Tastes

I have my own ideas about bourbon, and this is what a premium straight bourbon should taste like. At $130 per bottle, this is money well spent on a well aged and well blended bourbon. The whiskeymakers at Bardstown are reminiscent of those at Compass Box, creating blends with a sense of purpose, delivering challenging and tasty delights. Discovery series #2 is a boulangerie in Paris. The rich and complicated sweet and baking spice aromas are overwhelming and intoxicating on the nose alone. And then you take a sip, and it is surprisingly gentle for 61.1% ABV. The dark chocolate and raisins are well balanced with confectionary sugar, cinnamon, and pastry dough. Soft rye spices, oak, and pistachios emerge in a lengthy and satisfying finish. There are no bad notes. So many bourbons are being released immature and with bad notes. I’m talking about fusel alcohols, corn syrup, corn oil, nut oils, pumpkin, and raw peanuts. Some of these are well hidden in barrel strength ABV, and it seems a lot of NAS barrel strength bourbons from famous brands these days are being bought up and flipped in an unhealthy current bourbon market. I have recently tried barrel strength E.H. Taylor, Elijah Craig, Weller, and Stagg Jr., and these are bakeries in Cleveland. As I said, I have my own ideas about bourbon, and I’m not saying boulangeries in Paris are better than bakeries in Cleveland. But, bakeries in Cleveland should not cost as much. The first investment in oak maturation is not to add flavor to the whiskey, but to subtract bad notes. When you go above $100, you should get a properly matured bourbon without bad notes. If you find your barrel strength NAS of choice at retail price, go ahead and enjoy. But you should not pay secondary market pricing, which are as much as this Discovery series costs or even more, for bakeries in Cleveland. Just spend the money instead on retail prices for Barrell, Bardstown, Kentucky Owl, Old Carter, etc. Score: ** (unimaginably good) How much does a bottle cost?: $120-140 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $160

Bottled in 2020. This is a $200 bottle that lacks intensity and complexity. Other than that, it’s perfectly fine. At 15 years, this is not very oaky, but it does smell and taste a little dusty, like an old Scotch - I guess aging in Vermont is different than aging in Kentucky. There’s tobacco, cinnamon powder, and sawdust with just the right amount of toasted oak. The palate has plenty of familiar caramel, vanilla, and honey; but there’s also a nice musty mushroom funk as well. This WhistlePig does not give itself away as a rye until the finish, which is a rather smooth linger of clove, black pepper, and cardamom. This rye is very drinkable, inoffensive, and sure to please people who are not that into ryes. The flavors are muted, but there’s great balance and maturity. It’s priced in the same league as Johnnie Walker Blue and is going to appeal to the same people who love Blue for its silky smooth refinement. Alas, I feel the refinement is created by holding back and watering down. For those unafraid of intensity and complexity and want to spend $200 on a bottle of rye, I am of course going to recommend the bottle I last reviewed, Kentucky Owl 10 year old rye Batch #3. Score: 0 (forgettable) How Much Does a Bottle Cost?: $190-230 How Much Do I Think a Bottle is Worth?: $110

I usually like to work my way through half a bottle over many months before writing a review. So, consider this an emergency review. I opened this bottle less than a month ago, and it is all I want to drink these days. I have 60-70 open bottles and I cannot reach for anything else unless it’s to compare it this Owl. And yes, right now, I like this better than WhistlePig Boss Hog Black Prince, side by side, without hesitation. The Black Prince is a simpleton compared to the Wise Owl. If I could be gifted a bottle of whiskey, and I could choose between another bottle of The Black Prince or another bottle of Kentucky Owl Rye Batch #3, despite The Black Prince being twice as expensive, I would pick the Owl easily. My taste buds are having a full-blown revolution. A few months ago, I would have told you that I don’t like rye. I like malt whiskies, then mezcal, then rum, then bourbon, then cognac/Armagnac, then rye. I thought I didn’t like the rye profile - it tasted cheap. The “ryes” I did like had to be fancied up by wood finishing or blending shenanigans: Bourye, Midwinter’s, and The Boss Hog. What I didn’t like about most ryes was the blast of rye spices up front. It felt like uncivilized peasant whiskey. It’s all about timing, and the spices belong in the later chapters. With this Owl, there is rich cherry, raspberries, doughnuts, and cake in the welcoming opening of this whiskey epic. The full complement of rye spices come after. Dill, clove, coriander, and a little menthol builds towards a long finish. I still had the taste of rye in my mouth after brushing my teeth. I could still imagine the taste the next day. This whiskey is complex. If you cover your glass and walk away for an hour, it becomes dark, dark chocolate with some umami broth. The balance between spirit and oak is perfect. The age is appreciated. I abhor the telltale nuttiness of too-young bourbons or ryes. There is no nuttiness here, but also no oaky bitterness. Nowadays, peat rarely captivates my nose or tastebuds anymore. I can have a Laphroaig 10, Lagavulin 16, or Ardbeg 10 as a warmup dram. I miss the days I could still taste the smoke after I brush my teeth. But now, I feel as if I found my gateway into an exciting new realm of flavors that will linger if only because of unfamiliarity, but I suspect there’s true intrinsic quality to this whiskey as well. My rating system only goes up to 3 stars, but I have scored a few single malts 4 stars. I will, for now, keep this one at 3 stars, simply because I am a novice at this flavor profile and I may feel differently as I try more ryes. But I feel like I did many years ago when I first tried Lagavulin 16, which is, as Kia Jeffries once said in an Akinyele song, albeit referring to something different from whiskey: “Put it in my mouth.” Score: *** (she said put it in her mouth) How Much Does a Bottle Cost?: $170-230 How Much Do I Think a Bottle is Worth?: $410

