Tastes

N: Earthy, herbal, piney. Cherries and shaving cream. Little boozy. Cereal grains. Maybe some pears soaked in moonshine. Chocolate milk. P: Lots of rye influence here. Could almost pass for a straight rye. Spicy, mature rye grain with a cooked cereal malt lending chocolate, caramel, and a little smoke. Finish brings baking spice tending toward cinnamon with a little oak, char, some tannic bitterness, and a dark rye bread. I quite enjoyed this for what it is. The nose is not terribly complex, but it still feels like a classic bourbon nose with maybe just one extra gear. The palate is very high rye bourbon - like, seriously, is this 51% corn, 49% rye? I wouldn't really be surprised. But I like rye, both in bourbon and by itself, so this really works for me. For the mid $35-ish range, this makes a nice, easy drinking high rye option. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Cherries, caramel, chocolate orange, shaving soap, and a musty oak. Cooked fruit, brown bread, and brown sugar. Little bit of ethanol harshness, but still a robust and lovely nose. P: Very sweet with caramelized brown sugar drizzled on a bowl of maraschino cherries. Dash of citrus. Chocolate, vanilla, and mint make for a nice mid palate. Finish has some rye grain, herbs, and more mint. A little oak tannins and a mild ginger and black pepper spice. This is a lot of things, but I think first and foremost it's a really nice, tasty bourbon. And it should get credit for being that. But it's also a gimmick, an awkward marketing campaign, a vanity label (maybe), and a terrible value. This is just not a $120 bourbon. It's probably a $55 bourbon. I think it compares favorably to the Old Forester Whiskey Row series, for example. This is probably why these were dumped on Costco shelves and sold at a pretty steep discount from retail ahead of St. Patrick's, although still too expensive. If there's any chance even steeper discounts come, maybe this bottle starts to make sense, but I think it's more likely whatever cases are left spend the next year in a stock room and we see this come around again next March at pretty much the same prices. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Sweet corn, sawdust, oak, and soap. There's a syrupy red fruit. Dashes of banana and citrus here and there. Feels like there's some other good stuff in here, but hard to pull it apart. But it is not a particularly dynamic nose. P: Oaky with chocolate and banana. Dark chocolate bitter at the front of the mouth, but plenty red fruit sweetness at the sides - interesting contrast. Caramel, toffee, vanilla, and cherry. Finish brings red fruit, dark chocolate, oak, vanilla, bit of allspice, and mild chili pepper heat. This is a good step up over the small batch, but it's still sort of a par for the course BIB. It's not really special, I mean. I'd probably prefer Knob Creek 9 to this - they're certainly competitive, at least. And I guess that makes it hard to understand why this is so hard to find and frequently gets a markup. Anyway, at retail it's a reasonable value, but I still think it's maybe $5-10 overpriced (to put it more in line with the KC9). But I may also just be in the camp that finds the Barton profile unimpressive. So, YMMV. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Charcoal fire with vegetables and fruit roasting above it. Honey, herbal tea, cut flowers, and vanilla. Plenty of heathery, earthy peat. Little bit of a grain alcohol ethanol thing, but not bad and seems fair for the price. P: Cooked vegetables, honey, and vanilla. White bread and butter. Good, rich caramel and a bit of milk chocolate when you inhale across it. That chocolate builds and layers into the finish with some barrel heat and baking spice. Definitely has a grainy, cereal alcohol burn, but, again, it seems to fit the dram and feels okay at the price point. This is the most peaty blended scotch I can remember having. And while my review is really probably a bit mixed, I still love it for that peat character. You just don't get this much island character for less than about double the price. The trade off is that you get some astringency and rough edges. I'm perfectly okay with that and will likely snag a bottle of this each time I stop by K&L. Thanks to @ctbeck11 (via @jonwilkinson7309) for the recommendation over on Discord. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

