Tastes

NOSE: Caramel corn, caramel, butterscotch, a summer meadow, vanilla, something floral - roses?, cold spring water, honey, sweet corn, roasting ears. MOUTHFEEL: Creamy. TASTE: Honey, black pepper, sweet corn, oak, brown sugar, butter. FINISH: Medium long - spice, honey, oak coming on, black pepper, fading to peppered honey. SUMMARY: The nose is wonderful, and promises a lot. The taste doesn't quite deliver, though - it's certainly good, but not quite up to the promise of the nose. The finish, though, is one of the best I've ever encountered. I'd pay $10 more for this stuff. RATING: Fine, the second highest (the highest rating in my new system is mighty fine).

NOSE: Peanuts, honey, honey lemon cough drops, apples, dark chocolate, ointment, corn going bad, grass hay, dust, straw MOUTHFEEL: Watered down creaminess TASTE: Honey, oak, black pepper FINISH: Medium - oak, slight honey SUMMARY: This is a fair $20 whisky, but no more - at $40 the cost would be double what it's worth. The nose is complex, but with some unpleasant notes, and the taste is very simple. RATING: Poor

NOSE: Alcohol, brassy vanilla, grass, honey, scorched grain, something musty, butterscotch. MOUTHFEEL: Slightly creamy. TASTY: Caramel, dusty honey, butter, brown sugar. FINISH: Short, with grass, faint oak, and alcohol. This isn't the worst bourbon I've ever had, but I'll not buy it again. It's merely mediocre.

I got a 375ml bottle at Total Wine for $17.99. It's 94 proof, from a mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and $12% barley. A Whiskey Magazine color chart comes closest with the designation auburn; I'd call it dark copper. There's no age statement, which since it's a straight bourbon means it's at least four years old (anything less would require an age statement). NOSE: The nose is very complex. It begins with Caramel, vanilla, and cinnamon toast, and continues with a surprising hot chocolate note. Then come bananas, a light mint note, melted butter, pancakes?, Golden Delicious apples, buttercreme icing, and finally a very surprising sweet potato pie. All along this is a warm nose - not alcohol burn, but a very pleasant warmth as of a fire on a winter night. MOUTHFEEL: Very creamy and thick. TASTE: Orange, cinnamon, a pleasant alcohol burn, vanilla icing, honey, brown sugar, and green chile - it's not exactly like green chile, but that's the closest thing I know of to that final spicy, hot note. FINISH: Creamy and long, with notes of orange dream bars, black pepper, a very faint oak, and finally pecans and walnuts. SUMMARY: This is a very fine bourbon. The nose is highly complex, and the taste is less complex but still very good. I'll definitely buy this one again.

I can't find any information about this bourbon or the distiller online. There's a URL on the back label, but the Web site seems to be defunct - at least the URL leads to an error message. I thus know nothing of the mash bill. There's no age statement on the bottle, and it doesn't call itself a straight bourbon, so I presume it's aged less than two years. The whisky is tawny in the glass, using a Whisky Magazine color chart I found online, and it's 90 proof. I paid $5.99 for a 200ml bottle. NOSE: Heavy vanilla, pears, alcohol, and mint. MOUTHFEEL: Watery (the legs form and run immediately, so it's clearly not a viscous juice). TASTE: Caramel, vanilla, semisweet chocolate, watered down apple juice, cinnamon, bananas and brown sugar, vanilla icing, cinnamon toast. FINISH: Oak, faint chocolate, pears, and mint. SUMMARY: This is the most surprising whisky I've ever tasted. It's cheap, and initially the nose and the taste seemed congruent with the price. But as I nosed and tasted, the whisky opened up rapidly and gave me much more than I expected - much more than I'd paid for. This size bottle would be worth a dollar or two more. I don't know what's going on with the distillery, but if they'll get their act together, get out there in front of the public, and get some distribution out of New Mexico this could be perhaps the best budget bourbon out there.

