Tastes

Since these are going away I grabbed one having never had these 108.3 bottles. The claim is 7-11 year old MGP, a somewhat unique mash bill used by Belle Meade if my memory is serving me. Nose - Doesn't smell that old. Reminds me of the corn notes on a 5 year MGP. I do get some cherry, bit of nice vanilla, tame alcohol, and I'd say an almost lightly toasted oak (not a toasted barrel). Taste - Ok a bit of bitter chocolate, distinct minty rye, there's a bit of a green vegetable MGP note, good spice. Overall, a bit young, a bit hot, and very vegital. There's a bit of refinement and some older notes, but they're hidden by youth. Overall a nice big bold in your face bourbon, but doesn't compare to some of the better batches I had before they went to this more consistent profile. I'd say a 2 star bourbon. I won't mind finishing this but I'll likely forget I have it at the same time or I'll just drink it as a cheap "daily" bourbon.

Picked this up today, kinda me accepting I'll get nothing good from 2021 and this is kinda the boobie prize. Not the worst deal ever but with what I spend and the effort I make to get bourbon, a bit frustrating. Nose - This instantly brings me back to classic bourbons. Nice age, at 12 years old comes off while classic intense candied vanilla bourbon notes shine through. A bit of puddy, some shoe shine varnish, touch of cigar ash, and dare I say some chocolate birthday cake? Given the reasonably low ABV the alcohol is stronger than expected, giving a rather drying element to this. After letting the glass sit and settle, I get really rich oakey caramel. Near the end I am getting dark cherries, interesting, but nothing overwhelming. Taste - Thinner on the palette than nose. More alcohol astringency. It is a bit chocolatey, good vanilla, plenty of varnish, it has this caramel and aspartame and oak thing on the back end. The alcohol bite doesn't go away, and yet it isn't unpleasant. There's a surprisingly alcohol forward. All that said, it's this very classic bourbon with good sweetness, refined in terms of youthful elements, and good oak notes. And a lot of oak, I'm really struggling to explain this almost refined alcohol note that meshes with the oak. Normally, you get a big HOT note from alcohol and then it subsides, if anything the alcohol picks up and builds on your cheeks as the oak waves come at you. Odds are I'm missing some fruit notes here but the oak and tannin/alcohol forward elements are kind of hiding them. I'm sure this will open up over time, but I must say, good bourbon, with some really great classic notes. I'm sad that this profile, which I enjoy, has become so rare that I can fully get why people wait in line for it. I'll give this a 2.5, about an 86 but I could go higher on both. The nose is solid 89 or 90 about a 4 star nose. But the drinking experience does not do enough. I should note a dab of KoK makes this into a glass of lower proof KoK ;) It might be my secrete hack! You know second thought 2.75. In a sane world this would be a 75 dollar bourbon that you could get on a daily basis. We sadly don't live in a sane world anymore.

Always a treat when I get the honor of trying one of these. This sadly is just a sample i received, but I'll do my best here as always. This one is the seven swans a swimming batch 66 at 64.85. This likely is the barton/MGP blend with most likely the 21% rye MGP and I suspect we'll be in that 12-20 year age range. Those are at least my assumptions going in. Nose - Right off the bat this is a distinctly candied and very sweet example of cigar blend. Rye notes do come out, giving hints of smoke, leather, tobacco, and well just regular old rye. Lightly caramel covered apples are here, likely the barton notes. Here I get almost waxy fall leaves, not the generally just fall leaves but there's a bit of a wax over coat. Heavily spiced and some good citrus notes. I'm more in the apples going into lemon zone, but you could argue the spices might remind you of some type of orange influenced spiced product. Taste - Cinnamon and spice...chocolate cake or perhaps some dried pastry, vanilla, oak, leather, apple cider, mint leaves, and yes some grape notes. Very spicy, very tobacco/leather heavy for sure. The overall whisky is very sweet upfront and on the nose. And then really nicely spiced and oaky on the finish. Thinking the "kentucky" bourbon is 14+ year stuff which is really where that distillery hits a sweet spot. Going 3.75 stars. Maybe should be 4? Really exceptional bourbon. But you know me, I'm a hard grader.