I’m not as gaga for this whiskey as I once was, when I tried a pour for $55 an ounce and instantly knew I had to buy a bottle without any regards to how much it would cost. Go figure that the first “rye” that I loved and the first bottle of rye that I bought was $480. My palate has changed since then; I recently had somewhat of a religious experience with a Kentucky Owl Rye Batch 3, and I’m finding that I’m starting to get a taste for actual rye, which the Boss Hog really isn’t. This is a category 5 hurricane of delicious flavors. The fruitiness hits you first with juicy white grapes, red delicious apples, raspberries, and plums. This is followed by waves of herbs and spices in an earthy, savory clay pot stock. The dill and coriander nip, however, is barely there. Even when I have this side-by-side with other finished ryes, like Midwinter Night’s Dram, this just doesn’t satisfy if what I’m looking for is rye flavor. But if I’m merely in the mood for something unlike anything made before it and completely bonkers with concentrated and complementary delicious flavors, The Black Prince still does not disappoint. The price for this whiskey is actually commendable. WhistlePig is brave for inciting the wrath of the average painfully frugal American bourbon/rye drinker, who questions anything over $50. This whiskey is age stated and at cask strength, so there’s no funny business. You get the sense that the armagnac casks were expensive and integral to creating a unique final product. I don’t know if those casks were in reality so expensive, but what’s important is that this whiskey is correctly priced for the market, right off the bat; and there is very little secondary market money to be made for flippers with this series of whiskey. I would much rather pay $500 to a store owner than to a dude I arranged to meet in a library parking lot, who paid $100 for the bottle just to re-sell it (maybe after doing questionable things with it). Score: ** (unimaginably good) How much does a bottle cost?: $400-600 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $400

Worse than allocated bourbon on the secondary market Worse than the new travel retail Macallan aged in their top 1% of unicorn jizz seasoned casks Is Japanese fucking whisky for value for money. Japanese distillate tastes like urine. You let it wax on wax off for 12 years in a Mr. Miyagi cask and it becomes wonderful. But you can’t find any good properly matured Japanese whisky for less than $100 these days, and the really good ones are many hundreds to thousands of dollars. Liquor stores are pretty stocked with these NAS Japanese whiskies, however, strategically priced a smidge above entry Scottish single malts, and they are an absolute scam. This Miyagikyo I decided to give a try when I found it marked down to $60 (from $80). It’s single malt. It’s 45% ABV. It got some good reviews. What can go wrong? This is a tragedy. I imagine this is how urine tasted to doctors - back when they tasted urine and before the famous discovery of Frederick Banting - when a child was doomed to die; that sharp, sweet, acetone flavor betraying a pancreas that no longer made insulin. This Miyagikyo is a diabetic’s piss. Toki. Iwai. Yoichi. All these NAS’s taste like piss. I still found a use for this whisky. You can’t taste it before a whisky you love because it will spoil the palate, but you can taste it before a disappointing expensive whisky to make that whisky taste expensive again. Because of Miyagikyo, my Dalmore 18 was bottle-killed with some dignity. Because of Miyagikyo, I’m starting to work on my Macallan Rare Cask again; a bottle that I have not touched for 4 years. Just know that you cannot have just Miyagikyo and call it a night. You must erase that cheap, simple syrup, nail polish urine from your mouth with something a little more pleasant. Score: Minus (unforgettably bad) How much does a bottle cost?: $70-100 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: 0

