Tastes

I've been sitting on this for a few weeks before I reviewed it. A lot of fine quality reviews are based on neck pours, and lord knows I have several myself, but I've been moving away from that practice as I see how a bottle opens up and reveals itself over time. It's a bit like dating, where the first date may be nice and have a WOW factor, but you haven't really gotten to know that person yet. Now that this has been open and had some time and air (which I highly recommend for this bottle), I feel that I know it better. Chunky Monkey. This whiskey tastes like Chunky Monkey. For the uninitiated, Chunky Monkey is a flavor of ice cream from the American producers Ben & Jerry's. It has banana ice cream with walnut and fudge chunks in it. It is my most favorite flavor of anything they produce, and this whisky is a magnificent liquid version of it. The nose does a marvelous job at masking the high alcohol content, which flits between 64 and 66 percent ABV depending on your bottle. I get the Jack Daniels banana that I hated in college but adore now, along with sweet oak, dusty lumber, cacao nibs, toffee, and pecans. Damn good. The taste is a slow buildup. The proof is present, but it doesn't obliterate the other flavors. Enhances them, really. Because the proof is so high, it pulsates on your palate for quite some time, driving those flavors from the nose further into your taste buds. The first sip is a bit intense, but it mellows over time, as the alcohol delivers a gentle numbing. Like the dentist, but in a good way. As with any high proof dram, the finish lingers for a long time. Forget Stagg Jr. If you can find it regularly, good on you and buy away, but this is $50 and on the shelf everywhere in Texas. It packs the same proof and the same flavor of Stagg Jr., but without all the bullshit allocation nonsense. There's no shortage of Jack Daniels. This is JD for grownups. Whatever you thought it was, this isn't. This is a whole lot better. Cheers!

I didn't do this one justice after my last review. Maybe it's the COVID fatigue. Or maybe I was just more interested in drinking it than writing about it at the time. Either way, it's a magnificent unicorn of a whiskey that deserves to have nice things said about it, and I wish to do right by it on the bottle kill (yes, it went fast...) Wild Turkey, particularly well aged Turkey (which is most of it besides the 81 proof entry level) has a certain "dusty" quality to it. It's most likely just corn influence, somewhat reminiscent of Canadian whiskey, but unlike many (not all) Canadian whiskies, it doesn't suck, it's magnificent. This bottle, being 12-15 years old, has that quality in spades. It's everything you love about Rare Breed or Russel's Reserve Single Barrel (dealer's choice. They're both great) amplified and refined. NOW, take all that and envelop it in a blanket of luscious sherry goodness. The casks sourced for this expression were 20+ year old sherry casks, not this "sherry seasoned" bullshit we see from Highland Park or Macallan that only held sherry for 3 or 4 years. It shows. Quality matters. This is like...older Glendronach or Tamdhu quality sherry casks. So all to say, the nose is well-aged awesome dusty Turkey enveloped in a sherry blanket. It's the best of the bourbon and scotch worlds. When you sip it, my God is it good. You get the same as the nose, which in my book is the mark of a good whiskey, when the nose and the palate line up. Sometimes a funky surprise is ok, but this is just magnificent. The taste has all the caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, chai spice, and baking spices of bourbon, enveloped by the best of sherry flavors like dates, raisins, nuttiness, and a warming sensation that combined with the "Kentucky Hug", leaves this dram with a most satisfying finish. This is serious stuff. Now, I know this was the 2018 special release and may be absent from most store shelves. In order to properly enjoy this, you probably have to be a Wild Turkey fan AND a fan of sherry bombs. If not, you may be in for disappointment (in which case may I redirect your to the equally excellent Masters Keep option from 2020, the Bottled in Bond), but if you enjoy both of those types of drams, keep searching for this one. I'm going out hunting for another bottle. It's that good. SRP for this should be between $130 and $150. Worth. Every. Cent. One of the best whiskies I've tried of any category. If you liked Legent or the Belle Meade Sherry Cask, this is better. Hands down. It's older, more refined, more flavorful, and has a deeper, more satisfying finish. Put it in your belly, and if you're lucky enough to still find this in the wild, buy on sight without hesitation. Cheers friends!

Another quick hit on this one. I missed supporting the local distilleries, and it was good to get out to one for the first time since January. This was admittedly better than their grain to glass bourbon, but largely because part of the blend is sourced from Heaven Hill, and that nutty Elijah Craig profile really pops through. That being said, I feel like these Texas whiskies (the bourbons in particular) don’t hold up so well when they’re proofed down. It really exposes their age. Cask strength may be the way to go if you’re hunting down a Texas bourbon.

Quick hit in this. Luckily for the Mrs and I, the Treaty Oak distillery is only 30 minutes right outside of Austin and on a big ranch property to help maintain appropriate distance from other folks. This bottle is their grain to glass bourbon, and it definitely noses and tastes like a Texas bourbon. Very woody and tannic on the nose, with a palate to match. My big gripe about Texas bourbon is that the subtle grain flavors gets obliterated by the oak all too often and the whiskey becomes a little one note. This shows promise, but like most craft whiskey, a little more cask management would go a long way.

Nothing wrong with this. Classic bourbon notes with the nuttiness dialed up. Been a minute since I reviewed anything. Between work and my dissertation life has hit like a sledgehammer and there hasn’t been time for our favorite brown beverage. Plus I’ve embarked on a vigorous weight loss program the past few months and I find myself drinking less. I see it as earning all the whisky calories. So this isn’t standard EC, but one of several store picks I’ve seen pop up around me all of a sudden. This one happens to be an 8 year pick, but I’ve seen 9 and 10 year picks around town too. Lovely classic bourbon notes plus a nondescript nutty profile I find intriguing (a Heaven Hill calling card?). A head turner? No, bit for $30 it’s a solid sipper, and a definite upgrade from the ECSB. Now if only we got ECBP down here in Texas...

I don’t pour this too often. Not because it sucks, but because even in a collection of amazing bottles, I still think it’s important to save at least one bottle for those special moments. I’m sitting on the back deck enjoying a perfect fall Texas evening and sharing a dram of this with my father before a birthday dinner of interior Mexican cuisine. Whisky was meant for sharing. This bottle has been open about six months now and this was the third and fourth pours from the bottle. Amazing. Rich deep notes of Oloroso and PX. Ginger, allspice, dark fruit, leather, baking cocoa, and somehow sweet and drying at the same time. Just amazing. Best bottle in my collection hands down, and one worthy of a special occasion. Cheers!

Quick hit. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of reviews here, and this one isn’t available everywhere as it is. Nose starts off initially astringent, but opens up into some nice vanilla and barrel tannin, but over the time the astringency returns and masks any of the good qualities this pour may have revealed.

Quick hit. An unfair rating of a 79 for this. Initially a harsh grainy nose, but it opens up into a lovely sherry cask fruitiness. Palate isn’t wildly complex, but there’s buttery shortbread, sherry fruit, and a lovely, rounded Irish mouthfeel. A worthy alternative to Bushmills Black Bush.