Tastes

Peat & port is my favorite alliteration. This is lovely.

Delicious peat. A great showcase of Ledaig.

It's not bad, but it's incredibly thin at 86 proof and has a finish akin to vodka. Go for OF Signature 100 instead which is a solid daily drinker and only a few more dollars.

It's been maybe five years since I've had this but I recently picked up a bottle when my local was out of my regular dailies and I'm not mad about it. It checks all the boxes: decent proof, sweet, vanilla, a bit of spice, solid mouthfeel, and around $25. I can't complain about any of that and I think it might be more to my liking than current WT101 which has a tough-to-define dirt/earthiness to it that reminds me of Beam and doesn't do much for me. Makes me think I need to revisit other OF offerings.

Your usual MGP notes: dill, baking spices, slightly floral, and moderately sweet. No complaints for the price.

What was a nice, simple rye has become increasingly astringent over the last five or so years.

This is a really great rye for $35. I think it's better than HWRR as the makeup of that brand has shifted dramatically as they run out of 16 year Barton. It has more of a typical rye profile than Pikesville--which I think is great--but this is ~$15 cheaper. It can stand up to any of the overpriced Whistlepigs, including the laughable Black Prince; same with Michter's. It's infinitely better than Sazerac, which is about the same price but has declined precipitously in quality. In a crazy market it's bottles like this that prove you can still find great rye & bourbon at reasonable prices--which was one of the primary allures of these spirits to begin with.

Typical bourbon notes. Sweet, slightly floral, caramel, vanilla, thick mouthfeel. Nice, but it's hard to imagine why one would pay a $20 premium over the small batch. It becomes an even harder pill to swallow given some of the excellent private selections I've had. Not displeased but I won't be buying another bottle any time soon.

oddly sweet.