Tastes

N: Banana, cinnamon, caramel, oak char, touch of maple (like a maple cookie, not syrup), cherries, vanilla. P: Banana, caramel, cinnamon, butterscotch, oak, more pronounced maple than on the nose, which adds something of a smoothness - reminiscent of Gentleman Jack. F: More maple, leaning toward maple candy now, butterscotch, cinnamon, oak. This is one of my absolute worst whiskey buys. This is JD Old No. 7 with just a hint of maple influence, which is fine - I like Jack and I have fond memories of maple cookies from my childhood. The two flavors meld and merge nicely. In fact, I may just buy some maple cookies to go with my next bottle of Jack. And that together will probably cost about $20, not the $110 this one set me back. And it came from a big box store that doesn't really do secondary markups, so that has to be pretty close to MSRP (unless I'm just missing something). There's nothing wrong with the juice here, but it is not worth the squeeze. It's a $30 bottle at best, and that might be generous. It's probably a 3.5 for the whiskey, but docking a full point for the ridiculous cost. ____________ 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.)

Batch: MIR22-1; Date: looks like 1.19.22 - the 22 is clear, good enough. N: Floral honey, vanilla, tropical fruit, light wood notes, apple, cranberry, and some of that classic Balcones pecan pie, maybe with a touch of sweet potato this time. P: Sweet, honey, floral notes, tropical fruit, some hot wood notes, a little bitterness, thin at the mid-palate, some red wine notes, touch of citrus, definitely a little bit of sweet potato pie. F: Slightly bitter, floral and fruity, some hot oak notes, hint of cinnamon. This is really a different profile for Balcones single malt - you expect some power, lots of sweetness, lots of malt, and some unique pecan pie notes. This leans more fruity and it's not the best I've had from Balcones. It's almost like a lighter Speyside or Highland scotch, except bottled at 53%. I don't think that ABV does this bottle favors. It adds some harshness that doesn't play well with the more delicate notes. Wonder how this would work at 46-47%. Might be interesting. It is also quite expensive for what it is. Hard to think about picking up another one, although I hear there's some significant batch variation. Good buzz for a batch might bring me back, but hard to imagine grabbing another of these at a markup over the regular Balcones single malt. ____________ 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: Smoke and sea, what I imagine dragon's breath to smell like (on a good day), citrus, lemon, caramel, vanilla, apple juice brine with anise, cinnamon, cloves, etc. P: Bitter and almost cardboard tasting right up front, but I somehow don't hate that; caramel, vanilla, dried kelp, smoked fish, lemon, some coffee bitterness. F: Never ending. More dragon's breath. Fire, oak, sea spray, sea weed, pine, mint, burning tires, pencil wood, copper penny, hint of blood. A true Islay monster. And delicious, if you're into that sort of thing. Happy to be in the club that is, because it seems that people who don't like peaty whisky are really missing a few facets of what the juice can do. But, no judgment, I get it - have plenty of things I don't like that others do (olives, tomatoes, sour beers, etc.). To each their own, and I'm glad this one is one of my own. ____________ 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: Honey, lemon, citrus, flowers, all just a touch singed by a grass fire. P: Caramel candies softened in afternoon sunlight, surrounded by open flowers, and sitting in a bowl of lemons. F: Gentle, short, citrus sweet with oak, caramel, vanilla, and just a touch of red fruit - basically all the barrels. Nicely done. Great batch. The Sauternes finish adds the interesting flower notes and amps up the citrus already present in Kilchoman. The peat profile plays nicely with all of it. Good bottle of scotch. ____________ 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.)

Bought two half bottles that came with a little plaque saying they were specially selected by Assistant Distiller Lexie Phillips. Sounds impressive. N: Cherry, banana, charcoal, cinnamon, touch of Christmas spice, toasted and salted almonds, and a bit more ethanol that I might have hoped for. P: Cherry, banana, rye grain, sweet oak, sweet corn, some soft herbal tea notes, baked white bread, unsweetened breakfast cereal, some spice and some burn. Nice, full, almost chewy mouthfeel. F: Banana, caramel, char, oak, maybe some chocolate, faint roast coffee, firewood, touch of ethanol. Very solid rye, but I think it maybe hues too close to the regular JD. I'm not sure how they work that classic banana note in, but they do. Doesn't feel like a rye flavor - have to assume it comes from their process then. The banana works nicely in Old No. 7 or even the Gentleman Jack, but it brings out a harshness in the rye that's not as nice of a pairing. That's not to say it's bad - it really isn't. I enjoyed this and would certainly buy it again, but I think there are better ryes out there. This is one is a bit unique though - uniquely Jack. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. 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 provide a new one.)

