Tastes

If you like a backstory please check my review on Barrell Batch 30. So this one is going to be short as my reviews go. For one reason it was the last of 4 samples I had at a Barrel tasting event. For two I did not enjoy this one and want to come back after I revisit it another time perhaps. Maybe my opinion will change tasting it without having previous had so many in a short period of time and being distracted by the event being rushed to an end due to a late start and another tasting waiting in the wings! Also the samples were very small! I like to allow my whiskies to sit longer, and to really take my time with them. I did not have that luxury. However ,,,, Appearance: Same as with all Barrel I have tried, leggy, oily and beautiful in glass. Nose: Super sweet, creamy, brown sugar, baking spice. Flavor: Port wine, sweet, tart, tangy, hot, very herbaceous, very strong heat. To me, this one is a miss - at least for now. It was rather bitter in my mouth and if I had not been in public with others I may have made an ACK face. It was off putting mostly due to the expected flavors were in almost extreme opposition to the nose. Shocking to say the least. Clearly the sweet aroma was from the port wine that presented in flavor but there was no heat in the aroma yet it was so present in the mouth! I also was not expecting such herb flavor and while I love herbs so very much this blend of herbs did not sit well on my palette and caused the bitterness I believe. Like I said, I do want to try it again and potentially and hopefully will love it. This is the only Barrell brand I have tried and not truly loved. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

See my review on Barrell Batch 30 for more info about my tasting event of Barrell whiskies if you like backstory - let's get right to the notes.... Appearance: Oily, leggy, beads on glass when swirled. Nose: Sea spray, salt, clean, crisp, mint, stone fruits, sweetness lurking deeply in back. Flavor: Toasted coconut, fresh cut grass, alcohol, fennel, mint, brandy, cinnamon, apricot, rosemary, vanilla, fruity, just everything! Finish: French Vanilla Ice Cream with brandied peaches and mint sprig on top. This is a double gold medal winner from Barell and I can see and taste why! I think this is a love it or hate it Rye but damn I love it as does my finance and in all honesty I think he loved it more than my Batch 29 but we opted to buy Batch 29 (See my review on that one if you would like) because while Barrell Seagrass can be purchased anytime ( until they stop making it of course which is not intended to happen anytime soon) my dearly beloved Batch 29 is a buy it or miss out on it sort of thing. Granted Batch 29 is bourbon and this is rye so you can't really compare them but flavor to flavor this is a true winner! Its so different, truly unique and the flavors shift, evolve, and change without warning from sip to sip. It keeps you on your toes and is not going to be ol dependable if you just want something simple and anticipated but if you enjoy a wild ride and something that makes you think, you will love this one! What I love most about it is that the flavors go from savory, to sweet, to fresh and crisp to herbaceous and so on. From summer's breeze to woodlands to tropical island, to bakery and so on. This will be in the collection soon - I just have to limit myself and decide on a monthly whisky allowance or I could get out of control! Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

Attended a tasting event last night. I fought for a spot in it since it is limited to 20 guests. Had to get on a waitlist and got lucky as someone cancelled. The reason I wanted to go so badly is I have heard so many great things about Barrell and I dearly love Batch 29 which I have reviewed already. Also I have been wanting to try Seagrass as well as I had heard how unique it is! IT IS unique! Final and most important reason I wanted to go so badly is they discounted the price on all the tasting offerings for those in attendance. I snagged my beloved Batch 29 holding off on Seagrass but will add that to collection later. So to focus on Batch 30... Appearance: Oily and leggy. Nose: Sweet, creamy, nutty comes up front. after a bit of a sit some cinnamon, caramel and orange peel show up. Flavor: saddle leather, oak, mellow and not too much heated spice, Some ginger, cardamon and cinnamon but subtle. With a drop of water the sweetness comes out into a tropical mixed fruit but no one fruit takes front and center. It is like a tropical mixed fruit cup in natural juices. Then once you think it has finished evolving a nutty amaretto presents itself with cremini mushroom and orange liquor! Finish: Fig and fruit leather. Overall a wonderful absolutely great bourbon. One that many would love in their collection. I prefer the batch 29 personally so grabbed that one instead. They are bot solid bourbons but I can't have them all, not at once anyway. The problem is you gotta get them while you can as these are one run only bourbons! Barreel is a craft bourbon brand although they do have a couple others that are always available (Seagrass and Dovetail) their batch number bourbons are not. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

