Tastes

Tasted at Haymarket in Louisville The nose is vanilla, baking spices, freshly baked bread. Thicker mouthfeel. Sweet, some caramel, some cola, and leather. A lighter finish. On the medium side. It’s good for sure, but would not seek it out or pay stupid money for it.

Tasted at Haymarket in Louisville, KY The nose is sweet like honey, cinnamon, clove, anise. The palate is sweet with baking spices and some light leatheryness. Sort of buttery and a little nutty. Sort of reminds me of Basil Hayden’s. Great mouthfeel on this one, on the thicker side. The finish has a slight ethanol thing, it feels good going down. I liked this one.

Tasting at Haymarket in Louisville, KY. The nose is a little spicey, anise, some sweetness, some subtle fruit. The palate is sweet, some really great masculine notes coming through (leather, barrell) The finish lingers nicely. On the longer side of medium. I really like this one. Will definitely get a bottle.

Tasted at Haymarket in Louisville, KY. Nose is vanilla, some alcohol burn that goes away after nosing after 1st sip. And some light leather, baking spices, The palate is sweet with light caramel, baking spices, some oak, and freshly baked bread. The finish is nice and long. I definitely like this one. Wouldn’t pay secondary on it. But very solid.

Trying at a bar in NYC, not cheap, but I’ve wanted to try it for a while. The nose is sweet with vanilla and cinnamon, some dark fruit and a little leather. The palate continues the nose with some really great depth. Some really good leather notes as well as some fruit. Very nice mouth coating. The finish is nice with a welcome burn. Baking spices linger on the on the back the throat. Man this is good. I have a bottle of the Full Proof, wish I could have done this side-by-side. I think I might like this a little better, but it’s hard to say.

So after having the 1920 after it being talked up, and then not getting what the fuss is about, I thought I would try the 1910, which is nowhere to be found. Happen to see it for a little higher than normal in Times Square NYC (to be expected) so I thought I’d give it a try. The nose is sweet with vanilla, and brown sugar dominating. A slight leathery note pokes through. The palate is sweet with a follow through from the nose, but added leather and very oaky. The finish has a slight bitterness and a little ethanol. But I would consider this a longer finish. I really enjoyed this one. Definitely reminds me of the Woodford Double Oaked, which makes sense, since this one was also put into a second charred oak barrel. I need to do a side-by-side comparison with 1910 and 1920 and then one between 1910 and Woodford DO.

Ahhh yess. I got this one at my local store that did a Single Barrel store pick. I was lucky enough to get one before they ran out in two hours. The color is nice and on the darker side. The nose has vanilla, baking spices, some leather and light fruitiness. The palate is nice and has some baking spices, but has more of the light fruit coming through along with a nice leather note and some oak. It has a nice thicker mouthfeel as well. The palate is also nice and long. Not too hot going down either, but still bold. I really enjoyed this one. I did a comparison to the Weller Special Reserve as well. The SR was very muted by comparison and not anywhere close as far as depth and flavor goes, as you would expect.

This is Barrell# 4751, Center Point Wine and Liquors pick. 127.6 Proof After chatting with the owner about bourbon and having been a loyal customer, we went to the back and brought this up. Let’s see how it is... The nose has vanilla, cinnamon, other banking spices. Very Christmas-like. Which reminds me of Rowan’s Creek and the Pot Still. But then there’s a dark fruit note a little further in, like plumb. The palate is hits you with those baking spices big time. It’s powerful, but not over powering like other Barrel proofers. Then it digs into the barrel and you get some nice oak notes. After a few sips I added some water, which it takes well. The finish is nice and long. You get that initial burn as it goes down and then the flavors linger on the tongue. Since this one is very reminiscent of other Willett offerings, I decided to compare it to the Pot Still and Rowan’s Creek. Obviously the Willett 6yr is much higher proof than the others, so it stands out there. But I found that Rowan’s Creek had some nice depth for being 50.05% abv. I think I like the Willett 6yr better, but I’ll have to see at another tasting.

I will say at least at the time of this review, I am not a “scotch guy”, definitely a “bourbon guy”. With that said, I thought this one was decent. Being blended with three different whiskeys was interesting. On the nose I got some vanilla sweetness along with a decent amount of banana. The palate continues the nose with more sweetness and that typical “scotch” flavor. The finish is fine. I will say of my limited scotch palate, this one reminded me of Macallan 12 year, if that means anything, but I prefer the Macallan 12 to this.

On the nose I get rye spice, vanilla, some barrell along with some dark fruit. The palate I get rye spice with vanilla and some leather. The finish is decent but I do get a noticeable lingering ethanol note. All in all, very nice.