This is, of course, an 86 proof bourbon - lower than I prefer, but I didn't have much money to spend when I bought this, and among the small bottles it was the only one I wanted to try. It was $11.49 for a pint. The mash bill is 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% barley. There's no age statement, but since it's a straight whisky it has to be at least four years old or an age statement would be mandatory. In the glass it's a "burnished" color, according to the chart I use. NOSE: Caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, marshmallows, honey, honeysuckle, summer leaves (it doesn't actually smell like leaves, it's just that's what this note makes me think of ). MOUTHFEEL: Thin. TASTE: Watered down honey, orange, salt, brown sugar. FINISH: Long, but it's just faint oak, a vague citrus note, and a warmth that lingers. SUMMARY: This bourbon begins great, but the mouthfeel, taste, and finish are disappointing compared to the nose. It's not a bad bourbon - I like it - but it's not what the nose promises.

This is 90 proof, and a fifth cost me $30.99 at the Kelly Liquors store at Mountain Run. It's deep copper in the glass. The label says it's at least four years old, and it turns out - I hadn't known this - that it's a blend of whisky from four different states. NOSE: At first I just got alcohol, caramel, and a faint grass note. After letting the juice set for 20 minutes I got candy corn, butter, summer grass, and butterscotch. MOUTHFEEL: Medium creamy TASTE: It's hot, more so than you'd expect from just 90 proof whisky. At first all I got was something astringent, but 20 minutes later that was gone, and I got butter, grass, mint, and oak, though it was still hot. FINISH: The only note is oak, and it's a short finish. SUMMARY: This isn't a bad bourbon, but it's not worth the price, not to me anyway. It's all right, but not more, and I don't think I'll buy it again, since there's so much more out there.

This is an 86 proof whisky that is, of course, 10 years old. It cost $54.99 for a fifth at the Kelly Liquors location in the Mountain Run shopping center here in Albuquerque. Using the Whisky Suggest color chart I found it's "burnished," but I'd call it a coppery gold. NOSE: The dominant note - and it is extremely dominant - is sharp and medicinal (I suppose it's iodine, but I've never smelled iodine that I know of, though the smell is familiar from somewhere). I also got salt, something earthy, a faint floral and honey note, a bandaid smell, a very faint smokiness, orange, and something warm. MOUTHFEEL: Thick and creamy. TASTE: Sharp and medicinal again, with a meaty note, a note of scorched orange, and lemon. The taste is considerably less complex than I expected after the multiple notes of the nose. FINISH: Again sharp and medicinal, with a tinge of oak, and going on for a very long while. SUMMARY: This is a good whisky, but it's mighty pushy. It's so aggressive that I'll not drink it regularly, just now and then. After I'd finished my notes I decided to put in a little water. That was a mistake. The water made no difference in the nose, but the taste became nothing but acid - totally undrinkable. This is a whisky which doesn't play well with water.

As a single malt Scotch, this has a mash bill of 100% malted barley. It's yellow gold in the glass, 80 proof and 12 years old. A 375ml bottle cost me $26.49 at the Uptown Total Wine store here in Albuquerque - at that price you'd think that I can't afford a fifth, but in fact doubling the amount doesn't come anywhere near doubling the price, and next time around I'll get a fifth. NOSE: Granny Smith apples, pineapple, bananas, honey, apple juice, a very faint hint of liniment which actually isn't unpleasant, musty grain, and toasted oak. MOUTHFEEL: Thin. TASTE: Watered down honey, astringent oak, apple pie without the crust. FINISH: Long, with gentle oak, spring water. I really dislike the metal seal - I thought initially that it was plastic, and so I didn't take great care using my thumbnail on the tab. It was more of a painful surprise than actual pain, but it did hurt, and pulling the metal strip off to break the seal was at least as difficult as pulling the tape from a wax seal. But the whisky itself is good. It's not terribly complex, especially on the tongue - the nose is considerably more complex - but it's a nice, light, and fruity whisky.

A 375ml bottle cost me $14.99 at Total Wine here in Albuquerque. It's 80 proof, and it's aged for three years. It's a corn color in the glass. NOSE: Flowers, honey, a slightly sour note, alcohol, pears. After a couple of sips I picked up an additional note - something sharp which I think might be the malt, since I've encountered this note before in Balcones Texas Lineage Single Malt Whisky. MOUTHFEEL: Watery. TASTE: Honey and pears, very faint oak. FINISH: Medium - oak, honey, and an alcohol sting. This isn't a bad whisky, but I suspect it's at most on the middle shelf of Irish whiskies. I'm just beginning to experiment with Irish whiskey, and this is just my second, but I already have a ranking - Jameson is better. This is just much more simple than I like. I will, however, possibly buy it again, and I'll certainly try other Bushmills expressions.