Not going to hide the fact that I am terrified to try this. TERRIFIED! So this is another my fiancé brought home in an airport bottle when I was laid up with a strained leg. I do not know why he did this to me, It had to have been a joke. Yes, the guy we sometimes get ideas from at the liquor store suggested - and I have no idea why he did that either! Still, I am not so much into flavored whiskies except maybe in summer a peach CR or Bird Dog peach for peach iced tea. In fact. peach bird dog is the only BD I have ever had. Anyway .... SIGH ... I have put this off long enough. Here we go (please remember me if I die) Appearance: Sticky and oily clings to the glass with legs and beads. Must be pretty sweet! Nose: Tiny bit of ethanol, milk chocolate, maple syrup, sugar in the raw, tad bit of smoke or more like charred marshmallows from a campfire. Flavor: (Fear sets in, I can't! It smells good but its so dessert scented I am scared of tasting! Uggg) .... I am FEARLESS here I go!.... GAH! It's in my mouth but I do not want to swallow! Or do I to get it OUT of my mouth? (TWSS) ACK! Too much cloying sweetness! I can't even get past the syrupy sticky glob of sugar overload that is going to for sure put me in a diabetic coma to taste anything other than sweet. Deep breaths... calm down calm down. The sticky sugar is still on my lips. Aftertaste is horrid! Medicinal, chocolate comes out but its horrid easter candy chocolate - you know that crappy cheap stuff that you buy only to fill the emptiness of the basket with some vivid foil colors. NOT the good chocolate you buy much less of to put on top of the crappy stuff. Wow I now know why my kids have issues. Anyway to be fair, I have to take another sip. YES I AM a glutton for punishment but I have to do my due diligence before totally defaming this bourbon. Second sip not AS bad - either its aired out some or my palette has been shocked into submission or my brain as been fried. But that aftertaste is just nauseating! Others have said that this may be good on ice cream. Perhaps okay in very strong coffee? Maybe mixed with some grain alcohol to hide any of the flavors of it? Or better yet, perhaps this should be tossed directly down a ditch! I have no idea why the guy who usually has decent suggestions at our favor liquor store would ever recommend this to me! He knows the types of whisky I enjoy. He must have been in a fight with his wife that day and simply hated all women! Sorry guys please don't hate on me - it was a joke! Either way this is utter crap! NEXT! Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

As the previously sampled Black Bush this too came in one of those holiday gift boxes. This is a mimi bottle I held back from last season. I am revisiting it once again (I had purchased two of the gift boxes - yes for myself). I am a sucker for extra freebies. Appearance is gorgeous golden hue and this has legs giving the visual affect of liquid gold swirling to and clinging to the sides of the glass. Nose: Acidic, almost acetone, definitely honey crisp apple and green Danjou pear coming through with ease. Cedar aroma is mid to strong. There is also a light minty aroma. Mouthfeel is creamy and mid to full. Flavor: Wow! I am so happy that I saved a dram back to sample. This is so very mellow and easy to drink. There is no kick back whatsoever, no burn, just easy sipping! Light flavor of vanilla accented with heavy cream. Apple cereal flavor like an apple cheerios perhaps without the cinnamon. Clearly there is an oat flavor with the previous statement. Almost get some cherry notes peeking out under the wave of sweetness. I know many love their burn and I do not mind a nice spice but more often than not I would prefer not to have it. Finish: Okay I take it back - there is a tiny bit of a kick at the very back end if you take a large enough drink and just swallow without letting it sit in your mouth at all. The spice is peppery. Overall there is a lovely and somewhat heavy lingering finish of sweetness, cream, and butter. Absolutely a good one and one to have in the collection. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

