Tastes

The first of three drams from a recent visit to the Flatiron Room in Manhattan - This is the second Glendronach Cask Strength I've sampled, with the first being Batch 2. While Batch 8 is certainly not bad, I liked Batch 2 more. I love Glendronach, mainly because of the rich, full, and multi-note sherry finishes. This sherry notes in Batch 8 are less promintent and less spectacular than some of my favorite Glendronachs, with a more prominent spiciness present here. Unfortunately, the spiciness is somewhat non-descript. This is one I'll try again if I have the chance. More than most other whiskies, my palate responds differently to Glendronach with each tasting. I'm not sure why that is. For now, I find this to be a pleasant, easy and reasonably enoyable whisky, but not among Glendronach's best

On a recent trip to Florida's west coast, I saw Horse Soldier in a local Total Wine.  It's produced in St. Petersburg by the American Freedom Distillery.   Although I like to pick up local offerings when I travel, I passed on it in favor of a bottle from Old St. Pete Distillery. The wife and I traveled to New York for a few days between Christmas and New Year's, and found our way to the hotel bar after a long day exploring.  The hotel bar's whiskey offerings were not extensive and almost entirely run of the mill - Beam, Jameson, Jack, Glenfiddich, and...Horse Soldier.  Easy choice.  Horse Soldier's mashbill is 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% barley and it's bottled at 42.5% ABV.  The nose is sweet, with some typical bourbon aromas - primarily sweet caramel and corn.  The palate is more of the same, with a rye spice that builds to the finish. There's nothing unusual, surprising or different about it.  But it's a nice whiskey - well balanced and pleasant.   I have no compulsion to jump online and order a bottle, but better than sipping Jameson or Jack? Absolutely.

4.25? Really???? Yes, BUT... Screwball is labelled as a whiskey, but it's not (with all due respect to Screwball and their branding and marketing teams). Like Drambuie, it's a whiskey-based liqueur. It's syrupy and super sweet, like a peanut butter version of Licor 43. For those who like peanut butter, have a serious sweet tooth, and prefer to keep the ABV low, this stuff has the potential to be very dangerous. Liquid crack. It's simply bursting with a sweet peanut butter flavor, which is admirably achieved with natural flavoring. For me, it's too sweet to drink straight. While I can tolerate and even enjoy a high level of natural sweetness in a whiskey, this isn't even close. Nevertheless, I suspect it would be an excellent mixer. I have yet to experiment, but I can see it being the basis for an Americanized version of a Rusty Nail (which is Scotch and Drambuie). In this case, the ingredients could be bourbon and Skrewball. Let's call it a Rusty Skrew! Marketing genius, or is it just the Barrell Bourbon Batch 19 talking? The peanut note in Beam products will never seem the same...

I spied the Iron Smoke Straight Bourbon in the minatures display at Total Wine, and...why not? This is rumored to be a four grain bourbon (Iron Smoke doesn't disclose the mashbill, but I found the four grain info elsewhere on the Internet, so it must be true), but it comes across as almost completely corn based.     The nose is sweet - caramel and butterscotch, with some pecan nuttiness. The palate starts corn and vanilla, before getting pulled under by a wave of ethanol.  Mid-palate, there's are some subtle notes of mint and grass.  Then the ethanol returns, slow fading to butterscotch.  About five seconds into the finish, the ethanol fully disappears and there is a nice and slightly complex sweetness left.  Although it's not a particularly strong whiskey at 40% ABV, the ethanol on the palate is disproportionate to the remaining flavors. Jim Murray allegedly loves this whiskey (https://bit.ly/2PxobFZ), but it didn't grab me. I often like young spirits - if they're not too harsh, they can have a nice flavor profile (albeit not particularly complex), while being a bit edgy.  In this case, however, I'm partial to the argument that more time in the barrel might do wonders.  As it stands now, I'd recommend several other whiskeys over the Iron Smoke if you're looking for a younger corn bourbon.  Hudson Baby Bourbon and Balcones Baby Blue, just to name two.

