Tastes
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Fable & Folly 14 Year Whiskey
Blended American Whiskey — USA
Reviewed March 12, 2022 (edited July 1, 2022)Oh Diagio and their never ending marketing dollars. What oh what have I done this time? So this is some old heaven hill distillate with god knows what...but likely some MGP something. So it isn't a bourbon. It is bottled at a hateful 45% and chill filtered to hell just to spite anyone who may still love whisky. But hey...that's some really old whisky and it's got 20+ year old heaven hill in it....and at 160, I guess I'm dumb enough to gamble. Nose - And inviting classic bourbon nose right off the bat. Clean, extreme vanilla, touch of oak, and some caramel character. Deeper inspection will yield a hint of oak smoke, a surprising touch of rye spice, but not a lot more. There's some fruit, but you really couldn't better describe old school proofed down bourbons that used to contain older whiskies than they stated but were chill filtered and watered down from decades of the past. Taste - So there's no character here, the chill filtering and low abv killed that. Still let it sit and sit and sit in your mouth and some spice will come out, good vanilla, good caramel, and yeah there's a nice rye spice on the finish (that isn't the heaven hill). It even leaves what you can call a pretty good finish. Overall this is the most boring orphan barrel I've had, but it's quality whisky at the base that's been just ruined by terrible decisions from the company. 2 stars, great quality spirit that has been forced down to an average whisky by the insanely low abv and the down right idiotic chill filtration. Seriously guys 50% and NCF and you've have a winner on your hands and you could ask more for it without a blink of an eye from anyone. Is this neck pour closed off? Maybe...but I'm not seeing any qualities to make me think that. Sorry big question? Do you buy it? If you want to try old school style whisky and don't mind the low proof and the lack of oils and fatty acids, yeah, buy 3 or 5. But if you think something like what's in my glass right now, the new riff 6 year malted rye is great...pass. This is just too dulled and stripped of character. After further review and tasting. I'm moving this up to a 2.75. The rye spices are coming out more and those are giving it more body and bite. It's hiding the youth and it isn't hiding the older bourbons. Overall, I really appreciate what they got here. It isn't epic and it's a gimmick beyond belief but the whisky is actually good.160.0 USD per Bottle -
Sample reivew So this is the newest release, not sure which one that is? But anyway lets go. Nose - Right away that wonderful armut dirty yet savory malt. Then an insane blast of god knows how many wines and sweet notes. Burnt coca, cinnamon, cherries, raspberries, dates, figs, fall candles at bed bath and beyond, pastry dough, milk chocolate, and yeah it's good a bit of alcohol on the nose. Taste - The taste is a bit less WOW. It's not as big and rich and full as the nose. Still an explosion of intense fruity jams but it's more vanilla and some spice from the amrut malt, followed by some of that dirty burned chocolate. And it follows up with a nice long linger. Very very solid whisky, but comes up a bit underwhelming vs expectations. 3.25
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Port Charlotte OLC:01 2010
Single Malt — Islay, Scotland
Reviewed March 4, 2022 (edited October 30, 2023)I'm pretty excited to even taste this let alone review it. And I've already had a few pours! Nose - jams, meat, peat, sugar, jelly, earthy clay dirty, and so many fruity wine elements. Oh boy. Taste - I know there's a crazy blend of casks but the sherry cask is KING! Its sherry over fruity elements and this combination of smoked meat and roasted cream if that makes any sense. So much sweet up front, almost too much, and then balanced instantly with oak and dirty smoke then HUGE smoked meat and just straight up charcoal smoke. Overall, this is a completely stupidly balanced whisky. Nothing about this whisky makes sense to me. It's just all over the place and I think ultimately that's a lack of age to mellow this all. That said, it's also AMAZING, lol. I guess that's why this is so experimental. It's not a completed whisky or well put together, but instead a flavor bomb that's giving you so much and none of it is bad. I'm going 3.0 right now. I really am enjoying this, but I think my score reflects more that it doesn't make any sense to me as a premium whisky. I also think I'd buy this again at 130 and I'd think at 130 this should be a higher score for me to rebuy....so maybe I'm crazy? Anyway my 3rd whisky review of the day and honestly, all 3 were crazy challenging for me. This might be the most and that's a HUGE statement. This is however by FAR my favorite, but scores are a BIT more than just if I like it. Edit Going back, no this is 3.75 stunner stuff!130.0 USD per Bottle -
Bardstown Bourbon Co. Founders KBS Stout Finish
Bourbon — Tennessee, USA