Apologies, didn't realize I hadn't put some notes on this one. So full disclosure, I'm a bit of a fan of compass box grain whisky, but this one is a bit of an odd ball. It actually contains 31% 11 year old peated single malt...that has to be called grain due to using a column still instead of a pot still. The absurdity of scotch whisky rules. Nose - cotton handy, meets fruits, touch of smoke...unique. Mint is coming out now, white chocolate, fudge, cinnamon spice, and more fudge. Taste - Mint, citrus, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon....layers of complexity and with huge depth. Bit of smoke. This reminds me of a vanilla bomb version of say a nikka from the barrel, with even more complexity and age. Yeah that fruity element with the smoke and vanilla is great. Water brings some nutty elements and seems to add another touch of notes. yeah good whisky. 3.00 from me. I could go higher but I'll be conservative.

This is really my first time to really spend time and enjoy a handy...a true statement is more ways than one, but we'll move on. Nose - After a good 30 minutes in the glass what was light winter green with christmas spices now gives me some oak funk and just spiced sweet notes. Has plenty of alcohol to give me a big sneeze digging into it. Clean sweetness, some hints here and there of younth, but overall a well refined massive rye sweet bomb. Taste - I'll start with the final real thought. This is a huge mouth watering big bold whisky. It coats the mouth, leaves you with spice for days, and makes no apologies for any of it. That my friends is why one can justify this being a part of that BTAC line. But how does it get there and does it really have the refinement to be BTAC? To come to this conclusion I"m actually going straight to water before I get into the notes. Brown sugar and bitter rye spice give way to sour oak and more spice. Water has unearthed all these more extreme tasting notes hidden by the depth and sugary sweetness of the ultra high abv. Lets add more water. The creamy elements of the mouth feel now give way to more bite, more bitter, more well intense and polarizing elements. My mouth remains coated and my senses are firing at 150% of their tolerance. I know we often wax over flavor memories that a whisky gives us and they are here. All kinds of spices and sugars...oak and funky elements but they all really do come together to create a full and rich experience. And I think that's why people love Handy, it isn't epic whisky in the sense of well aged and refined scotch or even a masterfully balanced bourbon. No, it's a big giant kick in the crotch that leaves you in wow of the intensity and wow factor of flavor. And for this guy, it does it with enough refinement to keep me extremely engaged. 3.5 out of 5. I'm in at MSRP all day on this and I'd go a good 50 bucks over just to say i had a bottle.

Got 2 oz of this so this is my 3rd attempt at this. Lets see how this goes. Nose - So this has been poured for about 15 minutes. When I first nosed this it was sweet cherries and over oaked buffalo trace classic oak with a bitter over coat. Now it's straight creme brulee, caramel drizzel, dare I say some kind of chocolate pie, and well some more oak. Taste - Ok tannic, chalky, cherry, big...bold...hot. OK it's opening up a bit. Bottom line is it's good, it's certainly a stagg, but I don't like it more than better GTS's and while the age is there it might have turned a bit while not getting mellowed with age. It is playing very well with water, it's allowed some sweet to come out and hidden some bitter oak, but still something is missing. I'll give this a 3.25, feels awfully low for a Stagg, but this is coming up short. Edit - yeah everytime I come back it starts out WONDERFUL and then the finish goes south, fast, and it doesn't recover. A real shame as this is missing what makes the great stagg's great. Still it's good!

Batch 23 - the 100% bourbon batch! Nose - Springbank has gotten so wonderfully clean while saving that funk and classic character. This all ex bourbon cask holds that so well. Oak, citrus, and classic springbank malt. This isn't a whisky about how many notes it has but it's more just about how well it executes those notes. Taste - Unlike the well executed nose, the taste is anything but simple. It's big bold but has layers. This one opens with sweet springbank sugary cookie malt. Then bitter citrus and a hint of oak. Then the peat comes in, this intense old whisky note comes in (did they top load this?) with intensity of citrus and oak bitters, sugars, vanillas, and yes lovely peat sneaks in to add layers of complexity. Outstanding whisky finish! 3.75 from me on this morning/evening. Not my favorite springbank 12 but this is as well done, executed, and technically correct as springbank gets. I'm loving these recent batches.