N: Moss on a rainy day, peaches and pears - still on the tree, dripping with dew - rich caramel and vanilla swirled ice cream, honey, flowers, sweet bread with almond extract, hints of baking spice and oak, funky, earthy, chalky. P: Honey drizzled on fresh baked bread, orchard fruit, soft citrus cream, caramel, vanilla, oak cream (whatever that is), very subtle smokiness, butterscotch candy. F: Hint of cinnamon, ever so gentle touch of heat, honey, dried flowers, vanilla cream, milk chocolate, toasted marshmallows, almonds, toasted wood, chalky minerals. Delicate and delicious. This one really rewards patient, slow sipping. It has this strange effect on me where, experiencing the flavors cross my palate, just feels like sitting next to a softly bubbling, but swiftly moving stream. There's a lot happening, but none of it is loud. And you want to dip your hand in and feel the cold and the gentle pressure. It's just a freaking relaxing dram. I love it for that. Would certainly do another bottle of this. And, dare I say, it may just challenge Springbank 10 as the best 10 year single malt on the market. Maybe. Very different, but still maybe. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. 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 provide a new one.)

Looks like a 2021 batch. Clocks in at 64.4%. N: Creamed corn, but creamed in milk chocolate, yeah. Shaving soap, ethanol, rye grain, chocolate cereal grain, cleaning supplies, some fresh rye herbs. Some citrus and other fruit notes seem to land as your nose adjusts. P: Earthy and herbal with milk chocolate breaking through. Sweet corn, cooked beef, charred oak, young rye cereal grain notes, boozy. F: Hot, earthy, some chocolate, some rye, some cinnamon, some oak, some mint. One of the least impressive Balcones bottles I've had, and I think the fact it's Balcones is hurting the score a bit - I keep asking myself if I didn't have Balcones expectations here, would I rate it differently? So far, it's a soft no, leaning toward maybe. I don't think it'd be fair to rate it different, but it's so hard to separate expectations from the review. Anyway, I digress. The biggest issue I have with this is just that it tastes too much like a young rye - green with undeveloped herbal notes, and some dried vegetation. It's the kind of rye I'm not so fond of. It's just underwhelming. And too hot - it might improve with water, but I'm just not in the water habit with the exception of an ice cube every once in a while. Can't recall if I did that with this bottle - probably, and it probably wasn't very memorable. I would pass on this in the future. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. 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 provide a new one.)

Release No. 2. 63.9%. N: Honey, caramel, flowers, dried vegetation, heather, earth, petrichor, vanilla, cherry, fruity coffee (high end), unlit cigarettes (also high end), tobacco smoke, pears and other orchard fruit, dash of mint and menthol, some fresh herbs. Endless. P: Sweet honey, caramel, vanilla, tropical flowers, dried heather, earth, dried fruit, cooked pineapple, mint, citrus, dark chocolate, sea salt and brine, seafood cooked with sweet fruit, some mineral notes, copper. Again, endless. F: Honey, dried heather, dried flowers, dried firewood, oak, menthol, petrichor, smoke from a seaside fire, earth, pine, tobacco smoke, dark chocolate, chocolate mints, long lingering dried leaves, more seaside bonfire smoke, cigar smoke, Milk Duds candy, maybe some almond... I'm digging now, but I think there are still further treasures to find. This is an incredible Scotch. For my palate, it is one of the greatest, most complicated, most interesting things I've ever tasted, of any sort, alcohol or otherwise. I'm qualifying that ("for my palate") because 1) it doesn't make a ton of sense as an NAS CS blend and 2) people I respect have written less glowing reviews of this particular release. But I am three quarters through this bottle and have treasured every sip like almost no other whiskies I've tasted. My best explanation for this starts here: I firmly believe that taste is highly subjective, and a big part of what forms that subjectivity is genetics (which, I suppose, is ironically not really subjective, but it's a case of objective genetics creating subjective experiences - leave me alone). I think where your family is from, over generations, absolutely shapes the flavors you experience most intensely, most intimately, and that you most gravitate toward. I've read lightly on the subject and it seems science doesn't disagree with me (take that with a grain of salt - I do), but anecdotally, I point to my girlfriend: she is Armenian (born there, emigrated later) and, obviously, gravitates toward food from that part of the world - boiled cow hoof soup is a much loved traditional once/twice a year meal.* She also dislikes, or even outright hates, things like pasta and rice that are not nearly the staples in that part of the world that they are elsewhere. I could go much deeper on this subject, but, take my word for it, we rarely completely agree on what food is "good." Back to the whisky: my family is 99.8% (very high proof!) Scandinavian, coming from two families with deep ties to Norway and Finland. It would not surprise me to find out that my ancestors raped and pillaged Orkney at some point. You can basically blame me for all the Viking shit HP has thrown out over the last decade or so. (And obviously, I love it, despite my best intent.) So, you know, my genetics probably predispose me to love this whisky. That's my best guess as to why I think this is practically the best thing I've ever tasted while others think it's, you know, okay, or even pretty good. All that said, I'm not tempering my rating here. Despite acknowledging that others will certainly disagree, I love this whisky and will be very sad when it's all gone. (And yes, I plan to stash at least a few bottles of this while I still can.) And I hope you all find the bottle that does the same for you, no matter what I or anyone else thinks of it. *Khash is supposedly a hangover cure, but has to be boiled for hours in advance, and then is served usually at 7am with copious shots of vodka. So basically you have to plan to be hungover, have someone else cook it for you, and then plan to do nothing else the rest of the day. And it's very much an acquired taste. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. 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 provide a new one.)