Tastes

Nose: cotton candy, tobacco, cinnamon Taste: thin mouth feel, fruity sweetness - cherry and raspberry, Finish: dry and reminiscent of red wine, cola, sugary cereal After reading reviews: Flaviar corroborates the sweet, fruit and cinnamon notes I got. A reviewer on Whizzky also noted cereal on the finish. Thankfully the fruit didn’t come through as banana as it apparently did for some - I hate bananas. I also didn’t get a lot of caramel, nor would I characterize it as spicy as some did. Overall, it’s a nice sweeter bourbon with a variety of flavors but not quite the depth of flavor of higher proof whiskies that I prefer.

Nose: Christmas tree, black tea, leather, black licorice Taste: not much sweetness, oaky bitterness, some kind of sour note - really didn’t get anything that jumped out at me on the taste Finish: minty fresh feeling, faint rye bread After reading reviews: peppery was a good description that I missed - that may have overlapped with what I got as oaky, earthy is another thing I saw that rang true

Note: I have the small batch version. The picture for this listing shows the single barrel, but I don’t see a separate listing for the small batch. Nose: pine, caramel, orange, root beer were the first things that jumped out at me. Later got pickle juice and black licorice after I specifically looked for it as I find those in a lot of tues (although usually one or the other, not both). Taste: wow, so oily and densely flavorful - and the proof is apparent. It’s Christmasy - pine, baking spices, dark chocolate Finish: long finish, minty fresh feeling but not a minty taste, the pine is still there, it goes in the black licorice direction but not too far (thankfully in terms of my preferences) After reading reviews: my experience had a lot in common with the Distiller review including the pickle juice and chocolate though some slight differences like my baking spices not really being cinnamon and not sure if orange and tropical fruit correspond, also a lot of similarities with Flaviar including orange directly though they too cited cinnamon. Surprised to see “dry” in Flaviar - to me that’s the opposite of the oiliness I got. Maybe they’re referring to the minty fresh feeling on the finish. Neither of the reviews noted black licorice, so maybe I’m looking too hard for it just because I don’t like it. Overall, this is a very nice whiskey. Tons of flavor and a nice oiliness.

Nose: black tea, bubble gum, perfume but not floral more of a cologne, tobacco. It’s weird but everything about this has me picturing a kid back in the 80s opening up a wax pack of baseball cards and popping the gum from the pack in his mouth as his grandpa looks on wearing too much cologne, sipping tea, and puffing on a pipe. Taste: the bubble gum sweetness is there to start but then it morphs into a hot cinnamon like Big Red (I don’t know why I’m stuck on gum references), it’s not very sweet but makes me think grain or corn, some oakiness, there’s a tinge of the cologne/tobacco thing that I feel like I should be able to identify better but just can’t quite put my finger on Finish: dry, leaves a fresh feeling that isn’t minty but more lemony, the Big Red note hangs around After reading reviews: I had a distinctly different experience than the reviews that focus on a lot of fruit with no mention of the bubble gum - I maybe can pick up some apple peel on the taste if I really look for it but I’m just not finding fruit beyond the lemony finish (maybe the late orange note from Flaviar is along that line), the surprising secondary arrival of cinnamon on the taste from reviews matches up though as do the grain and oak. A couple references to mint also may be alluding to what I got on the finish. Overall, there was a lot going on in the nose and judging from reviews there could be a lot more to find as the bottle opens up. With some more flavors coming through on the taste, this could be a very interesting bourbon. Excited to come back to it.

Nose: cinnamon, caramel Taste: over the top red hots candy - once I identified that I couldn’t taste anything else. Overall it’s got a shiny metallic aspect that makes it seem young despite the 4+ years aspect of being a BiB Finish: the candy cinnamon lingers with maybe a bit of chocolate, finish doesn’t last long After reading reviews: people apparently find complexity here that I just don’t after several attempts, while others note the cinnamon it’s not to the overwhelming degree that I experience it, I imagine it mixes well with coke but didn’t get a chance to try

Nose: strawberries, confectioners sugar, pipe tobacco, bubble gum, pine Taste: rye spice, cinnamon, mint Finish: rye bread After reading reviews: not a lot out there but candy sweetness and rye spiciness seem to be the dominant theme, and I agree. This was pretty hyped by the Bourbon Junkies, so I had higher expectations than I probably should have and it didn’t live up to those. Kind of a unique flavor profile though, so good to have around for a change of pace.

Nose: pear, sea air with a hint of smoke, vegetal - maybe asparagus Taste: predominant word that comes to mind is “bright” as there’s a refreshing feel to it but not as much citrus as that might imply - there’s a little lemon but like if you gave a quick squeeze of lemon over asparagus before serving, a light honey, salty, a tinge of smoke late, flowers? Finish: apple jolly rancher - not that level of sweetness but that flavor versus a real apple, briny, that flowery note lingers as well After reading reviews: the nose and taste notes from Distiller make sense for me except confectioner sugar on the nose (and Flaviar’s cake) - this was much fruitier than sweet for me, I don’t get the spice notes on the finish though, Flaviar notes carrots so there’s the vegetal note that stuck out to me. Overall, this is nice and complex. I prefer the higher levels of both peat and sweet in Oban 14, however. When this was priced in the $30s, it was a great value but not as much in the $50s now.

Nose: tobacco, cloves, ash, floral, rubber - like hugging grandma after she snuck a heater and put on perfume to hide it from grandpa Taste: it’s called campfire for a reason - that’s definitely how the smoke comes through and it’s different from peaty scotch, there’s also rye spice and sweetness. This is one that seems to change with every pour. Not quite as sweet as some previous pours from this bottle, which overall has been less sweet than pours I had at a bar. Finish: the campfire smoke doesn’t quit, the rye goes in the dill pickle direction After reading reviews: not picking up the fruits (blueberry, Flaviar, really?) but the smoke and rye notes are consistent

Nose: cloves/cinnamon, weirdly smells like a rye in the licorice direction even though I know it’s a wheater, black tea Taste: oily and dense, nutty, where did all the baking spices go? Finish: bitter oak, finishes dry despite the oily palate After reading reviews: I can see where Flaviar is coming from with the wheat bread on the nose and molasses on the palate - that’s the dense dark flavor I was getting, but I don’t get any of the apple or fruitcake. Whizzky reviews point out the nuttiness/hazelnut on the taste, but other people seem to get more sweetness from this than I do. Overall, I’m underwhelmed. I’m not a fan of the regular Larceny but had seen several reviews from people who share that opinion that indicated the barrel proof version was far superior. Thankfully, the banana nut bread note that I dislike about the standard offering doesn’t come through here - but neither does much else on the palate. The nose is very nice, but I wish more of that came through on the taste. I don’t usually bother to add water, but maybe that will change things on the next try. I hope so...

Nose: sweet tobacco, pine, mint, vanilla, chocolate Taste: nutty, pine, medicinal cherry Finish: waxy, spearmint After reading reviews: reviews corroborate the strong mint note I got throughout, my nutty and waxy could be what reviews had as oak and oily, vanilla was pretty consistently noted in reviews. I didn’t get the tart apple that Distiller noted on the taste - when I thought about fruitiness it was more like cherry cough syrup where it’s not quite sweet enough to mask the medicinal taste. I think spicy is a vague note, but I got elements of that throughout with the pine/mint that registered with me more than cinnamon.