Tastes

Lizardville Columbus Ohio recipe. French cuvée, Maker’s 46, roasted French mocha, toasted French spice. Wow this is a stellar choice of flavor. Nose is candy. Super sweet. Certainly get the sweet scent of the French mocha. Taste is a lot of char/barrel toast flavor. with a lot of bite on the tongue. Goes down smooth for 110.5 proof but certainly not “smooth”. A contradiction, yes, but any bourbon drinker should understand. Sits on the palette but great flavors. 9/24 Lizardville

Tasting from rep at local liquor store... I was fortunate enough to stop in and have a rep doing samples for Oban 14 and Lagavulin 16. After passing the prescreening questions of “do you like scotch?” and “what region do you like your scotch from?” and a few awkward moments of small talk I finally got my little 1oz sample pour. Smell. Oh that beautiful smell of islay scotch is amazing. I immediately took a small sip and let the smoke and peat roll on my tongue and thought myself “wow, if I could drop $95/week on this I’d give up bourbon altogether and be a scotch man.” Well not really, but the taste of islay scotches are amazing the smoke and peat is such a flavor indescribable to someone who’s never experienced it. Lagavulin is a Laphroaig or Ardbeg but smoother. The finish is so smooth with no burn, which I’ve experienced with the latter two competitors I mentioned. Overall, as many others mention, just an exceptional Islay scotch at 16 years and is somewhat affordable (as an occasional purchase for me) I’ll certainly be buying one before the holidays. Compared to many others in the same year range and flavor to dollar factor this one is a winner. 9/12/19

This is the problem with single barrels or maybe it’s just that my palate is not suited for the roses (see what i did there). I’ve been wanting to try this for quite some time after reading somewhat positive reviews. So hear goes..... Upon opening this one I was expecting something sweet or a bourbonesque scent but I didn’t get that at all instead I found it to be a very astringent ethanol smell with a little oak thrown in. Almost a new young bourbon scent. Strange. I let it rest for about 15 minutes giving it a dance in my glencairn occasionally until I decided to jump in. First sip was sweet but changed quickly to oak, then transformed into an evil peppery heat; not at all in a good way. This liquid in my glass looks like bourbon but it must be the four roses SIB doppelgänger because I’m not impressed at all and it burns. Once I get passed the blast of alcohol and pepper, the finish the best way I can describe, is a poorly brewed beer. You know, the one that ferments at too high of a temp and gives off that horrible ethanol taste. (I used to homebrew before the beer craze blew up in 2008/09. After giving it a couple drops of H2O I get all of the same but a smidge less burn. Sorry four roses fans but I was really looking forward to this one and I’m going to chalk this up to a poor single barrel experience. I’ve bought Evan Williams SIB’s that have been amazing and I’ve picked poor ones too but with 4R at $43 I’m not sure I want to roll the dice again. I know to some that may be a drop in the bucket but for most budget bourbon drinkers and the newbs out there, that’s a good investment. Warehouse JW Barrel No. 33-1B 9/14/19 Finally made it through this entire bottle. Still feel the same way actually dislike it even more now lowering my score to a solid 2. I’m convince I got a bad batch as the reviews just don’t align with mine. I’d hate to spend another $40 and get burned again though.

Barrel #904 Barrelled 8-18-11 Bottled 7-8-19 Wow! This is by far the best single barrel I’ve had by Evan Williams. This one is so creamy sweet and fruity. Wow, just wow. I now know how the experts scored a 96 on this. I’ve had some bottles, particularly the last one that put me off of this but man o man this is certainly back in the lineup. Nose is heavy vanilla, caramel, and fig. The taste is ridiculously smooth and tastes like a vanilla bomb with subtle hints of oak. Slight, very slight, almost minuscule burn as it goes down. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything go down this smooth even other EWSBs. Could be the 86 proof but I don’t care, I like it!! The finish doesn’t last long enough but makes you want to keep going back to remember how delicious the last sip was. For the $22.98 I paid at ABC liquors last Friday, this is worth EVERY penny and more. Maybe I got a honey barrel but I’m gonna go back and clear the shelf on this one because it’s THAT good. If you can find this particular barrel with those dates (needle in a haystack I know) I highly recommend picking this one up and at $23 buy waaaay more than one. 9-9-19