This is the 2020 committee release bottled at 50.7% One of the good things about the COVID pandemic is that that one dude who buys up all the Ardbeg Committee releases the same day it comes out decided to stay home this year. This is the first time I have seen an Ardbeg CR on multiple store shelves for multiple days. This is actually one of the better Ardbeg releases. After I opened my bottle, I actually went to another store to buy a second bottle at $20 markup. The beauty of this whisky is I somehow get the wonderful memory of seasoning my carbon steel wok with flaxseed oil. Flaxseed oil is ideal for seasoning woks because it has the highest burning point. At 350 degrees F, it will start to evaporate without burning, leaving behind a nonstick coating. The evaporated oil will be caught by my vent filter, recondense into oil, and occasionally drip back down into these droplets that I cannot resist putting my nose in for a smell. I am also reminded of the same smell when I visited some traditional flaxseed oil mills in the Netherlands, except it’s called lineseed in Europe. It is rare for a whisky to snap me into a vivid memory like teleportation and time travel. For that, Ardbeg Blaaack deserves praise and a star. It surprises me that no other Ardbeg has been able to evoke a similar response; perhaps this is an emergent property of combining the peat monster that is Ardbeg with a delicate red wine that is pinot noir. This whisky also has, on the nose, some strawberry and raspberry sweetness from the pinot noir cask finish. On the palate, there is very little fruitiness as a brutal ashen smoke and soot take over with bits of burnt peanut, straw; with loads of black brine. What prevents this whisky from being spectacular is the price, and the fact that Longrow Red Pinot Noir exists, which is a cheaper whisky that I can still find gathering dust at some stores. If your really want pinot noir influence, the spectacularly juicy, fruity Longrow is the one you want. Ardbeg Blaaack nonetheless provides a compelling and indeed black experience. Score: * (unforgettably good) How much does a bottle cost?: $140-160 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $140

Bottled in 2017. There is absolutely no complaints from me for this single malt from Knockdhu distillery that is priced below $50, and sometimes below $40, with bonus ABV in the US at 43%. This is currently my favorite budget single malt. This whisky would be better with more maturation, to be sure. It’s not about the 12 year age statement being too low; it’s about the low activity of the casks involved. This is a spirit-driven, malty, fresh fruity style that I’m sure would be improved with more cask influence, but also highlights the potential of the AnCnoc brand. I am instantly reminded of spirit from the renowned Glen Grant distillery, which is creamy, bright, fresh, and very sympathetic to prolonged aging. AnCnoc 12 reminds you of oatmeal with a few berries and shreds of apple and pear; and a slight twang of white vinegar and mint. This is an anytime single malt if there ever was one. I will probably be suspicious of AnCnoc’s NAS whiskies, because this one already tastes too young; but I will have no problem purchasing their higher age statements in the future; all of which are priced below the competition currently. Score: * (unforgettably good) How much does a bottle cost?: $35-45 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $55

Bottled in 2016. The folks at Belle Meade were placing bets that the consumer will arrive at one of two conclusions when having this XO Cognac finish: Wow, there’s an interesting fruity and spicy sweetness to this bourbon that I don’t get with other bourbons. It must be the cognac influence. Or: Wow, this is a shit bourbon. It must be the shit bourbon they used. I arrived at the latter conclusion, and about half of this bottle found its way into the fire for cooking. And I don’t think any food I made with this was spectacular either. This isn’t supposed to happen at $80, but all the warning signs are there: NO AGE STATEMENT. Just put the age on the bottle. It doesn’t have to be a big font, and it doesn’t have to be a big number. No age statement whiskies just reek of trying to hide a scam. LOW ABV. If you are NAS, at least justify a higher price by making the product cask strength or at least 50% ABV. This 45.2% is sketchy for a $50+ bourbon. Drinking strength is nonsense, lowering the ABV is only for stretching the product to make more profit. Alcohol is a drug. No cocaine dealer will try to spin their cocaine content by saying it’s brought down to snorting strength. CASK FINISHING. This is new-age hip-hop whiskeymaking. When the marketer’s biggest point of emphasis is what they used to finish the whiskey, be suspicious. This is like a car being advertised for its chrome rims. At best, Belle Meade Cognac Cask Finish is not undrinkable whiskey. After about a year open, I think the finish finally integrated itself, and my last few sips of this bottle was just a sweet bourbon that was about as pleasant as Angel’s Envy Port Cask Finish, which is already overpriced for what it offers at $50. This is just horribly disappointing at $80. Score: 0 (forgettable) How much does a bottle cost?: $60-100 How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $20