Tastes

My wife’s son bought this for me for Christmas. He was the only one of my family and friends who bought me whisky for Christmas. He gets me! I know Macallan gets a bit of a bad rap for being overpriced and maybe deservedly so. This bottle averages $105 online, a bit over my normal price range. The Macallan 12 yr was one of the first scotches I tried that I really liked and this one is very good as well, so maybe their prices aren’t completely out of line. But on to the tasting. This dram is aged for 15 years and matured in three types of casks: ex-bourbon, European ex-sherry, and American ex-sherry. It’s bottled at 43% ABV and is a nice natural color of dark straw. It produces nice long legs when given a spin in the Glencairn. The nose is floral barley and sweet sherry: berries, honey, oranges, and chocolate. The American oak and bourbon cask shows up in vanilla notes. Really enjoyable. I like this better than the big sherry bomb style like Glendronach. In the mouth its classic malted barley, sweet honey, vanilla, hints of chocolate and cinnamon. A slightly thick mouthfeel, it also has a bit more heat than I would expect for a 43% 15 yr old. That’s not all bad, just a little unexpected. The finish is decently long with warm oak and spice, dried fruit. It hangs around just long enough to make you want another sip. Overall I really like this whisky. Would I put out $105-110 to buy a bottle? I don’t know, but I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to enjoy it. 4/5.

Picked this up a couple of weeks ago as a “what the hell” selection. After all the publicity Barton had last year with the rickhouse collapse I thought wth, might as well give it a try. I imagine some of the whiskey lost in that collapse last year was good, aged barrels. Obviously this wasn’t any of that. 1792 Bourbon is named for the year Kentucky became a state. It’s distilled by the Barton distillery in Bardstown which is owned by Brown-Foreman. This bottle is an NAS offering bottled at an odd 46.85% ABV. It’s medium gold in the glass. It clings to the glass like glue, giving up short thick legs. The nose is fairly pleasant. There is a slight burn with cinnamon, vanilla, and caramel. That’s about the best feature of this whiskey. The palate is somewhat dry for a bourbon, a little hot, and echoes the nose with oak and spicy caramel and vanilla. It’s not bad, but the flavors seem muted, a little weak. The finish is disappointing with just a weak oak tone that disappears quickly. This bottle was $30, making it a moderately priced bottle but it just doesn’t deliver the goods. It’s a good mixer and makes a decent Old Fashioned but there are better options for sipping neat. 2.75/5.

I bought this bottle back in January and am just now getting around to reviewing it. This is a local craft distillery out of Columbus Ohio. Found this bottle in my local Kroger for $45. It’s touted as “America’s first dark pumpernickel rye”. It’s aged “at least three years” in new American oak barrels. Not sure of the mashbill but it’s definitely very high rye content, offhand I’d say 90% or more. It’s bottled at a healthy 48% ABV. In the glass it’s a nice dark amber. It coats the glass with a decent oily coating and produces adequate legs. The nose is classic rye in spades! Tons of spicy cinnamon, pepper, cloves, hints of mint, maybe dill? Very nice. The palate is a little tamer - dry and spicy with dark honey and hints of vanilla. It has a somewhat thin mouthfeel which only detracts from it slightly. The finish is quite long with warm spicy rye hanging on well after you’ve swallowed. Overall this is an excellent rye with all the stuff you expect of a rye. At $45 it’s a pretty decent value as well. Very enjoyable. 3.75/5.

So I picked this up for St. Paddy’s Day because it’s about the only time of the year I go Irish - in whiskey anyway. Lots of positive talk/reviews of this one in some of the whiskey groups I frequent so I figured what the hell. Let’s give it a go shall we? This version of Jameson is matured in “craft beer barrels” according to the label. Notice it doesn’t actually say “Stout” beer barrels, the name not withstanding. It’s bottled at the typical 40% ABV and is a nice medium gold in the glass. I expect it’s both colored and filtered. It leaves thin watery legs and not a few water droplets on the glass when you give it a swirl. The nose is pleasant enough with weak mild fruits, honey, and weak malty biscuits. Notice the word “weak”; it’s gonna come up a few more times before this review is over. The palate has light honey, butter, weak fruits, and no trace of Stout that I could discern. Definitely none of the coffee or chocolate notes that are typical in Stout. There is an odd flavor I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Not bad, just something I really couldn’t identify. Maybe that’s the influence of the beer barrels? Hops maybe? The finish is short and the flavor I couldn’t identify carries through to the finish. Again, it’s not unpleasant, just different. Overall this isn’t a bad dram for $30. Its definitely drinkable if not memorable. 3/5. Sláinte!

Kaveh Zamanian said when he was thinking and dreaming about building a distillery and starting a brand, his wife would tell him "you're taking the family down the rabbit hole." So when his dream became a reality, Zamanian easily came up with the name -- Rabbit Hole. I first tried Rabbit Hole bourbon last year and immediately loved it. It has all the classic bourbon flavors and not really anything negative about it. This rye whiskey follows that lead. This is not a “barely legal” rye. This bad boy has 95% rye and 5% malted barley in the mashbill. This is the same mashbill as Bulliet 95 rye but this whiskey blows Bulliet away in terms of flavor. Rabbit Hole Rye is bottled at 47.5% ABV. It doesn’t carry an age statement other than to say it’s “matured over 2 years”. It’s a nice medium amber in the glass. It sticks to the glass with a thick oily coating and leaves slow legs after giving it a spin or two. According to the bottle this is from batch #3. The nose is pretty much everything you’d expect from a rye: spicy with cinnamon and cloves, pumpernickel bread. Faint notes of brown sugar and molasses. This carries through to the palate with dark honey, cinnamon and cloves. A little one dimensional but very good. The finish on this is excellent. It’s decently long with more of that spicy profile: lots of black pepper and cinnamon, with oak char, molasses, leather, and tobacco. This was $50 at my local Kroger, about the same as their bourbon. For that price this is a decent value. This is a very good whiskey that belies it’s young age. Someone at Rabbit Hole knows what they’re doing. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in a few years when they have some more aged stock to work with. 3.75/5. Cheers!

