Tastes

So a new bourbon and given how much I LOVE the sherry, I had to get this one. Nose - Dill, butter, young oak, sweets, some kind of darker sweetness, burned caramel. It's good. A word of advice, this has taken a while to open up at first, meh. Taste - Buttery and oaky and yes sweet. The whisky comes off young, it starts to take on a beam like nutty profile but I think that's the cognac cask and that's sad as normally they give off so much more flavor. I fear they've just gotten some bad barrels for this. Overall I hope this opens up as this is a neck pour and I'll back and modify if so but overall this is not good bourbon. It's not bad but there's not much going on here other than some off notes and it's a bit overly hot. yeah, I'm a hard pass on this. 1 star because it's still quality bourbon but there's nothing good going on here and the price is brutally high for the results. Bottle is now dead, there was a night it was working for me on friday or saturday. Anyway the casking developed and improved with some air. I ended up liking it a bit more with that. I still think this was a bit underwhelming, especially for the price, but I'm much more favorable on it. I somewhat wish I'd not finished it just to have it around. Oh well the shelf space is nice to have too.

Nose - I keep getting burned nosing this. It's acidic, has some candy cigarette notes, light earthy notes, touch of vinegar, and a touch of oak. Taste - so here I get oak, I get liquid cane sugar, caramel, and watery notes. Then the whisky turns peated and you get meats and smoke. Waxy paper notes and smoke. This is pretty below average stuff. Overly hot. Boring flavors for sure. Still there's quality. Lets got with a 1.75. I respect the complexity despite it not being a good thing here yet.

OK so not sure but we need someone to address the labeling. Four Gate is going to be releasing new batch a couple a year and they are going to be radically different each time. So this is the only named review that I feel comfortable reviewing this under, the other is just calling it four gate. This is a sherry rum finished bourbon. The batch 2 which I don't believe is released yet, but samples have gone out to a lot of whisky reviewers (and as a result I may have gotten a hint of what's to come)...well it's night and day different. Nose - waxy red fruits, cane sugar, spicy over ripe fruit. Taste - Oh man. Opens with heavy finishing. You get some sherry and some rum notes...berries, sugar cane, some yellow fruits and dark fruits. Then the whisky completely switches and it moves towards a very classic bourbon. I kinda feel like this reminds me of a bartons but I could be wrong. Peanuts, oak, vanilla and caramel from the bourbon. I'm getting citrus from the bourbon as well. I hate to go there but 4.0. This is one of the best bourbons of the year for me. I wanted to hate it for the 11 years and 200 price but gosh it's good.

Act 7 Scene 6 Finished in french oak port barrels. Nose - Classic Rye notes. Super sweet. I get some dusty oak but then there's a well aged wine barrel note. Really different, not overly spicy. The rye and port really make for a plum pudding like note. Taste - Light berries, very little up front, then there's light oak notes. The finish brings out some vanilla and bitter oak. I like this one but I'm pretty disappointed given the hype and the effort i had to go through to get this one. 2.5 - dessert rye whisky but lacking complexity to be higher up.

Friend gave me a taste of this as a gag, and an excuse to get rid of some of his bottle. nose - I can't even start to explain it. It starts out like a young immature bourbon but then turns to down right rancid and putrid notes. taste - so figure rule is you HAVE to hold your nose on this one. You simply cannot force yourself to drink it if you can smell it, yes it smells that bad. OK so it opens up actually pretty sweet, I almost like it up front. It then sadly like the nose goes into these off putting chemical like notes. Weird malted flavors. While not a complete disaster, it's down right horrible over all. I'd give it a 1 star on the taste, it's drinkable. The nose however is so bad, you have to hold your breath to be around it. This is a classic rot gut gag whisky and should only be purchased as a joke to play on friends.