I love exploring craft distillery offerings - so many unique and exciting whiskeys waiting to be discovered.   I particularly enjoy finding local or regional gems, and I have multiple bottles from most of the New England states, with the exception of Vermont and my home state of New Hampshire.   Smoky Quartz had been on the shelves of the New Hampshire state liquor store for some time, but my curiosity has been tempered with caution.  With a mashbill of 100% corn, aged just a bit over a year (in New Hampshire nonetheless, which is not exactly on the Texas high-speed aging curve), this whiskey seemed to have the makings of a harsh and unruly youngster.  Plus, Smoky Quartz is currently making four products - vodka, moonshine, gin, and bourbon, but the bourbon appears last on their web page.  Perhaps not their crown jewel... On Sunday, I went to my sister's house for dinner and she announced she had a local bourbon for me to try - Smoky Quartz, which she had received from a friend as a gift.   Smoky Quartz is based in Seabrook, NH and sources all grains locally.  The V5 is 100% corn, aged approximately 15 months in small (15-gallon) barrels, and bottled at 45% ABV.   The nose is full of corn and vanilla.  The palate starts with a strong hit of vanilla and caramel, followed by a moderate rush of alcohol that is not overly heavy and is tempered by a note of grassiness.  The heat and grassiness slowly fades and is replaced by a strong burst of fruit and caramel sweetness at the end of a long finish. There's no mistaking the fact that this is a young whiskey - the spice and nuttiness found in more mature bourbons are nowhere to be found, nor is there a fully rounded profile.   On the other hand, the harshness is well in check, there's an interesting progressing from the palate to the finish, and there's none of the harsh oakiness that can occur with small barrel aging.   While it's nothing groundbreaking, it's a very solid effort, and I plan to visit the distillery soon.  

Barrell Batch 019 is a mix of whiskeys from Kentucky and Tennessee, ranging from 9.5 to 14 years in age.  Although not disclosed, George Dickel is alleged to be the Tennessee source.   It's bottled at 54.7% ABV.   A deep caramel and molasses note is prominent on the nose.  The palate is dominated by wood spice, cinnamon, anise, pepper and clove.  Underneath is a very nice caramel and orange sweetness. The finish is long with vanilla and spice.  Barrell's web site identifies dark chocolate covered blueberries on the finish as well. While I would not have come up with that on my own, it rings very true. I don't often experiment with adding water, but I did in this case.  A handful of drops toned down the cinnamon and spice a bit while increasing the vanilla and oak.  It also brought out a bit of fruit on then nose.  While Batch 019 is very nice straight out of the bottle,  I preferred it with just a bit of water - to my palate, it was a bit more balanced. With or without water, this is simply a great bourbon, and a complex one at that.  I have no doubt I'll find more as I work through the bottle.  The complexity and relatively high ABV make it an engaging dram that demands to be consumed very mindfully.  But it's also an easy enough sipper that I could thoroughly enjoy it in a completely mindless fashion.  All in all, great stuff!

If you've already read @Richard-ModernDrinking's excellent review of the Huddart, here's my quick take - What he said!! If you're still reading, a few additional thoughts - The nose on the Huddart is absolutely devine.  Whenever I open a new whisky bottle (a small sample bottle in this case), I have a habit of smelling the first odor that escapes when the cork or top is removed.  In this case, a big ball of sweetness greeted me, akin to a sherry bomb.  But once in the Glencairn, it opened up to citrus and apple, vanilla and custard.  There's peat smoke as well, but it's so beautifully integrated with the fruits that It wasn't the first thing I noticed.  On the nose alone, this is at least a 4.75.  I was left wondering what would happen if I put it in an essential oil diffuser.   Perhaps the only true negative about the palate is that it's a step down from the nose.  But there's some nice, gentle peat smoke on top of what tastes like typical Old Pulteney - paricularly brine and a creamy honey.  The finish is a bit bitter, but it's a dark chocolae and grapefruit bitterness that's enjoyable. It seems that the Huddart has made its way to the US, because it's available at Federal Wines and Spirits in Boston (although they have a lot of unusual bottles and may be importing through alternative channels).  My understanding was that OP's full new core line was to have hit US stores early in 2019, so I'm a bit surprised I've not seen it in other locations yet.  As a result, I don't know what the typical US price will be and therefore have no basis for evaluating its VFM.  But it's a very worthy dram, and I hope to see it on shelves soon.