This was originally posted on Barreled 3/1/18 from a Flaviar sampler. Some say it’s a 5-6 year old Lagavulin. Some say it’s whatever (cheapest) barrels are available on the independent market. Still others swear that it’s from Laphroaig. Whatever it is, the only thing that’s certain is that it’s from Islay and we call it The Ileach. (H/T Top Gear!) The Ileach Cask Strength is an independent bottling from an unknown Islay distillery. It’s a nice medium amber in the glass and is bottled at a hearty 58% ABV. It has no age statement. In the glass it’s a medium amber that leaves a nice oily coating, leaving lots of long thin legs. The nose of this whisky is pretty tame considering it’s strength. There’s very little alcohol burn; floral peat, briny sea spray, light citrus. Little to no smoke. Some dark malt tones after some time in the glass. Water has little to no effect on the nose. Kind of underwhelming. In the mouth it’s a whole ‘nother thing! There’s heat of course (did I mention it’s 58% ABV?); sharp but not harsh. Smoke, oily mouthfeel, phenols. Some bitter chocolate. Very light vanilla sweetness, almost unnoticeable. Water tames the heat but has little other effect. The finish has LOTS of smoke! Medium length, ashy, BBQ meat. Very reminiscent of Laphroaig. Unfortunately, water kills the finish. This whisky is available online in the $50-60 range, but not in the U.S. This makes it a possible alternative to drams like Laphroaig Cask Strength if all you’re looking for is smoke and ABV. Unfortunately there’s not much else to this dram. I enjoyed this sample but would not go looking for it. 3.5/5. Cheers!

This review was posted on Barreled 2/22/18, based on a sample from Flaviar. This Speyside dram has no age statement and is bottled at an impressive 60% ABV. It’s a nice medium gold in the glass and leaves a thick oily coating that leaves long slow legs. The nose was surprisingly tame for such a powerful dram. There was very little alcohol burn. There was lots of sherry with a fruity, floral oak. Adding water brought out a darker, malty character. Some hints of chocolate and spice as well. The palate was HOT! (Duh!) This whisky definitely benefits from the addition of water. Behind the heat is a honeyed sweetness and cinnamon. Water reveals caramel and dark chocolate. It has a thick mouthfeel that lingers long after it is swallowed. The finish is long, warm, peppery oak with just a hint of smoke. This is a really nice whisky that I wouldn’t mind getting to know a little better but the $92 price tag online seems a little steep for an NAS whisky, cask strength or not. Overall I give it 4/5.

Ok, I’m done with putting up with Barreled’s quirkiness. I like the simplistic format but from now on I will be posting reviews here as well as porting over earlier reviews. Here’s the latest. I bought this bottle for Burns night along with the Bowmore 15. My only previous experience with this distillery was the Cu Bocan, which I liked very much. Having heard good things about the rest of their products I was eager to try something else. This dram is aged for 14 years in a combination of ex-bourbon and port casks. It's bottled at a nice 46% ABV and is a medium gold in the glass. Swirling produces slow forming legs with some clingy water droplets. Not sure about colorant or chill filtration; nothing stated on the bottle or website. The nose is classic scotch: strong barley, berries and orchard fruits, malty biscuit, and soft honey. Nothing special, but very nice. The palate is sweet honey, fruits, hints of milk chocolate, nuts. The mouthwatering taste gives way to just a hint of smoke on the back end. The finish is decently long. There's a warm, slightly smoky malt and cereal with burnt sugar. It hangs around quite a while if you can resist taking another sip. I got this from Acespirits.com with their Burns night discount of 10% for $50. Even at the full price of $55 this is a very good value. Very worth your while to pick up if you get a chance. 4.25/5. Cheers!

I was looking for something new to celebrate Burns Night last Thursday and I picked this bottle. Deanston is a relatively new highland distillery that only opened in 1965 in an old cotton mill that dates back to 1785 on the river Teith. This whisky is bottled at 46.3% ABV and is non-chill filtered, “as it should be”, according to the label. Not sure about coloration; it seems a bit dark to me. It is aged in bourbon barrels, is a nice golden amber in the glass and produces plentiful legs when swirled. The nose screams “this is Scotch!” to me: floral and fruity, with hints of salt and smoke. Not Islay peat smoke, but charred oak smoke. Apples, pears, and citrus with vanilla, caramel, and oak notes from the bourbon barrels. Really nice. The palate is a little hot at first but quickly turns sweet and spicy: honey and vanilla with cinnamon and nutmeg. There is a malty component that brings a thick mouthfeel. The finish is medium, malty, rich, and warm. This is pretty easy drinking and would be a good choice or someone new to Scotch coming from bourbon. I really like this dram. I found it for $55 locally and see that it runs $65-70 online. $55 is a good deal for this bottle. Solid 4.0/5. Cheers!