Tastes

If someone asked me what bourbon tastes like and wanted me to grab something off the shelf as a good example this would be it. I bought this on a whim for a bourbon party and wanted something ive never tried before to share. Knowing nothing about this, besides what the label tells us, i placed my $55+ tax on the counter and walked outbof the liqour store. Smells like a typical middle of the road bourbon nothing wild and reminds me of 1792 small batch or a chestnut farms basically any barton product. Upon tasting it nothing stands out, good or bad, its not memorable but its also not easy to forget you’ve tried it. I dig it because of that. Goes down easy and with a cube its even easier. I really like that its neutral in the world of whiskeys trying to stick out. So here’s my beef. $55+tax so almost $65 for a bottle that reminds me of a $30-35 bottle. The bottle itself is beautiful and certainly makes it look like a $55 bottle so hats off to the marketing department but for the pricepoint i cant see myself buying this again with so many other choices to try around the same price point. But if you’re on the fence and want to try something new or want to bring an impressive bottle to a party full of bourbon amateurs this woukd make an excellent choice. Good sipper that would be a great crowd pleaser for those new to the spirit. 9/19/23

Wow! My oh my what an excellent Irish whiskey!! 🔥🔥🤤 8/5/23

This is good, really good! I see a lot of negative Youtube reviews and i dont understand why. This is the best batch ive had since B520 so good i went back and bought 3 bottles of it. Cheers hope yall enjoy it if you can find it. 7/3/23

I don't get the high reviews on this one? I've tried over and over to try and like this bottle but i can honestly say it's just not my cup of tea. I prefer having just standard small batch Larceny over this. It's hot and the flavors remind me of green tea. I'm down to my last 1/2" in the bottle and I've felt the same way on this bottle every time. The fortunate part of this is that i picked this up for retail at an ABC state run store in NC so i didn't have to get gouged like everyone does in FL. 3/3/23

Okay I knew I liked this rye because I bought a bottle about 4 years ago and blew through it pretty quickly. Apparently I didn't rate it either. So finally I decided to go back to this bottle to see if it's as good as I remember or if I was just newer to whiskey and didn't know what the hell I was doing a few years back. So for about $26 I grabbed a bottle and checked out. Yes it is as good as I remember but for the heck of it i tried it next to Pikesville. Something to note here is, and don't be shocked..... I didn't realize that Rittenhouse was a Heaven Hill product until i flipped the bottle around to see who distilled it. I know, facepalm right? I feel like 4 years ago i looked this up and knew but for some reason i forgot, I dunno. Anywho for $26 it's completely worth the money. Next to the Pikesville it's lacking some depth and oak but the flavor is still there. I'd suggest any newbie getting into whiskey (I feel bad for anyone just now getting into it) should have this on their short list to try for ryes. It's a good investment for the cost that is also not a high rye mashbill so it won't burn your taste buds off. The bottle is very unassuming and I'm surprised that Heaven Hill hasn't changed the marketing and look of this bottle with everything going on in the whiskey world the last 10 years but they also haven't changed any of the EW designs either to entice newbies. The final word is that this bottle is certainly worth the money and should be a staple to anyone who entertains or makes drinks for guests regularly who doesn't want to be using Boss Hog to make an old fashioned for a guest.

Not being an Old Forester fan at all i wasn't sure what to expect and really didn't want to like it. The local bar in my neighborhood has the entire lineup of OF product and this year they got two bottles of the birthday bourbon 2021 and 2022. I tried the 2022 and paid what i thought was a pretty fair price of $30 a pour since i've literally never seen this anywhere-especially not the bar that is walking distance of my house. :-) So with my expectations set low i took a sniff and was impressed at first sniff. I thought to myself damn this smells nothing like their other stuff. Sweet aroma caramel & sugar cookies. At this point I'm pretty impressed but will it taste as good as the smell? I've been fooled before. Taking a sip was probably one of the easiest drinking sweet tasting bourbons i've had touch my mouth. I'm genuinely blown away by how good this is. Luckily the girl who's bartending knows us from being up there almost every day for the last 7 years so she doesn't pour 2 oz pours when we come in and man i'm glad because this stuff is liquid gold. I'm sure anyone reading this is like yea sure it can't be that good. Trust me it is. Just when i thought I'd tasted almost everything and had begun getting bored with bourbon i taste this and man it reinvigorated my senses to taste something so good. If you can find this for a decent price, buy it. I still don't justify any liquor being purchased at secondary values but I'd pay double retail for this just not 10x. 2/14/23

This barrel was chosen by a friend of mine who lives up in NY. Previously he purchased a Knob Creek barrel and was asked by many in the bourbon community to do another barrel so he worked with Staves & Grain to pick this 7 year rye and once again he killed it. So this bottle i really wish i would have bought more than one because it is amazing. It has all the MGP rye flavors that we love. These guys at S&G know how to pick barrels and so does RJ. The smell is classic aged MGP rye so delicious. I'm a sucker for a good MGP rye and this one smells so good. Not as good as the GTS but it's top 5 for scent for me. I sampled these back to back with the GTS and i honestly like the flavor a smidge better on this than the GTS. The smell goes to GTS by a long shot but this is an excellent rye that's spicy and sweet. the 119.2 proof is perfect. Geez i really love this bottle. They say to share with your friends your special bottles and this one was a special bottle that i shared with some friends i've known for a range of 20-30 years and though some of them aren't whiskey drinkers they said this whiskey was amazing. So hats off to RJ for this pick. The picture is of myself and 3 longtime friends who are also friends with RJ who did the barrel pick.