Reviewed March 4, 2022 (edited June 24, 2022)I guess this is the name? Nose - Super soured dickel notes with some hints of chocolate to start. As it develops I get orange citrus elements, almost an orange vitamin chew. It's now transitioning into more complex citrus with some coca powder. At the 170 I paid, lets just say this is a massive fail on the nose, but it's interesting. Taste - So I'm influenced but lets go with my first thoughts and then all I can taste. At first you get this citrus bomb with odd oak and dickel vitamins. All this is on this crazy velvety mouth feel. And then it finishes in creamy milk chocolate. The second pour is more nutty almost hazelnut coffee comes through, then citrus and chocolate. Now...after influence, my god it's heavy orange citrus bitters. I should wait longer to review this but both times I've poured this, I've had different feelings. This time the citrus is way higher, last time it was way more chocolate. I'm honestly not sure how i feel about this, but I have to give this a score. So price - this SHOULD be about 130-140, but for some reason my store wanted 170 and I bought it....I'm dumb. Watch it be on sale in a week for retail....they did the same on ferrand. This is the most unique bourbon I've ever had. Coffee, weird bourbon, and chocolate. The blending here and work done with the finishing is really interesting. This is a must try, not even for the quality but how unique it is. Score? Oh lord....lets go with a 2.5. It's enjoyable, but confusing. I can't even start to tell you if you should or shouldn't buy it. I'm glad I got it because it's crazy weird. I think many will hate it. I think many will love it. I can't imagine this won't create a lot of extreme bias among vocal people, but I think a lot of us are going to be confused lol.170.0 USD per Bottle -
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon Batch A122
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed March 4, 2022 (edited June 7, 2022)They can't all be winners, right? Nose - heavy aged vanilla, youthful oak, and light mix of cherry, cola, and ok others said it but I can get the doctor pepper idea. The nose is really nice, it misses the top tier ECBP's but it's nice. Softer and lighter without some of my favorite dark notes or heavy chocolates. Taste - Earthy for the ECBP, straw and hay with a lot of barn elements for an ECBP. Overall still heavy sweet notes we expect in what I'll call a lighter more fruity ECBP (classic among the A's). Good caramel elements. And the oak is doing ok with time. Still some sour elements and just overly astringent notes come through. After maybe being the worst neck pour ever on an ECBP, even just a day later it's really opened up. This is good. It's still however not a winner. Then again, it's more ECBP than the much disliked B521 (it was off profile). This just comes off as a bit younger than the best ECBP, but after at first being ready to completely TRASH this one, and I drank a BIT too much of it the first night, helped to open it up, but I guess I wasted some pretty decent bourbon. Anyway i see my ECBP scores are all over the map, it's a hard one to score fairly. I'm doing 2.75. This is a good CS bourbon, but it lacks what you expect for 12 year old ECBP. Still in line with some other less impressive ones. I need to adjust some historical scores I think.70.0 USD per Bottle -
So as the 7 isn't on distiller yet and I hate adding whiskies, I'll be doing 4 vs 7 and reviewing both here and when I see 7 up, I'll move it on over. Full disclosure I paid for the fusion 4 but 7 was given to me by the distillery. 4 Nose - The nose is opening up as classic Barton notes. Apple, light cinnamon, touch of oak spice and then there's a bit of an earthy element that you wouldn't get on barton. Overall it's VERY barton forward up front. Taste - And while the nose is all that 13 year barton, the taste is much more funky odd young bourbons with that sweet lovely barton on the finish. I don't really have a lot to say here, it's just not that interesting, but it's pretty boring and no descriptive. Overall - I don't mind this bottle and I've been working on just killing it to free up the space. There's this savory oily malty and youthful element I just can't get into. That said I think the barton is so young...it might really explode as it gets 5-6 years old. 7 Nose - White sugar and corn is really the upfront note here. Very clean and simple sweetness followed by funky bourbon. The rye here comes off burnt and very oak forward. It's an obvious blend of some likely heaven hill/beam type bourbons. Really heavy on that corn nut forward elements. Taste - Corn, sour, bitter, very low sweetness, tannic, and yet youthful. This is NOT good lol. Now I do have to say it's layered with a lot of depth and a lot of flavors, I just don't like any of it. But if you like something funky you might dig it. At the very last this is higher proof than the batch 4 and it has a really nice mouth feel. For me the 4 is a 1.5 and the 7 is a 1.25. Both are acceptable bourbons but they should be much cheaper, more in that 40 dollar range. I know they use some expensive sourced bourbon but their distillate isn't ready for the show to me.