Warning: This meanders too long and I apologize for that. I still feel the need to document it all for my own sake and future reference. I have to explain two things before going into my notes on this bourbon. First this is a tasting I did about three months ago, so I am going on memory. However, my memory is very good due to the fact that I sought this bourbon out for about two years. Yes, it has been that difficult for me to find. Second, I am very angry with myself for going through the bottle so fast and not allowing it to sit for awhile to open up. I had it before I knew the value in that - not long ago when I would buy a bottle and drink it until it was gone rather than building up a collection and enjoying multiple bourbons little by little. Before I was participating on distiller and learning about whiskies. In all honesty, back then my focus was mostly only on bourbon and I had no idea how much I enjoyed rye, Irish whisky and others. Basically I shared the bottle with family which is wonderful, it was a delight and we all enjoyed both the bourbon and sharing the bottle. However, we could have all enjoyed another good bourbon and I could have been more sparing with this one. So I found myself in another town (visiting family) and we ended up at a wonderful liquor store. We grabbed some good beers and walked up to the counter to pay. Now remember, I had been scouring my local area for two years for this gem. Nothing. As we are standing at the counter waiting to pay I hear (vaguely) someone say Blanton's who was at the next register. Lo and behold they were placing 2 bottles- the only two in the store - on the counter to be sold to some lucky people. Allocated bottles only one per customer. I could have knocked people down getting to that holy grail! I snagged my beloved bottle of Blanton's in disbelief of what was actually happening with a huge grin on my face. I practically hugged it all the way back to the house, giddy and excited to open that baby right up and share my joy with all. I think that is the best part about whisky, the sharing, the discussion, especially when your family largely are fans of, in this case, bourbon. I could not contain my excitement to try it and share it with people who would understand my joy and appreciate it with me. Sorry for the long opening... the notes... Nose: Strong alcohol aroma, very strong. Caramel, honey, vanilla peek through with a slight smokiness. Memory serves to note that these aromas did not present immediately and the pour had to sit for a few minutes to discover them. Allowing it to sit longer brought out some buttery aromas. Mouthfeel: Creamy and full, quite lovely but there is a burn that sort of distracts from that. Flavor: Once you get past that burn of red hots, the kind of burn that makes you open your mouth and release a stream of air, the flavor is quite enjoyable with a lingering oily texture. It has all the usual suspects from caramel to vanilla to creamy buttery corn. Slight tastes of dark fruit, blackberry perhaps but just too slight for me. Would appreciate a bit more complexity for something I waited so long for and that gets so much hype. That is all I recall from this tasting and again, I was not quite at a level of truly appreciating or noticing the subtle nuances at that time. If I had been I probably would have had the forethought to hold back a little for sampling at a later time. I do realize that this is not the heftiest price for a bourbon and these days I drop 55.00 fairly easily on whisky. However back then, just a few months ago, I thought that was a high price. Yes, you can all laugh at me its fine. I laugh at myself too. The thing is, Blanton's was so hyped up, and so hard to find, that I thought I was getting a STEAL at 55.00. The only other way I could have ever found to try it was at one bar locally, for 25.00 for a one ounce pour, which I just simply could never bring myself to do. I am glad that I didn't too! The thing is - it is good. Quite good. It is not however the holy grail I thought it would be. Would I love to get my hands on it again to be sure? Absolutely! I would also give it time in the bottle after an initial pour and do several tastings over time. I also do realize each batch can be different so perhaps the bottle I got was not as good as others. Hard to know. What I am more or less let down by is for as allocated as it is, I sort of feel that it's become more of a cult classic than a really well made movie, I mean bourbon. I would need far more quality dialogue in the pour to feel it deserved its dedicated following. I never really loved cult classic movies either. Anyway, I should probably end with these final thoughts. Would I buy it again for around fifty bucks, sure! I kept the gorgeous bottle and yes, it is simply beautiful. I would not mind collecting the entire set of pewter tops. Mostly due to being a horse lover. It is absolutely worth what I paid but I no longer feel I got a "steal of a deal" on the pricing. In fact, I am thankful to the place I bought if from that they did not over hype it and mark it up more. They could have with as rare of a find it is around here. I am curious if it is as hard to find other places or if it is just the midwest. I have had better, I have had worse. I want to give it more than a 3 but unless I were to try it again after more experience with whisky I just can't in all fairness. I will say however it hurts to rate it 3. Bah, I will give it a 3.5 - its not Blanton's fault I went through the bottle too fast or that I was not as experienced. Plus I am doing this from memory. Also however, in fairness to my notes, I have to say if it were that amazing - after my long search for it, one would think I would be giving it rave reviews. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions. Even thought I have mentioned price many times in this tasting.

I am a sucker for those gift packs that come out around holidays. You know - you buy the big bottle of something and get some minis along with it. Yup, those get me every time. Sure sometimes you get glassware but I go toward the taster bottles - I am full up on glassware! So I have had this sitting around for awhile. I actually tasted this before due to buying 2 of those gift boxes. That was before I was on Distiller however so now I am opening my last mini. So here we go... Nose: Low alcohol burn which is almost not present. It just tickles the nose playfully. Creamy vanilla, butter biscuits, rock minerals, honey and fig. Flavor: Sweet and creamy, black pepper, sherry, vanilla, buttery AF, basically just like the nose only better. I can easily sip this regularly with no problem especially considering how affordable it is. Honestly I am surprised I have not already made a purchase of this but I was not so into collecting whiskies before - just buying one bottle at a time and drinking it until it was gone. This is going into the collection at some point. The mouthfeel is decadent like a warm vanilla custard with toasted sugar on top. AKA Creme Brûlée. It is not the fullest mouth feel I have had but its very pleasing on the palate. The flavor lingers nicely for a good while becoming a bit more oaky, slightly bitter, and mineral. There is also something herbaceous here or vegetal like endive. I find this to be quite complex which may differ with others tastings but to each their own. I find this pleasing. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

