Tastes

Feel blessed that after speaking with a co-worker about our love of Bourbon that he mentioned he had a bottle of Front Porch Batch and had never opened it. Brought it to our meeting to share. All the classic notes of Booker's. Aroma is brown sugar & Maple. Moment of vanilla Flavor is more up front on the vanilla with toasted grain up front and then sweetness with a touch of char and dark brown sugar. Good spice on the finish. Not among the top batches, but very enjoyable. My journey continues to try as many Booker's batches as possible.

Aroma hits with an initial blast of wood. Cedar as much as oak. Moments later you get a moment of coconut and then vanilla and sweet fruit. Wow, Creamy caramel & vanilla. This gives way to nice spice and more nutmeg vs. cinnamon. Toasted flavors as the finish sets in. Water diminished the Aroma, but amped up the vanilla notes and the Creamy feel. What was toasted at the start of the finish is now chocolate. Continues to open nicely with more fruit notes hitting. Interesting that sweetness stays just below the spice notes. The finish is the strong suit of this Bourbon and that's delightful to me. Gotta say that this bottle delivers on the positioning noted on the bottle (wood finishing). I can see why folks have enjoyed this.

If you are reading this before you try the Bourbon. Do Not add water!! Bottle notes 120 proof. Lots of oak in the Aroma with some cedar notes, young corn and a moment of butter, cooking cinnamon and sugar and butter in fact. Cherry appears as well. Caramel popcorn, that's what the Aroma is.. Yep. Burst of sweetness, heat from the abv and a hit of spice mid palate. Finish is fruity with oak notes and spice and pepper in the finish. BTW, nice finish. Very oily & rich mouth feel. Lays on your tongue for a good while. Some cherry notes down deep. Hard candy with spice finish lasts nicely Few drops of water muted the Aroma vs helped. The flavor now has some menthol notes, more spice and mutes the other flavor. Pine note? It's official, DO NOT add water. (I'll score on pre-water flavor) all wood forward now. Abv heat accentuated as well. One of the worst water additions ever. Have I mentioned you should NOT add water? Yikes

Really enjoy this. I wanted to add my first bottle of Japanese Whisky to my collection and this was the choice. Very pleased with it. Aroma is light and what keeps this from a higher score. Floral some light oak and a sense of sherry sweetness. First flavor note for me was chocolate. This gave way to honey, light fruit and some toasted oak and cereal notes. What's interesting is that a little water didn't change much, but brought out more Aroma. I gave some to my wife and added, even more water than I ever would. She didn't want to finish, so I grabbed it and was shocked that the higher qty of water really brought it to life. More water... More flavor and bigger finish... My first step into Japanese Whisky.. NOT my last

Aroma is of vanilla, coconut, cinnamon and a moment of cherry. The coconut returned time and again. Below this I get pencil shavings, Cedar notes from the oak. Caramel, whipped cream, cherry, cinnamon, a moment of milk chocolate. Toasted cracker notes on the finish. It fades pretty quickly for my liking. Several drops of water are nice here. More chocolate, richer palate and a longer (not long) finish. Mouth Feel is a touch thin and I note less oily, Creamy nature to this. Later in the glass I thought chocolate covered cherry.

I think I ruined this for myself by drinking the 18 yr Highland Park several times. It's nice, real nice, but so much more light than I expected. Distant smoke, vanilla and honey notes. The real issue for me is that the finish doesn't really linger.

Initial Aroma is totally a Mounds bar. Dark chocolate and coconut. This gives way to coffee later. Dark brown sugar ever present. Have to say I'm starting to be able to recognize the Heaven Hill flavor profile. Later a meatiness in the Aroma. Flavor before water is chocolate, caramel, fresh ground black pepper. Dark sugar. Drops of water have this explode in both flavor and herbaceousness. (sp?) More spice and definitely a lot of mint on the scene. Coffee just below the surface. A touch more Creamy as it opens. Almost epic, but the finish just isn't there. Doesn't last long and fades a bit too quick. Still a great Bourbon. But so close to epic.

Pretty good, but not as exciting as I had imagined. Nose was fairly muted and came to life with a few drops of water. Chocolate notes some earthiness and leather. The water brings out some Rye spices. Frankly I'd take a glass of their standard Bourbon or Rye over this.

Such a great Bourbon. As I mentioned in the Willett Pot Still review...... Either you love the Funk or you don't. I'm hooked. This is as close to "Purple Foil" as I can get in the real world. A few drops of water bring this to life. Frankly, I can't see drinking it without. Maple, fall spices and a candy like sweetness all are balanced into a deep and long lasting flavor. Almost like a Mexican Chocolate with the heat of the spice... With lots of rich Maple notes. Herbaceous with some minty notes Peppery in the right way. Glorious in all the right ways. So close to Purple!

OK, let's be reasonable. It's good, really good, in fact. But for the price, this should be borderline epic. Sherry is obvious in all aspects of this Scotch. Maple and the sweet sherry notes on the nose. Figs & Dates in the flavor. But it never really releases and opens up. Initial flavor is wonderful but it falls off the table. Let it linger in the glass. Added a few drops of water. Waited, hoped. Nope. No long finish.