Finished this bottle a couple months ago and into my foray of searching for my next whiskey I was reminded by how I enjoyed this bottle so decided to write my quick review after reminiscing. As a drinker of scotch and bourbon the first thing I noticed was how soft this was when first sipping it. Very inoffensive taste that went well with a small cube. Sweeter profile than any scotch I’ve had in the past. For under $30 and my inexperience in relatively pricier Japanese whiskies out there I certainly would recommend this bottle. 9/8/19

I’ve been slowly going through this bottle over the last 3 months and have been enjoying the heck out of it. Leuken’s store pick barrel #5948. If I recall I picked it up for $40 so to me it was a no-brainer. These knob Creek store picks are a bargain when available. Taste is a wonderful rye spice on the tongue that lingers just long enough to make it feel like you just consumed a cinnamon altoid. Nice spicy burn in a way that only a good rye can manage to do. The 115 proof is masked very well by the spice, certainly doesn’t feel like 115 proof. I’ve been moving away from the straight ryes and been employing them in manhattans and old fashioned’s except for this bottle which I keep to remind me how a good rye should taste when alone. I’ll certainly be milking this one as long as I can. 9/7/19

Had a friend gift me a bottle. Not something I would purchase on my own with so many better choices at the $38 price point.

Woodford knocked it out of the park with this one. Smooth flavor. I’m not one to pick out fancy schmancy flavors out of a hat and say I can taste them so I’ll leave it simple and state that this is a damn fine bottle of whiskey for $32. I’ll probably go back and buy another one later this week.

Update: Found this at my local Walmart liquor for $25.98. Wow, smoking deal. Great daily drinker for those of you who are in the “normal” persons budget. I bought a bottle of ECBP and was told it was a great “daily drinker” but sorry I can’t afford to buy $60 bottles of bourbon every week. I’m at the point where if I can find something around $30-$40 that is tasty I’m happy. I really hope this bourbon craze ends soon like the beer craze has. Go drink some White Claw you damn millennials. My “go to every day drinker”. Man I love this stuff. Still my favorite shelfer I can find anytime on the shelf when I walk into a liquor store. 9/5/22

If you can find the older bottling this is amazing stuff. Unfortunately they changed the recipe. But if you’re lucky enough to find one previous to them running out of the 16 yr old mix you’re in for a treat. I happen to have honey hole that has a shelf full of the “old” stuff but the price has been jacked up to the current Double Rye price so a $15 bump for me but I’ll still pay the extra for this. I just tasted ECBP, ECSB, pikesville rye, and angels envy rye along side this stuff and it’s the clear winner!! I’m going to make this bottle last as long as I can. Update 11/30/20 So I just found another bottle of the old distillate before the change to the younger self sourced stuff. This is probably my favorite whiskey hands down. I hadn’t had it for quite some time since I killed the last bottle and forgot how good it is. God I forgot how good this stuff is. Absolutely love, love, love the flavor profile of it. I’m hoping to find a stash of this somewhere and I’ll buy every bottle of it. (Hopefully for $30 like the one I just bought). Update 2/17/21 I just keep going back to this. Found another 4 bottles of the pre distillate change and yes it can definitely be tasted. The older juice is so damn good. Probably my favorite go-to whiskey that no one raves about. Shhhhh!!! Keep the secret. Update 10/26/22 Had a friend find 2 bottles of the old stuff for me and it’s night and day still against the crap they put out now. Unbelievable. It’s going to be a sad day when I run out of the 2017’s I have left. 🥲