Tastes

Smells Musty, complex, and powerful. The proof hits way harder on the nose even though it's only 0.1% higher than the other 45% expressions. The flavor is perfection. Malted barley, vanilla sweetness, rich, complex, aged, excellent balance. Tidal wave of flavor, despite the balance. Beautiful lengthy tail. This is stranahan's best expression hands down. I'm floored.

Absolutely heavenly aroma, complex, malty, yeasty, getting stout notes. Incredibly flavorful, you can taste flavors from all the barrels at once. So much flavor it's almost overpowering on the tongue, super nice. Same with all stranahan's, I need fit to be richer. Fix the body and it's perfect.

Barley hit with a sweet note, definitely sweeter than expected, and a little harsher. Proof comes in quick on the tail, bowling over the barley. Still good, but not as much as the other expressions. Colere 4 is definitely a big step up.

Rich barley aroma, heavenly and lightly sweet. Masterfully balanced, rich and sweet without being overpowering or syrupy. Sugary gingerbread and Graham cracker without tasting like Christmas. Love this, a hint of smoke or bitter to counter the sweetness would make it perfect, despite its balance. The best colere yet for me.

Heavily peated aroma, mildly sweet undertones. Barley, touch of vanilla, a good amount of apple, and peat. Spice and barrel burn on the tongue, peat takes a backseat to the alcohol hit. The same barley sweetness is there, it's actually a pretty nice balance. Tail is long and spicy, this is lovely.

Actually tastes green. Not even necessarily young, flavors of green wood, grass, floral. Body is fairly thin, there's a slight bite that hits halfway through and an undertone of vanilla. Not unpleasant, but interesting.

More complex on the nose than expected. Spicy, woody, and has the cherry in there but way more subtle than expected. This tastes like a high end single barrel, not a cherry liqueur finish. Not overly sweet or one dimensional. Fantastic. It's just the tiniest bit too much bitter/tannin flavor on the tail, but it's almost perfect.

Beautifully rich, initial wood and vanilla hit that builds into a spicy wave that carries on to the tail. Brown sugar and baking spices, cinnamon, balanced with the sweetness quite well. Lovely.

Alcohol on the nose, but there's some wood and cereal grains hidden in there as well. Mostly sweet on the tongue, flat caramel with some cereal flavor from the aroma, but lacking body. I like the proof, needs more richness to balance it. A pretty plain straightforward bourbon, but not terrible for the price.