Nose - dusty corn, oak, almonds and peanuts, shoe cleaner, and vanilla. Taste - sweet, giving off a lot of citrus and oak at the same time. Some nutty flavors. A bit of an aspartame note, but that's normally a huge bad thing but not so much here with so much oak. Overall I'm digging this. It would stand up well against booker's 30th in a blind tasting. I will note the whole review was with water, it really needed the water. Giving it a 3.0 vs 3.5 (booker 30th) due to how hot it drinks neat. I like the be able to drink either way and this one is less enjoyable neat. It's priced unpleasantly high so if you miss out, you're not missing out. Still, I think this is a huge step up from a normal bookers, but for my money I'm still getting KC single barrel.

So doing mac 12 old bottle vs glendronach 12 new. Sadly my blind attempt isn't going to work as I can tell these two apart from a mile away on the nose. Nose - the glendronach is all over the map. I get vegetable notes, light fruits, faint hints of chocolate and what not. This is very earthy and sharp. It isn't close to the dark and rich sweets and fruits of the macallan 12. Taste - Here I get a really complex fruit bomb. It's almost skittles and alcohol. The oak is pretty mild, oak and more fruits. Glendronach 12 is very nice. It's not bad at all. This mac 12 BLOWS IT OUT OF THE WATER! I will have to do a mac 12 vs mac 12 but I'm spending way too much money lately and a little book 3 which I'll be reviewing soon got in the way.

So this was either the most expensive bourbon I've ever bought or a great deal. 600 points for the RIGHT to buy, 1 point = 1 dollar spent in the store or a great 50 dollar bottle. I'm hoping BTAC is 1500 points but I'm betting 2500. Nose - Cherry oak buffalo trace warehouse. Yeah I can't smell some of these Buffalo Trace products and not smell being on the ground there more than a decade ago. As it warms up and just sits out it gets super super sweet. Taste - Cherry, oaked sweetness, vanilla, more cherry, caramel. Oh man, I'll be doing a blind ECBP and Stagg Jr soon. I might note it up and add it here. Bottom line is this is a perfect example of classic bourbon notes at an extremely high proof (I think this is the highest proof since the first release). I'm not wowed and I didn't expect to be. It's just awesome quality bourbon that should be available and on the shelves but the bourbon boom or buffalo traces marketing department have decided to make impossible for some parts of the country to get. 3.0 due to color, nose, proof, body, and just being darn tasty bourbon. Nobody who likes bourbon won't be happy with this one.

I figured I'd get one of the old boxes (just not the brand new black box, nothing OLD) before they were hard to get. I've never been a huge fan, but as I explore more whisky sometimes you change. Nose - toffee, vanilla, light milk chocolate, and some dark fruits. Much more dessert than sherry fruit flavors. I've never knocked on macallan for poor quality on the nose. I guess some ginger (there's spice and I know macallan always says ginger and I can't tell if I get that or if I'm just following their lead as they think sherry adds it to every bottle they make) Taste - Well this is rich and complex, sherry gives off chocolate, pudding, toffee, vanilla, so much complexity and despite the 43% the mouth feel is killing it. I need to get a glendronach 12 year to do side by side but I'm honestly thinking I need more of these old bottling. Anyone know a way to date these? This bottle is far far better than anything else I've had in terms of MaCallan's 12 year's. Man I love to hate on these guys and they put out plenty of awful for the price whisky but this old bottling is awesome. Anyone know if you can date a 12 year? This store was selling a 1995 18 year before it sold so this could be oldish. I seriously don't recall my last 12 year being this rich in flavor.

Nose - it's actually nice and buttery, really nice savory elements with some vanilla and of course smoke. Taste - Complex, explosive, fruity, vanilla, man this has a lot going on. So i'm getting a bit of a muted vanilla, huge amounts of fruits both orchard and dark and then it just goes to 11 with peat and salt. There's a medicinal classic Laphroaig in the middle of this but otherwise it's all over the map with all kinds of cool tasting notes. This I like more than the 10 cask strength, a lot more. The fino barrels are giving this all kinds of awesomeness.