Tastes

Best value in all of whiskey (until I tried Smoke Wagon Desert Colt) . Tastes 13 years old...

The wheat is integrated so perfectly with the corn, and it's incredibly smooth for the abv. It absolutely destroyed Barrell Foundation (which is pretty good by itself) and made it taste like water. Tried at a friend's or I'd have more its many notes. Would love to blind this with Bardstown Origin series wheated.

Nose: Almost no nose except a slight honey. Palate: certainly no flavor bomb, but there is a faint caramel, a high-rye backbone, and a mineral note (Dickel?). It creates a nice mouthfeel with its blend of sources and overall favors being smooth over flavor. In a blind it barely narrowed out the similarly priced Bardstown Origin series straight bourbon...

Cateleja is a complex beast. Raisins, truffles, sulphuric dry sherry sweetness, chocolate, dates, tobacco, and mature grapes. Cons: 1. The price 2. The rotten egg flavor of sulphuric sherry, which is prominent with the bottle first opened. (A popular Youtuber review even started the review with a frown about the rotten egg note, but later admires its 'complexity'.) Pros: 1. Complex 2. Unique 3. Maybe all those dark flavors coalesce and harmonize with a little air and time opened up... I'm taking a half-glass empty approach, especially after comparing it to the instantly pleasing and wondrous Glendronach batch 12 right afterwards...

A deliciously fruity rye that weds the sherry to the rye perfectly. They unite so well, you feel like you are drinking a fine scotch.

Incredible. I've had many ryes, but not many that make me want to keep returning to the glass as it gets better and better. It combines waves of syrupy brown sugar and a Beam old dusty peanut note (which may sound weird, but makes it even more addictive) and is so smooth for 60 abv. The hype is real, and I would not pass this up.

Compared to batch 11, and 12 is somehow better than Batch 11... In Batch 11 the dry sherry note reigns, whereas in 12 the sherry finish cannot be discerned directly, all the elements with the base spirit mingling and covering for one another, becoming more symphonic and balanced, delivering a better mouthfeel. A top 10 pick by Whiskey Advocate, and while their picks are controversial, they singled out a great batch.

Upon first impression, this is a winner, especially if you like caramelized or brown sugar notes. My bottle did not seem too hot or ethanol forward, and adding a little water made it even smoother. I prefer this rye over any bourbon I've had in the JD line-up (including the JD 12!), and I know it will only improve as the barrel proof bourbon opened up and improved over time.

(sample) From a value standpoint, you could get a bottle for half this price that is as good or better. On taste alone, it succeeds with a lovely faint rum note, but I would only recommend if you like tannic and dry bourbons. Someone swore they could taste Dickel, but that's the power of suggestion imo. No Kentucky bourbon is in this bottle.