Tastes

The Glenlivet, a staple for balanced, affordable scotch that seems to scratch my itch for it, no matter what region I'm craving. I'm surprised I haven't seen this variant yet, considering it's been released for over 5 years and isn't prone to the insane markup and allocation that American whiskey is, but it still made for a nice birthday gift nonetheless. In any case, it's a great idea to grab some of the sweeter notes from rum barrels and combine with pretty decent scotch, and other than the boring, standard proof, I can't think of a way this will be anything less than moderately enjoyable. The color manifests as a mixture of deep pine, straw, and toffee. The nose is mostly notes of sour, fermented mash or "distiller's beer," with a tiny note of oak behind it, although neither sweet nor dry. Because of all the grain and sourness, if there is any rum here at all, it is a very unrefined syrupy flavor, almost hogo in nature. The body begins as light and inoffensive, but not necessarily watery. The sour and hogo flavors are found here at the top, but moderately so and not enough to be a turn-off if you don't like it or haven't experienced it before. Only after swallowing is there a tiny sweetness that delivers on traditional oaky, sweet, aged rum. The finish is a bit dry, with notes of both plain oak as well as raw sugarcane contributing to this. Repeated sips surprisingly stack on a bit of a gum burn, but doesn't move any further towards the back of the mouth or throat. Although I do like the unique flavor profile here that distinguishs itself well from the rest of the Glenlivet line (without sacrificing what makes the base whisky great), it's not exactly reminiscent of rum, or at least what the most common profile is when thinking of rum. At the end of the day, the dry, slightly smoky maltiness from the base scotch does pair well with the hogo, partially sour notes it gained from the rum barrel, but really didn't become any sweeter, so it just depends on what you're looking for and expecting when picking this one up.

This may be the first time in my life that I've seen anything on "clearance" at a liquor store in Ohio. I'm not sure why it was marked as half off, but when divine intervention strikes, you take the opportunity. I haven't had a Boone County product since the original, sourced 1833 series, which was one of the best sourced MGP products I can remember in the recent past. Other than their bourbon cream (which also happens to be my favorite of this product type that I've found to this day), I remember Boone County being on their way to making some other products, but it appears that enough time has passed and they finally have their own barrels broken open, in both bourbon and rye. I'm not familiar at all what the differences between all of the product lines are, so I can only go off what I have in front of me, and that happens to be a mid-proof, milk toast mash bill but with decent age behind it at between 5-7 years. Of note to scrutinize is the claim on both the bottle and the website that the use of a pot still (which has been in use worldwide for distillation for hundreds, potentially thousands of years) gives this "a full body and complex flavors not found in other Bourbons." I find it hard to believe that all the other simplistic factors in this creation process net out a product that is in any way shockingly unique, but I digress. The color begins as somewhere between dark maple syrup and stained chestnut wood with a hint of red. The nose begins with incredibly clean and raw rye and malt grain, with the ratio about 40/60, as well as cherry wood, milk chocolate, basic citrus, and a little general florality. The proof is almost perfectly balanced, being just powerful enough to let the spiced rye bloom, but not too strong that it knocks you out of the glass or kills the nostrils. The flavor very strongly presents as raw grain, but strangely more so the blend detected from the nose and leaving almost any trace of corn behind. The proof also acts a little aggressively here, pushing the rye and malt notes into the gums and tongue and end up tasting both spicy and dry, but still doesn't burn out the palate along the ride. No other notable flavors arise from repeated sips, leaving the finish to be a little calmer as far as hotness, but malty and dry overall. This is so very reminiscent of a young, 1-2 year bourbon, making it that much more disappointing when I remember that it's been aged for at least 3, 4, or even 5 times that amount. I'm not sure how 5 to 7 years can pass in a barrel without picking up any of the natural wood sugars or sweetness, but this seemed to have found a way. To their credit, this does make it the oldest bourbon I've ever had that tastes this young, so the claim of it "not found in other Bourbons" is correct in the end. I'm fairly certain the discounted price on this was somewhere in the $20 range, but with the young flavor and nothing else beyond that, it doesn't even seem worth that much. Still, I am curious to try other products in the brand's portfolio, but would only do so at a bar or directly at the distillery, and would be very weary of the price altogether, whether by the ounce or by the bottle.

Bulleit is one of those distilleries that have always had just a couple products that they made really well and were known everywhere, but within the last few years they seem to have tripled or even quadrupled this number, including both permenant and one-off releases. This change is usually disappointing at first as companies drift away from what they do best, but in this case, Bulleit continued their quality output for most of these new products, so this new bonded bourbon gives no reason to be wary of it. The age on this is very impressive given today's market standards, but what's even more impressive is that Bulleit was clearly intending to create this product nearly a decade ago, as they would have had to plan ahead to get the government approved and maintained storage facility for these particular barrels back in 2017. The color here is a little lighter than expected for this age point, appearing just a bit more darker of a brown than sherry, but not quite as deep as predicted, being a bit more golden overall. The legs are fairly thick, and the nose is strong at a good distance, but up close deliver notes of sweet & salty toffee, caramel sauce, and a bit of a general bread or biscuit. The familiar and expected spicy rye is also present, riding the line with cinnamon and slightly sweet citrus. The only other note is faint but definitely unexpected, and comes through as sour and lactic, almost like a blue cheese or something similar. The taste begins with a bit of a watery body, but this is just an illusion, as plenty of spicy cinnamon and cracked rye start warming up the entire mouth and gums, and seems to double down on what you might find on any of the other Bulleit bourbon or rye offerings. If you can manage to fight through this spice, there are also notes of dry, toasted oak, a bit of lemon zest, and a touch of a vanilla creaminess. The finish is mostly in the gums, with the cinnamon and spice remaining powerful and almost distracting for quite some time. It's funny, even though it's shown on both the paper label as well as embossed into the bottle itself, I very rarely notice that Bulleit subtitles all of their products as "frontier whiskey." Having said that, if the regular products are "frontier whiskey," this is definitely whiskey from your grandfather's frontier, where things were generally hotter, more dusty, and you had to walk uphills both ways to get to the stills. It's overall very enjoyable (provided you can handle the heat), and the price point isn't too bad either (at MSRP of course, always). This only loses "points" because it's a limited product, which is already a shame in an environment where customers are tired of not being able to spend their money on buying things, but also because Bulleit has demonstrated here that they can not only produce a bonded product, but can also hit pretty hard with their turn up to bat. We'll see if this makes a return with future (or perhaps even past) seasons.

