Tastes

N: Earth and oak first, but then fresh peach, cherry, cherry cough syrup, peach cobbler, mineral water, chalky vitamins, hints of barrel spice, dried stone fruit, tobacco, baking spice, and maybe just a whiff of baked bread. P: Sweet spiced wheat, caramel, chalky vitamins, mineral water, much more barrel spice - fairly hot, in fact - vague stone fruit notes, sweet citrus at the back of the tongue, some oak, some char. F: Mineral bitter (but not unpleasant), barrel tannins, hot baking spice - somewhere beyond ginger, but below chili pepper, and constrained by the earthier spice notes - hint of toasted marshmallow, cough syrup. Really great nose on this - absolutely smells like a well-aged bourbon - but the palate and finish leave something to be desired. And I think I have to say that that's particularly because of the crazy secondary markups on this. I try, usually, not to think too much about VFM when rating the juice itself and instead factor that in more as an overall rating thought at the end, but it's harder with this one because the markups are just so ridiculous. Bottom line though, as a $60 bottle this is a fine wheated bourbon that makes a nice comparison to something like a rye leaning Knob Creek 12 that runs about the same price. But at the $225 I paid, it's hard not to always think "was this worth it?" The answer is decidedly no. Even at $150, which I can find now fairly easily, still not worth it. Back to my statement of the palate and finish leaving something to be desired - that's in context of price. At $60, it's probably okay to leave a little on the table. At $225, it really isn't okay - other bottles in that price range do not. Long story short, if you're lucky enough to be able to find this at about retail, it's worth grabbing a bottle or two and visiting every now and then. Beyond that, I'd pass - there's lots of better bourbon out there for less than the average price gouge on this one. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Shaving cream, mineral water, wet stone, concrete dust, hint of cherry cough syrup, soft toasted oak, grass and hay. Somewhere deep in the background are the usual suspects of caramel, vanilla, and sweet corn. P: Light vanilla, wheat spice, touch of cherry, dried stone fruit, oak and earth, faint caramel and sweet corn, dried hay, dried herbs, some mint. F: Semi-sweet dark chocolate, barrel spice, light roast coffee, fresh oak, and more lingering barrel spice. This is pretty standard fare for wheated bourbon. If the scarcity and hype were ever to die down and this was widely available, it could be a nice rotation sipper, a little change up from a rye diet - the quality is here to support that, but not much more than that. It certainly doesn't support any crazy secondary prices, not when Makers and Larceny are so widely available in many variations. This feels more subdued and subtle than those, more grown up maybe, but I'm splitting hairs. At the end of the day, this nothing more than just okay. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Sticky plums, cocoa powder, ground coffee, honey, mint and dried herbs, fresh cut wood and sawdust, pencil shavings, honey roasted peanut, milk chocolate (or maybe chocolate milk?), vanilla, maybe some bread pudding. Subtle but still solid hit of ethanol which is eventually numbing. P: Rich cocoa, sticky toffee, honey, oak and earth, bread, and then the dreaded GB wet cardboard hits. Some people call it the Garrison funk and quite like it. My palate is apparently different. Once I taste that wet cardboard, I taste almost nothing else. Pushing it to the sides of my tongue, I do get some plums or raisin, dusty book, little more earth, but also more wet cardboard. F: Plenty of heat - hot ethanol burn going down with oak and cinnamon spice, caramel, touch of vanilla with dark, dried red fruit, and then some wet cardboard. Well, I suppose I wish could taste this the way @Ctrexman does, but that's just not the case. None of the GB I've tried has really worked for me. Think this is likely my last one. More for the rest of you... _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Smells like bourbon, cherries, barrel spice, shaving cream, ethanol, vanilla cream, stone fruit mixed with soap, touch of cola, and a noticeable wheat grain spice. P: Sweet cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, tons of barrel spice, touch of earth, some mineral notes, shaving soap, wheat bread, sweet nuts. F: Earthy, boozy, hot cinnamon, some cherry, chalk, caramel and vanilla, oak, cinnamon spice. Notes seem soft, but I truly enjoyed this bottle. It is my favorite of the Wellers I've tried. Has more flavor and complexity than the Special Reserve and even the 12 Year, more approachable than the Full Proof (although I've admittedly only had a store pick of that - maybe not representative), and the CYPB is a marketing project, not a serious bourbon. I'm not sure that this is better than those, per se, but it is the easiest of the bunch to enjoy, I think. If I had to pick one as a daily, this is it. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Red wine notes are immediate and intense, cherry and strawberry, corn, vanilla, caramel covered cherries, dusty books, what I imagine a grain elevator smells like, surprisingly minimal ethanol notes. Really nice. P: Bourbon corn, cherry cola, vanilla, caramel, sweet, spicy, barrel, earth, oak, mint, tiny hit of black tea, lots of power, big boozy bite, cherry cough syrup. F: Cherry, oak, ethanol, barrel spice, lots of heat, mint, black tea bitterness, long lasting cinnamon candy, menthol cigarette. Lasts seemingly forever. Excellent bourbon. The wine cask finish adds tons of heady, boozy fruit to an already nice Texas bourbon profile. The proof is powerful, but this can still be sipped straight. While some of the more traditionally aged bourbons are more complex, this is lovely, fairly priced, and readily available (for now anyway - who knows how much was made or remains available). Well worth getting a taste if you can. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Stone fruit, earth, apple cider, yellow cake, cherry pie, caramel custard with vanilla cream, touch of ethanol, touch of baking spice. P: Cooked apples, cinnamon baking spice, dried leaves, overcooked pie crust, vanilla cream, darker fruit, slightly sour, overripe white grapes, hint of seaside character or sea spray with salt. F: Creamy caramel, chalky minerals, barrel spice, dusty book, dried leaves, hint of ethanol, cinnamon burn, old boat dock. Incredible for a 10 year entry level single malt. Certainly rivals Springbank 10 for the best on the market. If you see it, grab it. Was lucky to spot a single bottle on a rare visit to an old haunt. Would certainly do it again. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Exceptionally fragrant - fills the room within just a minute or so of pouring. Tar, pencil shavings, driftwood, seaweed, kelp, salt cakes, lighter stone fruit, some citrus (watered down lemon), new shoes in the box, vanilla cake. It keeps going. Tennis balls. P: Little bit of red fruit, oak, shredded sweet potato cakes with corn (fried), dried fish, dried seaweed, cooked almond, vanilla infused yellow cake, french vanilla ice cream. F: All the maritime notes plus decent heat, oak, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, chalky minerals, hints of tar and seaweed. Lives up to its branding: this really is a Laphroaig that grew up on the shoreline. It's unmistakable as the classic Laphroaig profile, but with a little more muscle and all kinds of sea notes that really work. I do think it's a bit blunt and lacks some finesse, but that seems unsurprising for an NAS single malt - there is definitely some younger juice in here. At times, that lack of polish is charming. Still, have to wonder what a straight up 10 or 12 year Warehouse 1 might taste like. Better still, I would guess. Maybe such a thing exists (or even older) - I'm not enough up on the full Laphroaig line to know. Please point me to it if you do. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one. Lately, I have not been able to tag people who have asked for the link, so please check back when you can. Or, better still, look for a more recent review of mine which should have the most current link.)

