Tastes

Found a backup of this, so I guess I can bottle kill this! Mind you 70% of the bottle left so I guess I don't do it tonight. Nose - sweet and delicate, caramel, hints of earth, a bit of sherry, and yes peat. A deeper nose I get a hint of oak. As it opens I get more and more oak and caramel. A lot more bourbon like than anything else I've seen from Japan. Normally I get a lot more citrus fruits from japan. Taste - I get a note that's clearly and distinctly a blend. It opens vanilla, moves to some oak and caramel, then I get sherry, and finally I get some peat and oak. Then on the finish I get that burnt vanilla, oak, and some lingering peat. There are some of those citrus fruits in here, the barrel char is limited, some butter scotch now. Complex, nuanced, but I'm wondering if this was chill filtered. It doesn't drink like a 50+% whisky but at the same time I get a nice bit of texture at first. Anyway - 70 bucks now. It's very good. I can see why this is winning awards, but it's not for me an award winning level whisky. It's one I'd like to always have on my shelves (or right now in my closet overflow). 3.25 I just can't go higher given it's a bit thin on the finish and I just don't get any older whisky notes, smooth as heck yes, but it's not giving me older whisky notes. Whisky from Japan is if well made always pretty smooth. This is where my scoring system feels off. I need a wow note for things as they approach 4.0 but this is just perfect for what it is. Balanced, tame alcohol, refined, complex. This is a whisky where if you like whisky, you'll like this. But will you be wowed? Only if you've not had true wow bottles. I feel like I should add points for just being "perfect" in being what it is, but that's not how I've scored other bottles.

Second bottle of this. Nose - Medicinal, sweet, puffy sweet smoke. I might get a caramel or chocolate at the very back end. it's a good peated note, but nothing special. Taste - The finish is awesome, tooties rolls, oak, and creme brulee. Sorry i had to jump there. The opening is a bit medicinal, slightly metallic, there's a buttery creamy sweetness. It's a lot more mellow and sweet than a normal ardbeg with their intense punch you in the face peat. This blend has calmed things down and added more sweet and savory notes. I'm really digging it. 3.5. It's not going to change your life or move the needle, but it's well worth chasing down if you like peat. Maybe a bit over priced though.

I suppose this is a review for me as this is gone and anyone paying secondary better want the box for their shelf as I'm just gonna say it now. I'm not sure it's worth 200 for the liquid, let alone secondary. Nose - Brown sugar, perhaps some cherry or maybe it's just a varnish, oak, oak and more oak,. There's more here but I can't get past the alcohol. OK with water I'm getting rich heavy leather. More varnish. Vanilla but I'm not really getting caramel. Taste - So I'll leave out the opening. The mid pallet to finish are those peanuts you get at the steak houses with the shells and the oak from those barrels. The up front notes are hard to get, it's so high alcohol but it's sweet and has this shoe varnish. With water still intense, still kicks, still has that peanut and oak. The sweetness is more spread out and lasts longer. I need more water. The opening is non descriptive sweet bourbon notes, I can't get any more detailed. So I'm kinda torn here. it's darn good bourbon. I'm really a fan of oak and the peanuts and oak work well here. That said it's not that complex, it's not that nuanced, and it doesn't really have a lot of a transition. Just that sweet opening and then the rest. It's great but it's not special. 3.5 stars just because of the higher abv and it letting me really play with it. But hey the box is really cool and I hope that's worth a few hundered bucks for me cause I paid a bit too much for this. Leaving off the cost as I bought this from a good friend who sold it to me below secondary but it was still painful. But hey he got to drink it with me as I opened it the second I gave him the cash and we had a nice couple of hours to catch up.

So I "won" the right to buy this one...I shoulda selected better bottles. We'll get to the review but I'm still shocked at myself for spending 150 bucks on an 8 year old whisky. Nose - A lot of typical rye notes. I do get a bubble gum note at first. I'm getting spice, charred oak (deep char), some cinnamon, some vanilla. After a bit i'm getting a baked apple pie with some dusty wood. With each nosing I get a different version of this, always rye forward, always with a lot of oak, but the sweetness levels and the fruits just keep changing. A drop of water brings out vanilla cream, actually really nice, but it kills some of the spice and oak. I think I like the water better here. Taste - I had the parker's bourbon just the other day and I was surprised that it reminded me so much of their rye. Today, I'm not getting those same associations, but I fully believe there is an element to the brand that seems to come through on the spirits. It's a brand sadly due to price and availability that I am unlikely to get to explore in depth anytime soon. This is sweet, fruity, and then it goes into spices, then into rye flavors and then into oak and barrel notes. There are at least 4 distinct transitions in here. This is as sweet as a bourbon. It has as much of that barrel char as a good aged bourbon. It however has that unique rye note and comes full force with rye spices. I don't get dill btw...so that's a huge win. There is a note near the end I can't place it. It's almost chocolate but it isn't and it is almost butter but it isn't. It's somewhere between the two, very enjoyable. Water I'm not sure it does a lot. I think it brings out a bit more sweetness up front and the finish is taking on a bit more chocolate vs that butter. Overall the whole mid game of spice and oak and sweet playing into transitions are all pretty similar. OK - this is fantastic whisky. This is an absolute home run, so in my face for turning my nose up at 8 years. I am not a rye guy, this is not my wheel house, and I would not buy again. That said I'm going 4 stars. This is one of if not the best rye I have had, outside of the 23 year kentucky vintage. I would buy again at 100 just as I don't like spending over 100 on rye whisky, though I do to continue to educate myself.

