Tastes

This is distilled just up the street from me, so I really wanted to like this. But it’s damn hard. This is aged for about a year and a half. The nose and palate are similar to a 3-star scotch, which makes it a 1.5-star bourbon. The nose is just...off. It starts as an unidentifiable sweet and then is just odd. The palate is the same—starts with something like cherry and green apple, but then just turns into raisiny funk. It reminds me of the bottle of Dimple Pinch that I found in my dad’s cabinet, half-opened for 30 years. We’ll see if I can age this myself and turn it into something nicer.

You know how after you finish a glencairn of bourbon the empty glass smells amazing? That amazing smell is the nose, palate, and finish of the Old Fitz 15. Simply incredible.

Tasting the Montgomery County, MD private select. 1x Baked American Pure, 2x Seared French Cuvée, 1x Maker’s 46, 4x Roasted French Mocha, 2x Toasted French Spice. First pour from the bottle. Nose hits with dates, a hint of wood, and a lot of chocolate. Palate is dry oak at first, then a hint of sweet pitted fruit, followed by the chocolate from the nose. Finish is all chocolate—holy cow, I’ve never had so much chocolate from a bourbon before! Not very hot at all in the throat, but numbs the tongue nicely. This was a pleasant surprise—so different from the Virginia variety I tasted a month ago, you can really tell the effect of the different staves. I may have to get a second bottle of this!

Look, this was pretty good when I bought it in January 2019 for $27. First few pours I noted as “nice and complex for this price point.” The next 60% of the bottle was terrible—the official tasting describes it as “the George Carlin of bourbons,” and I joked that it tasted more like George Carlin himself. I am now on my final 5 pours of the bottle and I’ll tell you, these have been quite good. Much more pitted fruit and complexity again, although this is only best observed in the first few sips. People are going nuts over this since it won awards in 2019, but they’re either buying into the hype or appreciating a low price point. This is a good buy for $30, but absolutely not worth the $50-100 it’s currently fetching on the secondary market.

This is an extremely limited release, consisting of just a few barrels. The Abraham is an experiment every year, and the planned experiment for Release 18 failed. However, they had some delicious control barrels—and the resulting bourbon was offered to a small number of people at a special Bowman Distillery event (how I got mine) and the Virginia lottery. Because of the story of how I got mine, I haven’t opened my bottle yet. However, I did taste it at the special Bowman event. From what I recall, it had a sweet nose, was a complex flavor bomb, and you somehow don’t feel the 146+ proof heat at all. Lucky to have gotten this one...will have to save it for a very special occasion and special people.

Had one of the 2019 Virginia ABC selections. Don’t recall the recipe, save that it had no Maker’s 46 in it. Excellent. Tons of depth, smooth as hell. Would love to find it again.

Liked this a lot. Bread, pitted fruits on the palate.

So different, so nice. It’s like a perfect “summer whiskey”—bright and light. Pears on the nose, pears/honey/citrus on the palate with a touch of heat.