Tastes

Since I just got my COVID-19 vaccine jab#1, I wanted to appropriately celebrate the possibility of finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel—-I’m hoping at this point next year, we’ll all be back to normal ( maybe still once every year or two regular COVID jabs, like the flu vaccine). I chose this pour, graciously given to me by @jonwilkinson7309. Lost Lantern is a New England brand that bottles whiskey from those distilleries that aren’t as well known. Considering I got a Moderna vaccine, a pharma that’s just not well known (prior to this at least) like Pfizer, J&J, Merck, Sanofi, etc, I thought a pour from Lost Lantern would be appropriate. This is finished in apple brandy, but I’m not getting to much of the fall apple aroma. Seems to be a light touch. Instead aromas of baked goods are more upfront. The taste is mild on the rye, not in-your-face style like a Michters or Barrell. It’s subtle. I wouldn’t recommend this in a cocktail—-it’ll get overpowered. But the nuanced rye and baked bread flavor is nice on its own, neat without ice or water. Finally...at the finish, I get green apples! I’ve had apple brandy finishes before, but you always get the apples on the nose or taste, not on the finish. Leaves you with a feeling of biting into a Granny Smith . Well done...and unique. Thanks Jon for the pour!

Big, bold, rough, and pushing the boundaries. That pretty much sums up this Balcones. Balcones itself is quite big and bold. Combine that with a bold beer like a stout finish, and you can have either a freakin disaster on your hands, or a damn good experiment. This is fortunately the latter. The best part of this is the aroma. As soon as I opened the sample vial, I got aromas wafting through the air of roasted coffee. The smell alone is a 5 star rating. Taste is roasted coffee, malt, chicory and oak. It’s a brawny belter of a dram, pulls no punches and comes at you like a freight train carrying Colombian coffee beans. Let it sit out a bit, add some water to tame the 62% ABV, and enjoy...this isn’t meant to drink quickly, but really take your time with it. Thanks to @Richard-ModernDrinking for the generous sample. This is not available in any retail or at the distillery shop, so I’m that much more thankful to have tried it.

I purchased a bottle some time ago, namely, and quite honesty, because I was curious what the Armagnac finished Joseph Magnus taste like, but wasn’t up for hunting and paying $300+ for it. Instead I noticed this, and furthermore, was impressed that it was started by an all women team with an all women employee base. That’s hard to come by in a male dominated industry like this. Honestly...was more than happy to support the endeavor, regardless of how the bourbon turned out ( now , just for note...in pecking order, bourbon is dead last for me after single malt, rye, amaro, all other whiskey, red wine...and then finally bourbon ). This is a high rye sourced bourbon from KY, but finished in Armagnac in Wash DC. The aroma is the pinnacle of this one, unfortunately. Apricot, honey, some oak. Very heavy on apricot. The palette falls apart...it’s mild and light. I was hoping for more of the Armagnac, but it’s really light. It’s like diametrically opposite to a Booker’s. If you like your spirit mild and light, with an amazing aroma, this is right up your alley.

Amrut Triparva, which means “ consisting of three” in Sanskrit, is India’s first triple distilled whiskey. Outside Ireland, I’m not sure if others triple distill. Auchentoshan might be the only other one. This one is only 5400 bottles worldwide, and I think it might be a one-off. I’m not a huge fan of triple distill, so I only bought a small 3cl sample. One thing for sure—-whether you love or hate Amrut—-they have a panache for out of the box innovative thinking. Take for example their 007. They made a cask with 7 different woods, and aged their whiskey in it. That experiment worked out really well, as bottles flew off the shelf and secondary prices soared. Likewise, their intermediate Sherry was matured in Sherry, then bourbon, then back to Sherry. That too was quite good, and now unfortunately discontinued. So this one here—-it’s light. Not to be unexpected, with the 3 distillation process. Visually, it’s pale gold. Aroma—-It’s not young by India standards, I’m not getting that youth burn. I’m getting a light sawdust smell to it, which is unusual for Amrut. Taste isn’t quite what I expected as well. Very bread-y, oak profile, with slight citrusy taste. More on just sourdough bread and malt. Missing is the cardamom which I loved in all other Amrut. So...if you’re a fan of triple distillation, this might be right up your alley. Personally for me, it’s missing the key two calling cards —hefty body and cardamom. When one asks me “what makes an Indian whiskey Indian?”, I automatically think of hefty feel and cardamom ( for Amrut) or sandalwood (for Paul John). This is missing those two. I love the experimentation, but this one is just not for me.

I was given a generous pour of this by my buddy up north @jonwilkinson7309 . A bit of background—-Lost Lantern is a relatively new independent bottler that selects casks from those American craft distillers that are still relatively new or unknown (hence the name Lost Lantern), but provide high quality whiskey. These distillers might not have the distribution channels like the big craft players (Balcones, Stranahan’s), but can go toe-to-toe with any of them. They recently released four offerings—-I bought one of them ( a vatted malt...just because I loved Barrell’s vatted so much), but wanted to try this as well, an offering from Santa Fe, makers of Colkegan. You can clearly tell it’s young—-but the youth is well hidden with quality distillates. And furthermore, three year old for a well established player is young, but it’s actually impressive for new craft distillers. A crisp citrusy flavor is complemented by some smoke. The mesquite is lightly handled...it’s not in your face like Balcones or DelBac. It’s more nuanced and ideal for those just treading into smoky American malts. If you thought Balcones or DelBac was too much, this would be right up your alley. I’d almost compare this to a Peated Balvenie, which is much more muted than an Ardbeg or Lagavulin (granted, different type of peat being Islay than Balvenie’ s peat)...maybe Edradour’s Ballechin would be a better comparison since that’s similar type of peat. I saved myself 1/2 a pour because I’d love to do a side-by-side with Colkegan’s standard offering, just to see if Colkegan is normally a muted smoky flavor by design, or if Lost Lantern purposely chose a muted cask to appeal across a wider spectrum. Thanks Jon for the pour!

I remember when I was a young teen, and the new Batman came out. It was the first one, the one with Michael Keaton. Yeah...way back then. It had such hype, was like the best thing since sliced bread. Yeah...Micheal Keaton, the comedy /romcom actor playing the Caped Crusader? He’s a great actor, so he must have made such a course correction from Mr Mom to a dark and brooding hero. All my high school friends were anxious to see it. We stood in line for hours and finally scored tickets to a show. Unfortunately, it didn’t meet expectations. I walked out disappointed. Not sure if it was just over-hyped and didn’t meet the expectations, or something else. Just didn’t do it for me. So comes this bourbon. It’s been hard to find, and folks have been clamoring over how amazing it is. I never really bought a bottle...but was always in a lookout for a pour. That came to me this past Thanksgiving when a family member bought this over. Aroma: syrup-y corn, really like any other bourbon in the young 3-4 yr age. Taste: this is where I was disappointed. To me, just tasted like cotton candy dipped in alcohol. Just falls flat. I know I had the baseline product, not the cask strength version. But, just didn’t cut it for me. Hard pass. I’m not sure why this is so hyped...which is expected more, and I didn’t deliver.