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Woodford Reserve Distillery Series Double Double Oaked 2021
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed February 15, 2022 (edited February 18, 2022)I loved the 2019, really liked but was disappointed by the 2020, and now we get into the 2021. Nose - Somewhat light and balanced. Toasted more than heavy oak or heavy char. Classic woodford vanilla with this roasted chocolate meets french vanilla meet some powdered sugar and yes spice. Then some interesting fruity notes I can't place. Taste - Spicy vanilla and chocolate, classic woodford through and through. Honestly it's just non descriptive oak smoke and spice that is medium spiced and medium charred. While last year's had some kind of burnt croissant, this doesn't have that middle of the road bready sweetness. Finish/mouth - good spice lingers but the mouth feel is SOOOOOOOO bad! So thin. Gosh that sucks. So I'm scoring this 1.75 like the 2020 one. That said side by side the 2020 was a bit richer and better. It had more going on. Sadly just not a fan of this one. It's good but it isn't what I want from that extra double.50.0 USD per Bottle -
Sam Houston 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Bourbon — Kentucky , USA
Reviewed February 9, 2022 (edited July 8, 2022)KY Batch 06. Nose - This is what bourbon is supposed to smell like. Smoked oak notes followed by bubble gum, rye spice, vanilla, rich dirty caramel. Just wonderful with some nice fruits scattered in. Taste - This is really just a wonderful example of bourbon. The age is so well done. They've really crafted about the perfect bourbon for today's market. Balanced spice, oak, and sweetness. This reminds me of an off profile older MGP with more focus on the spice and the finish is starting to really improve. I loved batch 1 and I love this batch 6. Really impressed with where they're going with these. 3.75 I think is fair. -
Four Gate Batch 15.3 The Bluegrass Trilogy
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed February 9, 2022 (edited February 10, 2022)Nose - plumbs and raisins with oak spice and layers of dark fruity elements over a caramel base. Make ZERO mistake, alcohol is here and it's NOT subtle. There's an element of pretty young heaven hill based bourbon to me. Still it's pretty darn fruity and very nice. Taste - BIG, really bold bourbon with huge layers of vanilla and dark fruits, light chocolates, and all kinds of sweet sweet elements here. But then we get all this really aggressive pure bourbon elements. I have to say, this has really improved since opening and drinking about 40% of it. It's really nicely done and I have to give credit here, the younger bourbons have with time become less prevalent and I'm digging this one a lot more. Surprisingly strong score here at 3.0. Even the smallest drop of water really mellows some of bitter oak notes and pushes more sweetness and creamy mouthfeel out.200.0 USD per Bottle -
Springbank 10 Year
Single Malt — Campbeltown, Scotland
Reviewed February 9, 2022 (edited June 1, 2022)So there's this rumor that the 2021 springbank 10 was special, unique, different. OK....lets get one! I finally found this one and then I looked it up....there are like 5 2021 batches of the 10 year. What in the hell? How am I supposed to know I got this really cool special springbank 10 if they do 3-5 batches a year? And why do reviewers I REALLY like, respect, and follow talk about YEAR batches when they do multiple a year? I'm calling you out liquor hound and sipper social club. You're both too darn good and too freaking awesome to have confused me! Also if you're reading, you're both awesome! 21/51 is the batch so now you know and don't have to wonder. Nose - Just classic springbank 10. A bit more on the grape fruit acidic oak than a few I've had, a bit low on salt or coastal notes. But it's just classic springbank 10. Old batches sometimes give me more red fruit while this is more white and acidic on the fruit side. Still that classic slightly salty/peaty/sugar cookie malt. Even gives me slight reminders of play doh. Taste - Again classic springbank 10. I do get more grape fruit here too, especially on the finish than some. Salty and nicely peated up front. And it's just BOLD and BIG by any normal 10 year standard but this one might be milder than some 10's. All that said guys, I don't see any real change here. Just a different batch that unlike some springbanks I think is trying to stay pretty close to form. An absolutely amazing 10 year old whisky but it's now 90 bucks or more. Price sucks but honestly, I'm still buying at 100 on these. It's the best 10 year old regular release on the planet and it's still likely the best under 100 dollar scotch there is. 2.75 is my score and if value were a thing this used to be a 4.5 and now days maybe it's just a 4. And in terms of levels of 2.75's, this is really closer to a 3.0. If there were just a bit more mouth feel it would be there. It's sadly at 46% just not rich enough and you CAN get that on 46% whiskies.90.0 USD per Bottle
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