. This one...it's just good. I'll have to go back to the Sauternes when it's not next to some of these more active casks, I recall that one being much better. Anyway if you're into big oak and sherry bourbon, you really should get one of these if it's in the budget. For everyone else, get a bar pour and call it a day unless 150 isn't an expensive bottle to you. I'll go 2.75. Average is 2.0. 3.0 is exceptional. 4.0 is perfect. And 5.0 is life changing.

Young bourbon made with a stupid gimmick someone's gonna excuse cause they hired a beer guy to make their whisk(e)y? I'll take a case! Nose is light citrus with light ethanol...its bourbon. Oh ok...chocolate, vanilla, oats, hell I'm getting rootbeer. It's not RICH or decadent, but it's really really something nice, a change of pace, and ok...it's kinda awesome. Taste - yeah it's new riff if you know that. But it's young 4 year bourbon with chocolate chip cookie notes, oatmeal notes, hints of toffee. Yeah it's a bit youthful, it's got some citrus which doesn't go with cookies. Look - I'm downplaying this because as a whisky guy....it's not our traditional whisky.I just wanted to have fun. Honestly - this is the best 50 dollar whiskey I've had in years...it's 55 now. Oh well. I do think this year's was a HAIR worse than last. Oh well. If you want a chocolate oatmeal forward young bourbon with more oak notes than you'd expect. Get this. If you don't....still get it! I'm iffy on score but I think 2.75 is about right. I could go higher, and for PRICE, it's a 4 star! But buy this in a second people! It's 125 dollar whisky in 2023 for 55.

After a certain drummer themed bourbon channel recommended this i decided to give this a go. I still have a warm place in my hear from the days of Jefferson's Presidential bottles...being available. So hoping for good stuff. nose - Well they added a boat load (no pun intended) of oak to a clearly young bourbon. This is different. It still has that kentucky bourbon feel vs say a Texas bottle. Light citrus...basic bourbon notes. Taste - This is a flavor bomb. This is reminding me of a top barrel rick house single of some of these younger distilleries. Intense oak over youthful and still somewhat vegetal based bourbon. Honestly it's a 1.0 but I'll give it a full .5 stars for the huge flavor and presence. But yeah...below average stuff, just a flavor bomb for those chasing more flavor but not that picky.

Didn't expect to see this here. Nose - Up front it's youthful wood, very raw with some level of winter green mint, and as I dig in the caramel malt richness comes out. OK...kinda rye bourbon like. That's a lot of wood. The malt is here too, it's sweeter and richer and heavier than an american rye non malt. Oh anis notes. ok fine vanilla and some bacon. Some pure sugar notes. Taste - Cherry, chewy oak, smoked anis, funky oak. Finish is long smoky notes. This just screams small barrel oak, funky young notes...but so well done. Final thoughts - water doesn't change much, but don't do it. Anyway, think texas whisky but softer. I'll give it a 2.0. It's weird, it's different, but it's pretty average whisky. This is like 50 bucks, and it's unique. I'd say it's worth it, but there's a lot of "worth it" things to try.

*apologies ahead of time, my "reviews" here are generally free form notes as I drink vs a formal review, but this one went extreme in a lack of structure" Been eyeing this for way too long. About 100 bucks in the UK, coming in at an insane 49.4% which is nearing CS from Balvenie. Nose - I'll just start by saying at first it's really lacking. A good 15 minutes in the glass and oily glue was kinda what I got. A bit of an earthy, clearly peated, element was there as well. It's a much more earthy peat than say an islay, but clearly this is a heavy peat. A few slight swirls followed by a full coaching tart fruits, aggressive alcohol, good very hard to place and generic smoke (think caol lila), and a good vanilla kick. So far it's ever changing and rather interesting. I would say, not super inviting. More time and I am getting a distinct honey note which is moving this up. Taste - Just a flavor bomb here. That higher abv really is showing itself with intensity of flavor. The overall malt is a bit sour which is off profile for balvenie. Giving way to lighter fruits. The show however is the smoke and this very clean muddy peat note. Your mouth is just left with alcoholic clean peat smoke. I really want to compare this to a standard 14 year, all I have open is a 2003 and that's just too good to be a fair comp. But for science, we must compare what we got. The 2003 is pretty similar but distinctly different. More minerality. Sweeter up front but more bitter on the finish. Smoke is more "obvious" in that it's perhaps more a wood smoke. The balvenie sweetness is turned up. The 17 year has the longer finish. The smoke notes really peak on the finish while the smoke is midpalate on the 14. The finish on the 17 is 10x longer, we're not even talking in the same league here. But by contrast the arrival is softer, lighter, more closed and simple. The 17 is a roller coaster climbing up the hill for a insane fast down hill. The 14 is balanced with it getting pretty intense quickly and just hanging on and lingering. Given the price point is about the same for the 14 as the 17 US vs UK. They're really worth picking up both as you're not spending wildly more for the older expression at all. I'd guess US it would be 100 vs 150, but who knows with US pricing these days. Final thoughts. Maybe I'm maturing with time or maybe the greek yogurt I had an hour ago is causing me issues. Either way I think my love of these whiskies are fallen a bit. What used to be this perfectly sweet and balanced whisky is not a bit sharp, a bit acidic, and frankly a touch bitter. It's still a lovely whisky don't get me wrong at all. But I'm finding myself ever evolving and oddly I'm finding I'm becoming a bigger fan of bourbon and more traditional younger peated expressions. Anyway it seems the niche that this and the Macallan Classic Cut once were outstanding whiskies. Now the Classic Cut is almost undrinkable and this is just a very nice change of pace, but not something with staying power. 3.5 and I'd adjust my prior scores down a quarter each based on this. This is an outstanding value buy and I may very well argue it's the best value I've had in 2023... You know what? I forgot water! OK with water - I'm getting a lemon lime and smoke that dead on is the fruits of laphroig and the peat of springbank! That's a hell of a note! no need to adjust my prior statement on score, but for sure water is a nice change. It did dry out the oils and makes it a bit sharper on the tongue. Not unpleasant just different. Anyway - this is a buy all day if you can get it under 130 from the UK. So make this this next "buddy bottle" and you'll be thrilled. I wouldn't put in an order just for this. All and all, a great expression from this distillery, but this has sold me on not spending the premium on the 19 year expression. Age isn't taking this in the direction I'd hope. Final note - I used paypal to buy this so the exchange rate was pretty bad. 119 and change was the final all in cost. 100% a happy buy.