2021 edition - not sure why we haven't moved these towards year or batch numbers but here we are. This one is 50:50 sherry and bourbon. Nose - Old school sherry giving off grape notes which I adore on sherry casks. Gives me vibes of old world sherry. The springbank is turned back, still sea salt and light baked sugar cookies come through but they're pushed back for clean vanilla and that amazing just outstanding sherry. Taste - The bourbon casks really jump out here. You get sherry and vanilla heavy bourbon and then more sherry. Grapes, figs, raisins, chocolate, perfect oak enhancements, goodness...I can't express how great this is. This takes the second batch from 2020 which was this dirty old school springbank funk bomb and goes the opposite. Almost old school macallan or cadenhead HP sherry casks. Sadly this isn't 100% those epic sherry casks but perhaps we're being saved from our own stupidity as the bourbon plays wonderfully here. Anyway 4.0. Springbank is just getting better. Sadly god knows how many people are going to just buy these to invest.

This will make my 3rd bottle of Glenallachie...a distillery I haven't yet bonded with. This time around it is the 7th edition of these 10 year old CS bottles. This one had a staggering 60,000 bottles made, massively up from what was already a huge release for batch 6. I've already got all kinds of concerns about quality with that kind of production increase. This has the same formula of the last few release. PX, Oloroso, virgin oak, and some kind of red wine cask (I think it's red). Sounds a bit messy, but I'm hoping it's going to impress me. Nose - I smells like some kind of medicinal oak to start and then I start getting rancid red wine notes. There's horse hair and blankets. I'm unfortunately not thinking "oh something went wrong" because I had the 15 year which while much more enjoyable, certainly gave me some similar profile notes. Even the 29 year old single cask I have gives me similar "WTF" oak notes. Powering through the unpleant oak and wine, I get nice berries, hints of chocolate, and frankly a nice sherry element. I'm starting to think some of these off notes are their malt though I seem to recall having an ex bourbon IB that was fairly nice. Taste - The taste thankfully is much less difficult. Sweet, warming, rich and complex flavors really rush to you surface, I'll need some time to address these. Right off the batch it's chocolate and sherry goodness with a thick sweet malt. That then meetes some umami/wine and heavy oak...this combined with a nutty and barn like malt element. I'm thinking some kind of steak sauce meets farm elements, meets baking chocolate, and then just big old oak elements. I can't say I hate it, but I can't say I want to drink it either. Heavy water brings it into more of a chocolate oak with a bit of still and butter scotch and still some barn funk. I think I like it more with the heavy water? Guys I have nothing on how to score this. I'll give it a 1.5. It's under 100 bucks in the UK. It's CS and the color is at least natural. For that alone I guess it's ok. But I don't really understand who is looking for this whisky.

Fresh off the presses we have a new series frmo Balvenie, a french oak series. This spend 16 years in traditional casks and then a few months in french oak pineau casks which seems rather short but even on the nose here, it did it's job. Nose - The nose is surprisingly bold and unbalanced for a balvenie. There's the classic Balvenie with honey malt and rich sweet candied malts. Then you get some fairly rough oak notes, perhaps even a short maturation brought in some french oak spice but wow if that's where it is coming from, that got into the whisky fast. Then there's this very strong white wine note. Sweet and sour with fairly strong oak elements. I get some honey comb cereal, vanilla, almost slightly sour frosting, There's a very rich dessert note that seems to blend that rich vanilla frosting and some kind of sour fruit preserve and grains. Really strong aroma and very interesting. Taste - it's exactly what you'd expect. Classic Balvenie malt, that dark honey and sweet play off the "traditional" oak casks. Good spice from oak. Very nice oak levels, more than expected. The wine is clearly sweet with sugars and distinct white wine. I'm not getting any distinct wine notes I can pull out but to be frank, I'm not a wine guy so there's more here, but I can't really draw out any special notes. Though I'm not just not a wine guy but I've never even bought a white wine, a few red's but never white. Toasted oak on the finish as well. I have no idea how this has this much oak character. It makes me assume the french oak marketing isn't just bs. 2.25. It's perfectly fine, just above average whisky. I like it and we'll see how it develops, but for now that's a fair score. I like it, I'm glad I have it, I won't buy another bottle but this finish isn't my favorite thing.