Tastes

Horribly harsh. Smells like ethyl acetate. Like a headsy rum from a first time distillery who is huffing paint. Acetone. Pungent. Burning the nose. This shouldn’t be a finished product. It hurts the throat as much as the nose. An assault on the senses. This is terrible. I don’t do mixers like cola and such, but I can’t imagine any other way to suffer through a bottle of this.

Another aggressive, loudly youthful and unpolished scotch from Glen Moray. I like the port quality, but it’s heavy perverted by the exbourbon casks. This reminds me of the Tullamore green label. So I can pay $5 a bottle more to get a rougher version of Irish whisky? I’ll pass. It needs a better distillation if it’s going to succeed as a younger scotch . And let’s tone back the bourbon influence.

A value single malt that is neither bad nor good. It’s unfortunately a bit young and the edges are somewhat sharp. The flavors come though as a honeyed, fruity, slightly dark caramel quality, with a full, sweet body. The lack of maturity is quite evident in the price and the flavor. It hasn’t been barreled long enough to soften the spirit. Either drop down to a faster-maturing blended scotch for the same money, or drop a shelf down and get a budget scotch very has much better value. Barring that, spend a few more dollars per bottle and get the 12 year.

I see this for $12 / bottle (a litre no less) and they're basically begging me to buy it. Fine, in for two. A fascinating love child of scotch and bourbon. Maybe the scotch took a business trip to the States. It met bourbon. They thought it would be a parting fling, a random hookup at the airport bar. Throwing fidelity and vows to the curb, the passionate interlude that wasn't supposed to be anything more than lust turns into a lifetime of child support payments and whispered family secrets. But in this case, that lustful interlude is actually a really oaky, smokey, aroma with a spunky and rich mouthfeel. Lots of vanilla and oak, not much malt whisky flavor, but a fascinating hybrid of scotch and bourbon that works very well. I found this on clearance, hence the low cost.

A wonderful example of how age doesn't equal maturity. This is a strangely bourbonesque scotch. It has more of a bourbon quality to it than a scotch quality. That's not a good thing. Because you can get a better bottle of bourbon for less money. The alcohol is hot, the finish is harsh and spicy. The technical quality of this is lacking. It's disappointing -- and I'm giving plenty of credit to the low price. It's still not a very good value.

There's a reason so much of this distillery's production goes into blends: they need to because it's almost unpalatable on its own. The Bradan Orach is a very unrefined, bitter, tannic mess of hot alcohol, pungent spice, harsh ethanol, with a long, jellyfish tentacle, sting at the end. Even at the lower price, this isn't a very good sipper on the rocks. Tasted neat, it's like some sort of punishment. Hard pass on this.

A surprisingly authentic taste of what a well-crafted moonshine *should* have tasted like. Nowadays, if you're buying "moonshine" from the ol country boys down at the lumber yard, Cletus and Cooter, you're probably getting some real low grade swill made mostly from sugar and little more than poorly distilled crap. A proper country style moonshine would have been part corn, part barley, and part sugar, which the sadly named "Climax" moonshine is. Few people today are prepared for a full corn whisky, a strongly flavored grain with a bit of an acquired taste when young. The balance of sugar, contributing to a basically flavorless neutrality, dilutes the edginess of the corn flavor, while a touch of malt brings in the bready familiarity. Just to drink on it's own, I find little utility in it. I just don't care much for unaged corn whisky. In a technical sense, it's well done though. The price puts this far out of line for what you're getting and the value is lacking here. You're paying for a lot of novelty. But if you wanted to know what a proper moonshine should taste like, look no further.

Before it became vogue to buy the bottom shelf and suffer through its indignity in the name of being cool, this was relegated to sad corners of the world where people clamored for that ol country mountain dew. It hasn't changed much for the better. Despite it's 4 year age, you'd be hard pressed to find any maturity here which is a tribute to the deficiencies in production. This simply isn't a well crafted spirit -- a real shame because being rough as a prison yard shiv shouldn't be a goal after 4 years. Initially, edgy sweetness, slightly rusty razor blade texture going down, with some kettle corn yum buried in the brutal throat punch it packs. It could, it should, be better. It starts with inputs and this is lacking. Sells for between $18-$24, but should be priced around $12-15 for what you're getting.