Tastes

Tasted neat. Pricey but beautiful bourbon. Caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla oak on the nose. Sweet corn syrup, cherry fruit, smoke char, ethanol burst, and wet leather in the mouth. Oak and some grassy rye spice in a long finish. Viscous and soft mouthfeel, nicely balanced set of flavors in this classic bourbon. Ice cube smooths the tannins and releases the rich sweet flavor. One of my favorites.

A little pricey but excellent grassy spicy rye. Spice and grass and toffee on the nose. Baking spice and burned candy and smoky leather in the mouth. Oak and vanilla emerge, and then a long sweet finish. Really love this rye.

Sweet corn and oak/vanilla on the nose. Sweet grain, toast, toffee, and vanilla oak, plus some grassy spicy rye in a relatively compact finish. Viscous mouth feel, beautiful auburn color, great bottle shape and packaging. Very nice small batch 4yr BIB for the price, but it is pricey... and getting harder to find...[update 12/21/21] and even harder to find and pricier.

Ultra soft, lighter body, light oak and rye spice. Mostly corn butter sweet with spiced caramel. Easy drinking, and I think why it's so popular, but it's not overly complex. Good but not remarkable.

Bottle D5491, 95.6 proof, from the mid-2000s. Beautiful red brown in the glass, with a sweet, vanilla, and spicy nose. Rich roasted grain and spicy grass with oak tannins. Floral caramel, burnt sugar, and spice in the mouth. Oily coating and mint feeling, with just enough ethanol heat. Long dry tingling finish. I used to drink this all the time, as a regular rye cocktail mixer (GREAT Manhattan mixer!), and then it disappeared from store shelves and the price shot up. So good, too bad, now it’s just rarity marketing. Glad I still have an unopened bottle tucked away, hehe.

Fruity sweet grain nose, with a little ethanol shining through. Big warm sweet cereal, vanilla, dried fruit, and an ethanol burst on first taste. Warm and viscous and rich, with a warm red-golden color in the glass. Spicy rye and pepper builds in the finish, a looong finish. Much more assertive than the Weller Special Reserve, and better that way. Great taste and price point, although it has gotten harder to find and more expensive than mid-2010s when I bought the old style bottles to mix Manhattans. Soft sweet wheated bourbon worth sipping, with some heat at 107 proof. Perfect for #DAD every day of the year.

Sweet juicy fruit, vanilla, and dry cereal on the nose. Vanilla and sweet mush with a little banana bread. Light oak on the tongue for a 12 year old, but that builds (with a little rye spice and pepper) in a long finish. Rich and easy sipping, but I was hoping this to be more complex at 12 years--more depth of flavor from 12 yrs in oak in the finish. That's not a damning with faint praise line, but maybe my expectations were unrealistic for a wheated bourbon. This has grown on me revisiting this over the last two+years. Seems better, more complex and assertive each time. #DAD would appreciate this gift any day of the year, so don't wait. New bottle, July 2022, re-tasting. Remarkably similar impressions. More cherry and vanilla notes, and still looking for a little more tannic oak depth in the finish. It's a 45 ABV wheated bourbon, soft and rounder than not.

Excellent Irish whiskey. Light peat and salt with sweet cereal in the nose. Sweet grain, vanilla oak, and sherry roundness, with a little spice in the finish. Blooms and rounds with an ice cube. Beautifully balanced Irish pot still with some age character.