N: Apple, peach, rich tobacco, menthol, baked pears in a crusty pie, hard swirl releases a cascade of fresh fruit notes - too many to differentiate even, pear candy, wet forest, mild tree bark, noticeable ethanol. P: Rich and rounded, caramel, cinnamon apple pie, pear custard, dried and maybe lightly smoked leaves (is this a little smoked?), vanilla candy, dried red fruit, earthy mineral notes, dark cocoa, freeze dried coffee. F: Fruity early, turns earthy and mineral, then hints of oak with bigger mint and dried herb notes, touch of ethanol burn, touch of oaky heat. Super good, but also a bit tame. It's more or less a straightforward Highland single malt, but with a few complications and a fair showing of age. I think, more to the point, I would say I've enjoyed this bottle, and would likely buy it again, but it doesn't engage me in a way that captures my wandering taste buds, even for a moment. Some whiskies do that - you want more right away. This isn't quite that good. But that's likely as much about my palate as it is about the scotch. If you haven't tried this, absolutely worth grabbing a bottle. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired - it shouldn't be - please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one.)

N: Dripping, sticky floral honey, peach candy, barnyard funk that also somehow feels like it's been contained in a hard candy, paper pulp, lightly smoked meat topped with grilled peach or pineapple rings, lots of other less specific fruity things going on, and a slight hint of ethanol. P: Big red wine notes, dried cherry, touch of red wine oak, caramel, dusty book, cooked vanilla, little bit of honey, earth, and that characteristic GB dry funk that comes across, to me, as wet cardboard. F: Ethanol hot, wood, earth, dust, sticky cherry compote, mint/menthol, green tea, honey, maybe some dark chocolate. This might be my favorite GB release. But I'm pretty sure it's also going to be the last one I buy. GB has a cult following. And there's often a reference in reviews to some sort of "funk" note that seems to be unique to GB. Every GB bottle I've tried, from Cowboy down, has had that same wet cardboard note that this one has. (I would guess at this point that it's a product of a proprietary yeast strain.) That note here is lighter than any other GB I've tried, and comes late after that lovely port finish has its say, but it's still more than enough that I have no interest in another bottle of this, much less any of the even more wet cardboard-y bottles. Others seem to taste this funky note differently, but I've had my fill of wet cardboard bourbon. I'll leave future releases to the cult. I'll add, I think every GB release is overpriced by about a 2:1 ratio. This was a $150 bottle. If Balcones had released this, I'd expect it to be more like $75-80. I guess if that funk hits you right, maybe you disagree, but I've lost the ability to imagine that now. _______________________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired - it shouldn't be - please post a comment and I will gladly and usually quickly provide a new one.)