Always fun to actually be able to find a new product when it comes out. I don't actually know how difficult this was to find, because I've become so exhausted with "the hunt" that I started paying my friends and family to do the liquor store walk of shame for me, and it's been every bit worth it. But I digress, and am actually excited to try this new product. From what I understand, Jameson already triple distills and by default uses ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, so all this really introduces are the chestnut casks, which is really not all that different, but then again, this was quite cheap to begin with, and you always get what you pay for. I don't know of any world whiskey that has ever used chestnut barrels, though, so I do expect some flavor difference. Hopefully it's able to come through given the classic low 80 proof, and I sure hope it's not coarse, since I see the word "smooth" no less than 3 times on this bottle and 7 times on the website page (ah, I love the flavor of "smooth"). The color is darker than original Jameson, but not by much, and is still light overall, ironically somewhere between the real versions of sherry and chestnut. Sherry, sour malt, honey, and a little baking spice lead the nose, all of which can be found on the original Jameson. However, there is a new nuttiness that's present, and although this note alone is somewhat weak, the overall body smells more full and spiced, despite the proof remaining the same compared to the original. The flavor begins with honey, sherry, and a touch of green apple, but almost immediately introduces potent wood sugar and caramel notes, as well as a sweet, almost creamy nuttiness. Repeat sips stack this new nutty flavor, but also cause the finish to become more and more hot and a little dry each time. I could have gone a little deeper on the analyzation here, but stopped when I realized how simple this is once you unlock the new chestnut flavor. Although the chestnut does provide it's own new notes, it also helps to "thicken" the base body and becomes much less light and watery as compared to the original base Jameson. Because of this, the end result here tastes like a combination of Jameson original and the Black Barrel product, as well as this new chestnut profile. This is fun and cheap, and a great way to transform Irish whiskey that most people can enjoy, and was a smart move to add to the permenant portfolio for the brand. I have to say, though, I was very disappointed and may even have to ask for a refund based on the fact that I didn't taste a single "smooth" in this whole pour.

Barrel house: 1-06 Barrel number: 24-10385 Bottling date: 06NOV2024 129.5 proof, 64.75% ABV Nice, happy to finally see this out in the wild. I have only heard good things about this product, and have had it recommended to me multiple times now. What I didn't realize is how much time had gone by since hearing about it and having it recommended, which only just now makes sense, knowing this is an annual limited release. I'm happy to have found it at MSRP, but knowing the poor distribution and allocation of the American whiskey market, I assume this will already be sold out by the end of this sentence. I've also never been a fan of people putting corn and rye together and having the boldness of being proud of it as a rye whiskey, but I suppose it's not abysmally hopeless at 70% rye. I will, however, give points on having a barrel strength product that's finally above these weak imposters that sit between 105 and 110. The only thing that would further be improved here is if the age was known, but thank goodness they put the bottling date, like giving us half of the answer was good enough. The color is a combination of chestnut and mahogany, but only if you use the word "rich" in conjunction with describing them both. Initially there is a good amount of red and blue berries on the nose, as well as a chaser of cracked cinnamon, dried grass, vanilla frosting, and some spicy toasted oak. The ethanol is definitely very tame, and allows deep smelling without fear of burning reprisal. Repeated nosing introduces a small tobacco note as well as some other general baking spices, but the sweetness really doubles down as well, this time more detectable as aged corn that's had time to lose the more raw and aggressive side. The initial flavor begins with classic cinnamon and herbaceous rye whiskey notes, but with an added flavor of sweet chocolate sauce. Cinnamon or ethanol burn aside, something begins really clawing and burning the gum line, while spiced French oak and citrus oil flavors also quietly join the party. Those red berries from the nose also come around, more specifically as cherries, but because of the sweetness, have been given the maraschino treatment. The finish is dry but returns to the spice and citrus, with just a touch of that iconic charcoal filter flavor, although this time much more full-bodied than the lower proof stuff. This really is an awesome representation of how rye whiskey can be used, reused, and transformed in the American distilling world, and even though it doesn't tick all the boxes I usually demand from my American ryes, it's uniqueness is all it's own. The charcoal filtering and medium rye mash make for a really fun flavor to dissect, provided you can do so within the few sips it tastes to get snuffed out due to the proof. Don't get it twisted, however, this is how all whiskeys worldwide should be served; you can always add your own water, but I haven't yet acquired the technology needed to take it away. I'd really love to know the age statement here to better understand how the grains have developed, but far more than that, I wish this was more readily available for purchase, or simply more often distributed and allocated. I'm not sure what the deal is with the proofed down version of this same whiskey as far as where and how often it's sold, but if the price is right on that front, Jack Daniel's has provided another great inspiration for single barrel collecting, and helped this drinker to revitalize the thrill of comparing them.