A guy walks into a bar and orders a three dram whiskey flight. The bartender says, "we're all out of third whiskey you selected". The guy quickly scans the menu and thinks, "Zeppelin Bend. Cool name. Why not?" I'm still searching for the punch line. The nose has some vanilla, but some weird funk and possibly some acetone. And it gets worse from there. The palate is just plain weird and disjointed, and it finishes with stale beer and more weird funk. I've never had anything like Zeppelin Bend before, and I hope it remains that way.

Smokey American whiskeys always catch my eye.  I'd seen the Stolen 11 here on Distiller some time ago, but wondered if it was nothing more than a gimmicky marketing effort.  Whiskey from MGP, along with a slightly ham-handed moniker... But I saw it at Binneys a couple of months ago, priced at just less than $40.  Smokey American...Worth taking a chance on. It was $40 well spent.  It's vanilla, creme brulee, and marshmellow.   There's also a nice mint element to it as well.  The smoke, while subtle, provides a nice contrast to the sweetness. And at 46% ABV, there's just the right amount of heat. This won't appeal to those who dislike sweet drams.  But if you're OK with that, there's enough balance and complexity to keep it interesting.  

How I love the whiskey rabbit hole!  Recently, @dubz480 recommended Rua American Single Malt, and never one to ignore his rock solid endorsements (I have a growing collection of Barrell to show for it, along with Del Bac and a few other gem), I immediately commenced with research.   Great Wagon Road Distillery's web site (the makers of Rua) has a "Buy Online" link that routes to seelbachs.com.  New to me, Seelbach's is dedicated to offering spirits (mostly whiskey) from craft distillers from across the US.   Awesome. I looked through all of Seelbach's listing and researched every one I was unfamiliar with, one of which was Wanderback.  Seelbachs had three Wanderback batches for sale.   Wanderback is not a distillery.  The founder, Phil Downer, developed his own mashbill, sourced the grains from local farmers, and partnered with established distilleries to produce the whiskey.  Westland apparently distilled Batch 1.  The whiskey is then aged at Wanderback's warehouse (a converted barn) in Hood River, OR.  Each release is a limited run of 2000-2500 bottles.  The scant few Wanderbach reviews I found were glowing, and I was intrigued.  Plus, Seelbach's has a discount for purchasing all three batches together.  Sold!   First up, Batch 1.  It's 90 proof, 88% pale malt, 8% crystal malt, 2% chocolate malt, and 2% Munich malt, and aged for a minimum of 3 years. 2200 bottles were released. The nose has some smoke, malt, and lots of toffee.  The palate is toffee that transitions to mild dark chocolate, some anise and spice, and a sweet fruity note that's not citrus, berry or dark fruits.  The tasting notes on the bottle list star fruit, which seems about right.  The finish is long, with the dark chocolate taking center stage. According to Wanderback, the Hood River experiences significant temperature swings.  While there's some youthfulness present, it's well moderated.  The nose is very pleasant, and the flavors on the palate are strong and bold.  Overall, an excellent American single malt.   Batch 2 uses the same mashbill, is aged four years, and is finished in ex-rum and ex-bourbon casks.  Batch 3 is aged five years and finished in ex-port casks.  I can't wait to try both.  And of course, I ordered the Rua as well.  I've been disciplined recently with my bottle  openings, but I'm about to be put to the test...