Before I blow my taste buds with peat lets do this one. So another Glen Ord and Clynelish type dram with about 50% of this being not that old blends with 80% Clynelish and about 33% being decently aged Glen Ord. Nose - gives off a pretty good amount of sherry as well as that waxy note of a Clynelish. The fruit honey notes I get with really Glen Ord, Clynelish, and Dailuaine as well. I also get a bit of an orchard fruit as well. For a whisky with spice in the name, no spice here. Just a lot of sweet and fruity notes with a good healthy amount of sherry. Taste - My first though was the spice isn't here either, but I'm wrong. There's a nice french oak like bite that's covered up at first by sweet decadent creamy fruit vanilla and sherry notes but the oak gets to have a nice firm statement before the dram's finish takes over. I'm sure there's ginger and clove and other spices here, I've never really taken the time to really know those spices but I see notes like that on enough whiskies with some similarities to know that we'll have them here too. Overall a very high quality dram at about 125 bucks I don't think you're getting a bad value. That said a part of me just wishes he could have had the Glen Ord as a single cask, this sherry is nice. Score - I'm debating at 2.75 or a 3.0. The opening is a 3.0 easy and maybe higher. The spicy finish isn't optimal, it comes a bit out of left field and the actual finish is short. That said there's so many good flavors, it's well aged, it's 46%, it's not chill filtered, it's not colored and I'm telling you if the finish was on par with the start this could be getting into the special range. I'm going 3.0 and I really don't think anyone who's considering this one will be disappointed. I just don't think anyone will be wowed either. The standard spice tree is not remotely close to this quality and yes this is worth significantly more than the standard.

OK so this is going to be a different type of review. Supernova for me is not about the taste. It is about the journey that the whisky takes you on. That said lets do a quick review and then explain this. For me the nose is ardbeg and octomore meet. I get the intensity of the higher abv the clean candied cigarettes, clean malt, and that ardbeg smoke. The flavor is ardbeg and octmore with a lot of extra oak. Yeah there's more to it than that but that's my take. Now to the journey. This starts off with a smooth, high abv, intense, but smooth and inviting nose. The whisky hits the tongue and it warms it, adds some sweetness and peaty notes. It coats it and it heats up, and heats up, then as you swallow there is an honest physical explosion on the tongue. Suddenly there is a supernova like feeling where the heat comes up and the flavors completely change. Your mouth is left with this unique and I'm going to call it oaky peat but it's so much more complex and frankly unlike anything I can compare it to. Each pour the journey can take a slightly different turn but it always has this explosive change in flavors and notes. Each pour I get new notes and new flavors and honestly these are some of the most unique earthy and spicy and adbeggian flavors I know. If you say be damned with refinement, I want hair on my chest, a kick to the crotch and unbridled Ardbeg, this is without a doubt the Ardbeg you've been dreaming of. For me, someone who would like a bit more refinement, someone who loves Ardbeg 23 year or a Laphroaig 25 I still really enjoy the punch in the face. Don't buy this to sit back and ponder the great thinker's best works. This is the Ardbeg you drink when you need a slap in the face. I'm not sure it justifies the insane price point that put this near 200 after tax, but I am sure this is darn good whisky and there is no ardbeg fan who is going to be disappointed with the whisky on face value. 3.5 score but I got that high with a heavy point of caution that I believe this is priced beyond 90% of even Ardbeg's fans price point and as such 3.0 is if it's your price range BUY IT, this is worth a stretch but I'm not sure it's worth a big one vs getting a pour at a bar. I do think every Ardbeg fan should take this ride, it's truly a unique experience that I'm pretty glad I had the opportunity.