Stopped into a local speak easy Drastic Measures in Old Shawnee Town Kansas to have a few custom cocktails. The bartenders were friendly and true genius in their mixology. I could not help but notice the lovely whisky selection and while I was there for cocktails I had to ask for a sampling of this gem. I found Whistle Pig Small Batch to be delightful with an unexpected nose and flavor. Sadly there are only a few actual notes from other tasters here on Distiller and I am intrigued that everyone tasted something different. I mean I realize everyone's palette is their own, and it is not unusual for people to taste different things but my notes seem to veer far off course from others. This is definitely a whisky I would love to try again just to double check what I tasted but I will write up my notes as they are and trust in my palette. Although I do imagine there are other variables that can make whiskies, Rye in this case, taste different such as storage but I am too new at all of this to consider that. Nose: Clean, sea salt, slash of ocean water, grassy, botanical, crisp. Flavor: Heat, cinnamon, salt, brine, grass. It was truly a lovely mix of deeper flavors and spice with the light lilting sea spray sensations. I have no idea if this is typical of Rye but with the limited experience I personally have with Rye I have not tasted one like this. I will say, once again I feel lucky to try a rarer whisky. This past week has been my lucky week with running into some great selections! I also have to note everything I have sampled recently has been very fairly priced for the cost of some of them IF you can even score a bottle. I have not let that effect my flavor notes whatsoever but its still a delight when your bartender appreciates your desire to learn and is happy to talk about great whiskies. Even better when he or she happens to be quite knowledgable themself. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

When I saw this on the shelf I knew I had to order a pour. I remembered having Bookers on my wish list to sample, but it was just Bookers in general, any bookers I could get a taste of before investing in a whole bottle. When I ordered this I was told I had made an excellent choice. This is reportedly a rarer bottle and I am sure I will never find it again once it has seen its last pour at the place I found it at, Suerly I will not find this on a self at a liquor store so I feel honored to have had the chance to try it at all. From what I have read it is not a perfect example of Bookers all around so I will still have to explore this line further before investing in a full bottle - oh dram. Alas lets get to the notes... Nose: Unlike other tastings on here I did not find it to be a ton of alcohol in the nose, yes the aroma was present but it was not nose hair burning. Vanilla, cream, caramel, almond, coconut and orange peel. Some spice - baking spice, perhaps nutmeg. Flavor: Low alcohol burn but very creamy but look out - that burn that was not so prevalent sneaks up from behind and will get ya! The "burn" comes from notes of cinnamon and black pepper. Also it has the vanilla and creamy flavors along with it. Then a smokiness sneaks in on the back end. Even with that shocking sneaky kick of spice the flavor remains decedent of cream and sweetness. Added 1 small cube of ice and it still had the exact same profile. Overall a very nice sampling of Booker's and I do feel lucky to have got to try this one but more investigation into this brand is needed for me to decide if I am a fan of the more available bottles. Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.

When I ordered a small pour of this to sample I did so with both curiosity and trepidation. I had read the reviews and they did peek my interest and I won't lie, the vivid yellow label stayed on my mind. That is why when I saw it sitting off the shelf, down on the work area of the bar I was at, I went for it. Oh, and this was not a local watering hole, but rather a higher end Italian place. That made me even more interested as this very place had rare and rather pricey whiskies. So here we go into the notes... Nose: Creamy, corn (go figure) more of a sweet corn than a cream corn even though it also did smell creamy. Did that make sense? Just as others have said there is an aroma of peanut butter and yes indeed it did smell somewhat of a carnival. Surprisingly, there was a very low alcohol burn to the nose. Barely a burn at all. Flavor: Like the nose very low alcohol burn. Sweet, creamy, corn, cake, slight nutty flavor in background. Cake, candy and sweet all the way around. While the flavor did not linger for long there was a slight taste for a minute or so. The lack of acidity or burn along with the sweet may not be everyone's dram of whisky but personally I cold see this as a daily sipper or better yet, something to serve at a larger gathering on a budget. Not sure how it would do in a mixed cocktail due to the heavy sweetness but I am curious to find out, although usually I prefer my whiskies neat. For the sake of knowing if this is one to keep on hand for those who do enjoy cocktails I must do further research and grab a bottle of my own. While it looks a little corny, no pun intended, with its bright yellow label I still want it in my collection. It is not layered in flavors or complex but it is in its own way unique. I am glad to have sampled it. I would most likely not buy this for the 50.00 prince point but at under 20.00, oh yes I will! Ratings have nothing to do with cost - just my impressions.