Tastes

Nose: Toasted marshmallows, vegetable funk, dried wood, old dusty leather, dried apple rings. Taste: dried apple rings again, slightly sweet, takes a turn towards the dry wood funk and slight sour. Adding water or ice brings the sweetness up and hides a bit of the vegetal notes. Was hoping to like it a lot more than I do, was even will to deal with the vegetal notes I know were coming if there was more behind it but this is really it, some sweet candy notes with a lot of funk. At least the bottle looks great.

Available only once a year, Winter Release is unique and fleeting, with this year’s limited run producing less than 1,000 bottles. 2018 Winter Release is a blend of barrels that includes Whiskey Del Bac finished in ex-bourbon casks, as well as barrels from Tucson’s Iron John’s Brewing Company that held sherry barleywine. Nose: Honey BBQ, smoked meat, mint, pipe tobacco, Taste: Sweet, savory, and hot. Pipe tobacco. Once again like biting into a dry rubbed meat. Experience: a litteral Barbecue. What else can I say? sweet, meaty, and spiced.

Nose: Sweet cream, cinnamon twists, apple, shortbread, copper. Taste: Sweet and hot, apple pastry, with a numbing spiced nuts finish. Experience: coming in from the cold and sitting by the fireplace. Could be on the ski slopes, from shoveling the driveway, or even a snowball fight. It embraces you with all the smells and tastes of comfort and warmth.

Nose: honey, granola, vanilla, wet campfire, fruit. Taste: not nearly as nice as the nose... hot copper, bitter nutmeg, just a touch of honey in over steeped tea. Experience: The attractive woman (or man) at the bar who is ultimately vapid. People have talked them up, you walk up and are impressed but the more time you spend with them the more you realize there really isn't much under the surface.

Nose: Creamy, sweet and complex. Cotton candy from the rum, dusty green grapes, hint of molasses, and a touch of charcoal. you could find even more. Taste: molasses, chard sugar, and heat punch in opening into mouthwatering apple, cinnamon, nutmeg pastry, and caramel. Ending with a warm numbing finish. Experience: A summer festival. It's hot but rather than making you uncomfortable the heat cranks up the sweet smell of kettle corn and caramel apples. Maybe you can convince your date to share a kiss and the various treats each stall has to offer. Hot, heavy, and sweet.

Nose: cherry, grains, sweet maple, tart green apple. Taste: let's down a bit of of the hype the nose builds but still good. Sweet cherry some of that apple but not much.

Nose: fudge, salt, wood, walnuts, slight fruit and a tinge of honey. Taste: chocolate, nutmeg, brine salt, a touch of citrus. Experience: a candy store in an old town. If you've ever been to Europe especially France you'll know. It's old and nutty and salty and chocolatey and old but, it is so good. Maybe it is the place, maybe the history, or perhaps it really was better the "old way". Whatever the case it's good and let's not mess with that.

Nose: Rye bread, Taste: spices, nutmeg, more rye bread, sour banana. Experience: this feels far more like someone trying to make a copy of Jack Daniel's rye than any sort of bourbon. Its cheap and for the price not bad but it is not any sort of bourbon. Strange because if it were I'd be much more inclined to the original name.

Nose: Smoke, sweet maple, chard brisket, pungent fruit. Taste: Bitter smoke, meat, mint, hot and spicy BBQ sauce, black pepper, sea salt. Experience: Sitting down for mesquite smoked BBQ on a hot dusty day. You are sweating as you eat it but you forget the heat as the savory sweet food takes all your attention. This whiskey is like it's home state. Incredibly interesting while often overlooked for not being what most people think they want. It stands out as an example that American whiskey can be more than bourbon while still competing with the complexity of Scotch. Wish more distilleries had Hamilton's balls.

Nose: Iodine, smoke, meat, caramelized onions, leading to boiled candy and fruit, kiwi even. Taste: PEAT, charcoal, mint, clove, fruit but less than the nose. Experience: Having a pinch of dessert after your house has burnt down. Honestly this is a hard one to describe, perhaps that is where the "No Name" comes from. No Name indeed, no one distillery can claim it (although we are pretty darn sure who was involved), it is hard to get a hold of, and hard to place flavor wise. In the end it earns it's spot amongst the compass box collection and on my self.