Tastes

Weird that to me, this comes off like an Irish or a Speyside scotch on the nose, super vanilla and malty. But it’s a straight up bourbon on the taste/finish. Just damn good stiff.

A very straight up the middle bourbon casked Speyside. Honey, cereal grains, a bit of ambiguous fruit and floral notes. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but very enjoyable.

This is yet another bang for buck champ. $17 for 103pf of brown sugar/baking spices and oak. Perfectly serviceable sipped neat at a price that’s friendly for mixing, shots or as I’m doing right now…seasoning my BBQ sauce and campfire beans.

On the nose, you get the peat first then it settles into honey, graham crackers, a salt air note and floral sweetness. On the palate its honey nut cheerios and maltiness, reminiscent of Speyburn and Lismore but “cleaner”, and of course a mild briny peat. Definitely the best JW I’ve tasted and just a damn good whisky on its own.

Definitely better than the original, but that’s not a high bar. This comes off as the lower end highland that it is but at least this one is enjoyable. It’s still got an acrid bittersweet note that I can’t place or shake…maybe its a taste of wet leaves? *edit* After a few days and coming back to this, it’s opened up nicely. Its more balanced with less of that bitter/saccharine taste which is still there but at least now its in check. Im gonna bump it up a bit.

A pretty solid rye. Not nearly as amazing as the Whistle Pig 10 but this is a solid entry level version of that product. The rye, fennel, menthol and baking spice notes are a bit dialed back but this is still a very flavorful whisky.

The nose is crazy! Like whiff of the oak smoke off a brisket being smoked on my Weber…but there’s a sweetness reminiscent of pipe tobacco. The flavor is more of the same with some stone fruit and vanilla. Really really good stuff.