On sale at I believe 100 bucks....ok lets see what we have here. Nose - Cereal, vanilla, and a hint of a red note - there's some wine casks in here. A very nice and lovely nose but non discrete across the board. taste - I can't lie, there's something about blends I love. They are so sparky and complex and varied. This is no short coming. I get just a whole world of notes. So for you grain haters, yeah I can taste grain whisky. They claim it is heavy malt but there's a LOT of grain in here too. Now grain whisky gives me a lot of cereal and vanilla which I get here so those aren't bad things. I get so many fruity notes, but nothing I can pin point. There's a lot going on and I just acn't do this justince. I'm sorry all I can't give good notes here. It's a blend of blends of blends it feels like to me. Think highland and speyside fruity and oily and full of a lot of different casks. Citrus and vanilla forward with a grain after taste. If any of that sounds good, buy it if you can do the 150 retail. Even if 150 is high and that sounds good, get it. This is great whisky

Been wanting to try an Ironroot for a while, they hype on these is beyond words. Nose - Oh god....clay putty, please don't like this be another turd like Garrison Brothers! Ok a bit more nosing and there's some sweet notes, its' way better than Garrison brothers. Overall still the nose on this sucks and frankly it smells nothing like bourbon. taste - So I brought the abv way down for this review as I want to get into the notes. There's that clay funk that I get in Garrisons which is simply off putting and frankly if Texas bourbon wants to be a quality product long term they need to get rid of it. I get maple notes which is unique. some red hots, and there's a good nice sweetness. At the end of the day this tastes like younger whisky. It has off notes. It does have some redeeming quality elements. It's complex, actually really complex, and I think there's some real quality going into this one. I personally can't get past the nose or that clay flavor to give this a high score but once again I can tell they're on their way. Over priced for the flavor, absolutely. But for a startup distillery trying to find their grounds and for how unique it is, I'm pretty happy with the price. For bourbon drinkers this is a 0 out of 100. It doesn't taste like bourbon. For people who love whisky this is a 50 out of 100, it's really interesting but you'll likely not enjoy it. For whisky geeks looking to explore, this is a 75. For a distillers score I don't know. Calling it bourbon is really a problem for me as there is no bourbon note in this bottle. I don't see this going in coke well. OK I'm adding ice - the way bourbon drinkers drink their stuff normally anyway. OK I'm getting waxy corn and vanilla. This is starting to taste like bourbon. Oddly enough I don't get the oak notes of a bourbon. That's what's killing this for me. One would think massive oak in that heat but instead I don't get the oak. I think that's the issue. This isn't bourbon tasting because I don't get the first charred oak. As you can clearly tell I really want to give this a high score. I don't think that texas heat works with grain whisky. Going 1.5. There's quality here, there really is but this isn't bourbon and it isn't one I'll ever buy again. A 1.5 isn't bad though, it's a good fair score for a whisky that frankly for me isn't good but I can see the quality and realize there is a niche for this.

So this was on sale for about 70 (a bit under actually) so I figured why not. Roughly 10 and 11 year old juice give or take 6 months on both sides. From unquestionably America's best distillery in MGP. Nose - Spicy and dusty bourbon. A bit off my standard MGP profile. Still vanilla custard, some rye spice and the blend is pretty heavy in rye. Yeah this is like a vanilla forward rye on the nose. Taste - Wow I'm getting rye big time. this is not even close to my first pour but today I'm getting a lot of rye. Sweet, apples, huge spices, vanilla, light oak...this is sweet and spice forward. I'm liking the overall product here. i could use less of the 36% rye and more of the 25% but I think they've made an incredibly nice product here. A bit pricey if you're paying into the 90 dollar range, but if you can get it for in the 60's or 70's I think this is a reasonable pour. MGP continues it seems to sell their best barrels and bottle their middle class stuff. Not a bad thing but a bit surprising.

Poured this with a good friend who's a bourbon drinker - heck bourbon employee. We both like it, weren't blown away, and he found the nose offensive. Now that it's been opened for a while and I've let a pour breath a bit lets see. Nose - Fruity, earthy, waxy, minerally. This is hard to explain. There's a sweet note in the malt but I'm not getting to the barrel finishing. There's a certain old oak funk note here that's really making everything else hard to get to. Drop of water and ok a bit more fruits, the bottle says Christmas spices...i'd more go with baking but ok. I don't get any of the honey they claim. Taste - Ok this is a complex dram. Here I get figs and raisins and honey and spices, and leather and oak. It lingers with the California raisins singing to me from an oak platform. A lingering dusty oak/leather note. Really tastes great but the nose is off, maybe even off putting for some. This is a bottle I'll savor over the next few years. This is one to have and ponder. It isn't however a master piece or even really that special. If these notes are you, get one but I wouldn't chase it or really feel it is needed. 2.5 because the finish has a complexity I love and I might be giving it credit for the price to age. Also the color is crazy nice and it's natural! post neck pour OK the sherry is taking over this one on the nose and the taste. The spices are still there but they I guess don't bother me as much. I'm moving this to a 2.75. There's still a spice bite and I don't get OLD whisky despite 22 years.