Tastes

The nose is corn and cherry, but not particularly sweet, although you can find vanilla if you hunt hard enough. The taste is A LOT of corn. Not that sweet. What sweetness is there is just splashes of cherry. More syrupy than the nose indicates. Feels like a Bourbon trying to be the most Bourbony.

The nose is pure strawberry jam, spread on top of cinnamon-sugar Graham cracker, maybe even dipped in a bit of chocolate ganache. Just dessert all round. The taste confirms this is fresh strawberry, the kind that's red all the way through after you bite through the chocolate it was dipped in. It's like saving a bit of summer for the Christmas candy. It's not all sugar though. A bit of tobacco ash on the back end reminds you it's still whisky, but boy is it special.

The nose feels like bowl. In the middle is corn. Then in layers: vanilla, cherry, and toffee; each wrapped around the other, but everything starts from the corn in the middle. Oh, and it's sweet. The taste continues this. But the corn constitutes the mouth feel, while the taste is dominated by the toffee and cherry. It's hot, but not burning. With hints of the Jim Beam nuttiness poking through. Feels like a twist on a classic

The nose feels like an inverse triangle of peat. All the malt and sliced off, leaving just an inverted cone of sharp vegetation funneled up into your face. Maybe some lemon zestin there too. I guess it's younger than other offerings from Springbank, but it seems to have far less oil and viscosness. Yep, the palate is sharp too. Cutting and biting across the tongue. Smoking more like a steam-burn than a campfire. It's still got the organic streak that Springbank does like no one else, but it's random. Undisciplined. A bit like the 12 year old who only behaves when his dad is in the room. Honeycomb. Salt. Moss. And cold sunshine. Fun on occasion. But mostly makes you remember his older brothers.

Nose: pear, bubblegum, bleach. OK maybe there's some vegetale peat in there too.....and ok maybe some stewed fruit also. It's not terrible. Just...my reaction is "Um, what?" Taste: nope, I'm not wrong. It tastes like weak vegetable soup that somebody flavored with drain cleaner. Weirdly though, it's not thin. There's enough oil in there to give it a decent finish. I hope somebody likes it, cus someone clearly put some effort into making it. But it's not for me.

The nose is 100% a western boot store. Waves of leather just wafting out. Followed by sharp wet grass. Sure there's some salt and Islay malt in there but the leather is so unique it's hard to think of anything else. The taste is thick, almost buttery. Remarkably soft with the peat just tingling slightly around the edges of your palate. Rich brown bread with butter melting on the top comes to mind. Toffee. Ash. And maybe some toasted crème brûlée. And on the finish, basil, black pepper, and some hints of garden vegetables. It's the whisky you want when it's time to make stew in the fall.

The nose is fruity sweet, but in weird ways. First pear, then pink bubble gum, with bits of a turkey dinner popping through (probably the peat there). Maybe a bit of apricot as well. All sort of stewed together feeling. And that bubblegum note sure shows up on the taste too. Slight powderiness and all. It's light but warming. Not thin, but little to no finish. Reminds of Tobermory 10, but not as rich or sunny. Would make a good before-dinner dram.

The nose is sharp and vegetale, but not a young green. It's aggressive and sour, working really hard to bury any malty sweetness that wants to bubble up from underneath all the layers of wet moss. The taste keeps the salt and sour with a bit of soapyness washing over it all. But it's thick, and rich malty oils just come spilling over the palette. After tasting a lot of peaty whiskey, this one comes closest to capturing that crazy feeling of trying Islay for the first time. It's not my favorite, but I'll always want it around.

The nose is vegetal peat with green bark and moss. Surprising amount of alcohol punch. No sweetness. The taste still punches. Got some malt and peatiness. Bit hot. But it's very short. Almost no finish. Wish it lasted longer. It's definitely interesting. Fun to have around as a novelty. Probably won't be a standard. (It is fun to see the Pacific NW take its love of over-hopping beer, and now begin over-peating its whisky.)

Ok, so this nose is classic bourbon (vanilla, corn, burnt sugar), buuuuut it's got this weird spicy note, strangely reminiscent of a steak rub. The taste is definitely Woodford. Silky smooth, sweet with a bit of plum, utterly drinkable. With the double oak though (and it may simply be price coloring my judgment) it feels like its richness has been turned up about 3 clicks. I can't tell you why why. It just tastes like....more.