Tastes

Nose: cinnamon, caramel, honey, vanilla Body: medium Palate: caramel, vanilla a little cinnamon stick. Finish: medium and sweet Note: somehow I drank this bottle and didn’t review it until the last glass. This is good to very good. Nothing that jumps out as amazing but a very serviceable and dependable it was really a nice bottle.

Nose: caramel, vanilla, cherry, oak and orange. Body: medium - small Palate: cherry, vanilla, oak, salty caramel. First two sips register as salty. Weird. Has classic caramel vanilla but has a strong orange oak and salt thing going on. Finish: medium - small Note: little buzz after finishing my gold barrell and a taste of glen Keith 10 and Aberlour a’bunadh. So let’s try this taste from Jared. Good but too short on the finish, not smoky enough for my liking and the salty thing is different. Ok not great.

Nose: lots a syrupy grape. Faint cereal malt. Dry wood. Later red wine. Body: full, mouth coating. Palate: little smoke and sweet syrup grape, faint cereal, rubber Finish: fairly big and pretty long. Not exactly smokey more like a lingering hot grape. Really nice. Note: batch 6 as a taste from Jared. 59.9%. This is a luxurious sweet large bold dram. Very delicious

Nose: pear, dry wood, box of raisins, honey. The nose is funny to me, it’s like a cedar box filled with raisins. But it’s lively like the raisins are plump. It’s a nice nose. Unique. Body: medium Palate: heather & floral & honeyed but with a very real but mild spiciness. Curious how they got that to mix. It’s very different and very good. Finish: medium long. Nice and sweet but not the lingering smoke that I love but approachable. Note: a sample from Jared. Curious how this young man will stand up. Represent Spey side isla River. Interesting on first sip and mouth watering finish. I’m surprised how the first sip really did a dance in my mouth and lingered. Initial impression, this is better than I thought it was going to be. This would be a very good intro to the non peated and varied side of single malt. Really very good.

Nose: blackberries and caramel. Thick gooey warm caramel. Light oak but it’s really well balanced. Not over oaked at all. Vanilla. Body: medium to full Palate: toffee on the front palate that evolves to caramel and vanilla and then fades into blackberry and vanilla and then just melds into the long smoky, sweet lingering finish Finish: medium to long with barrel smoke and sweet vanilla blackberries. Note: this was an amazing purchase through 1010. Really it was a lucky day. I am excited to rate this after tasting it for the first time yesterday and really thinking this is an outstanding dram. It reminds me of a less in your face barrel gold, it’s more understated (which is not bad at all), but has the classic caramel and vanilla with a very interesting front palate that is almost minty, like minted toast and toffee and then has the blackberry sweetness on the back end. The difference between this and barrel gold is this doesn’t have the Tennessee whiskey orange starburst flavor. This is an amazing dram that is ridiculously easy to drink so if you get a bottle be careful not to finish it too fast.

Nose: alcohol slight caramel Body: medium Palate: sweet hotness not much else Finish short Note. Not good. Do not advise

Nose: Popcorn. Oak. Caramel. Root beer?, peanuts Body: medium to full Palate: spicy, peppermint, caramel Finish: medium to long smokey and tasty. Note: last taste from 1010 for the night. Very much looking forward to this. This is definitely the most flavorful and full throated of the samples tonight. Very tasty.

Nose: holy oak. First sniff was very oaky. Like going into our cedar closet before we had to have it removed because of water damage. I liked that smell. Later caramel. Later the nose opened up with some sweetness. Body: light to medium Palate: ooh that’s good. Spicy, sweet, Carmel. Finish: medium, sweet and smoky with a little prickle on the tongue. Very nice. Note: another taste from 1010. Somehow I don’t have this rated. I swear I’ve had this before but maybe not… so here goes. This is a tasty bourbon. Doesn’t really stand out to me but I really like it. What’s funny is the nose is so wordy but the palate is more sweet and caramelly.

Nose: lots of caramel and vanilla on the nose. Marshmallow with a thin cherry candied shell. Very faint hint of oak. Later brown sugar. Really great nose Body: medium Palate: white pepper immediately less of the vanilla and caramel from the nose and more of the sugary sweet fruity flavors. Some barrel char smokiness but more candied citrus fruit sweetness. Little bit of oak on the last sip Finish: long but more like a candied orange and not smokey but very long and very nice. And as I sit with it I realize the finish is really long and I really like that. Just let the whiskey hang around for minutes after a sip. Note: a sample from 1010. Very much looking forward to trying this. Tried neat. The finish kind of reminds me of the orange flavor I get on the palate of this years old Fitz 14. This is a very sweet whiskey. I really like this. Almost love it but doesn’t have the smokiness and fullness that I really love. It has a long lasting sweetness that I really like. Delicious.

Nose: blackberry, chocolate covered blackberries, caramel and toffee in the background. On the fresh bottle crack first pour some ethanol but smokey caramel ethanol. A very nice nose before my first sip. After my first sip the nose went into overdrive like someone squeezed a bunch of blackberries into the glencairn. Delicious. Body: large Palate: chocolate, caramel, toffee, a sweet chocolate laced orange. Smoked caramel on the back palate. Finish: long and smokey sweet caramel. After a few sips a late pepperiness to the finish emerged unexpected and thought provoking. Note: this well aged beauty is from 1010. I didn’t win anything in the second raffle but I had the opportunity to buy this sweet little gem. I wanted an aged pingree and I got it. Here’s what I could find on this bourbon from the whiskeyfellow “This one is Batch 6, utilizing a mash from only seven barrels of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley sourced from MGP/LDI and aged 15 years! A portion of the aging process occurred in a climate-controlled warehouse in California before being transferred for final aging in Michigan. It is non-chill filtered and weighs in at a hefty 114°. There are only 684 bottles available”. My take home is this fresh out the bottle is a “whoa” dram. A friggin rock star of a bourbon. It is dangerously easy to sip at 57%. But it’s a flavor bomb and the mouth feel and finish hitting me first. Just huge. After a second sip I’ve decided this is super super good. 4.25/5 in the love category.