Batch #6. 1260 bottles. Label states this is a blend of 70% bourbon barrel, 25% PX barrel, and 5% oloroso barrel. The bourbon and oloroso are cut to 46% ABV with the PX bottled at cask strength (no ABV given). This then lands at 47.9% ABV all told. N: Lemon, mango, and smoked caramel. Something like a mezcal smoked agave note. Then the PX comes in with a big, sticky red fruit. The peat is more subtle than most Kilchoman - just the smoked notes and some floral influence. Really nice nose. P: Lemon curd, cinnamon and caramel sticky buns, and smoked vanilla frosting. Mid palate is more lemon with some other citrus with something like a very mild smoked fish note, something a little briny. It's hard to describe. But whatever else it is, it's delicious. Finish is cherry cough syrup with more smoked caramel and vanilla plus some baking spice. Great mouthfeel with a thick, oily, coating texture. This is excellent. Kilchoman seems to do well with various sherry finishes, and this is that, but in a very different way. Great balance with the cut bourbon influence next to the cask strength PX. It's juicy, but not only that and not overly sweet. Super interesting and smart use of the casks. This has been probably my favorite Kilchoman yet. I'm about to kill the bottle and sad to see it go. But I'll certainly be looking for the next USA small batch, whatever it is, because this bottle shows how much thought and care goes into making these releases (in my mind anyway). _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Sweet yellow corn and cinnamon. Vanilla soap and maybe a slice of white bread. Mild caramel and soft wood notes. Basically, it smells like a bourbon (a young one, which it is). P: Citrus and caramel with a dusting of cinnamon. Vanilla and a hint of red fruit at the mid-palate. Smooth, creamy mouthfeel that enhances that vanilla note. Finish is quite gentle with a mild cinnamon heat with some vanilla, caramel, and faint red fruit. I really like drinking the local stuff. Los Angeles has a really solid beer scene, but maybe 4 distilleries, 2 of which are more on the experimental side (one does accelerated aging, the other something equally experimental that I can't remember off the top of my head). This, however, comes from one of the traditional distillers who distills their own new make (far as I can tell) and ages on site in El Segundo, a hip beach town (with some excellent breweries) just south of LAX. So it's legit local, and I appreciate that. As for the juice, it's a young bourbon, aged at least 2 years per the bottle, and it drinks young. But it's softer and easier to drink than most young bourbon I've had. Mash bill is yellow corn, rye, and malted barley, but I couldn't find the ratios. I would guess around 70-75% corn and maybe a higher barley content than most, which is lending softness. On the whole, this feels like a safe bourbon for a new distillery. It's solid, just not terribly memorable. But this still feels like a distillery to watch. There's craftsmanship and quality here. Time will tell what both in the sense of what the barrels can do to this juice and in what can this distillery learn and do to separate from the crowd. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Fresh dill and other green herbs. Cherry cough syrup. Lots of other medicinal notes. Chocolate starts to appear with time and some swirls. Then caramel and rye bread notes. Cereal grains, citrus, maybe a tangerine. It's a slow nose, seemingly developing and revealing more the longer it's in the glass. P: Rye grain with cherry syrup coating the sides of the tongue. Very medicinal, very earthy. Maybe a spritz of pine needles. Something nutty, almost like an unsweetened marzipan. Definitely has some oak tannins and bitterness in the mid palate. Finish is more oak, bitterness, and medium heat. Little bit of the green herbs and citrus, white tea, and something like a dried sourdough bread or cracker. This has a lot going on, but most of it is really not in my wheelhouse. The green herbs and the bitterness overpower the things I like in this. It's almost like an IPA translated to rye whiskey. I say almost, because I think I would like that. This, however, I am not so much a fan of. Swap the green herbs for pine and cut the bitterness a little with some malt sweetness and this gets there (for me). But that's not what this is, and generally I favor malty, rich, sweet, Christmas spiced ryes. Objectively, I have to say this is plenty complicated and gives plenty to think about. That's always a good thing. But I don't think it's complex and interesting enough to justify its hype or its price. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

N: Vanilla frosting, peppermint tea, ethanol. A sort of astringent corn note - not sure how to describe it. It's corn, but with a bitter character to it where you might expect sweet. Notable charred wood. I have to say, this is not pleasant. P: Bitter peppermint tea with honey - really odd combo. Dash of vanilla. Feels like there's that same funky note that the Balcones rye is known for, hard to guess where that could be coming from though. Green herbs with barrel spice. Finish is baking spice, more of the fresh herbs, little more vanilla, mint, and some heat. This is a bit rough, to be honest. It's my least favorite Balcones so far. Probably actually the first of their line that I outright dislike. The flavor combos here are just too weird for my palate. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

Barreled: 05-2014. Age: 7 years, 3 months. Warehouse: CL-J. N: Cherry cola, wood dust, and barrel char. Slice of cinnamon raisin toast with some baking spice thrown at it for good measure. Bit of ethanol, but feels like par for the course here. Hints of leather and cigar wrapper. Longer I sit with this, more I think there's an old book note to it. Some orchard fruit presents late and deep in the background. It's a nose that keeps coming with something new each time you dive into it. P: Chocolate covered cherry, cherry cough syrup, more cherry cola. Somehow all this cherry still feels relatively subtle and avoids being a cherry-bomb, so to speak. Then it turns bitter with wood tannins and dark chocolate, and the fruit turns toward sour strawberry. Barbecued peaches and bitter coffee. Plenty of spice just before and into the finish - bourbon barrel heat with some chili pepper and cinnamon candy. Finish also has dark chocolate and something of a soft melange of the various fruit notes mentioned above. Mouthfeel is notably rich, coating, and a bit creamy. Drinking this neat, I found this too hot and bitter. This review is with a cube in a Canadian Glencairn. Adding a cube and going to a wider glass made all the difference. Softening this reveals a rich, oaky, nicely spiced bourbon that feels older than it is. And I think that's the best compliment I can give it. I got the last bottle in the store, but paid about normal retail for this. That price is fair. Over $70, I'd probably pass. Sub $50, I might grab two. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)