Tastes

Aroma is soft, pleasant, fruity and my favorite part of the whiskey with its layered dessert sweet delivery… just wish those butyric and young woody notes weren’t there; Palate starts tight and overly “crafty”, but slowly opens to something more fruity and rustic though it never looses that craft-woody-saw-dusty dominance; Finish starts woody and fades to a fruity note that reminds me of good Chilean Pisco (Bau Barroetta 9 year to be exact)… so odd.

Aroma is nicely done with a warm delivery of everything you want from a rye whiskey with only a hint of that pungent craft note that plagues so many young distilleries; Palate opens up to a bit more cakey and fruity notes with a strong high-quality-candy-like sweetness – the kind that use real sugar and a shortlist of easy to pronounce ingredients; Finish is your standard oaked spice and fruit rye whiskey affair.

Aroma is an overwhelming delivery of that standard craft raw-wood-saw-dust-wet-cardboard profile that I can’t stand and it’s accompanied by more raw and stale profiles; Palate is pretty much the same, though somehow less complex with an even heavier delivery of that craft note; Finish is just more of the same.

Aroma is layered with juicy dark fruit, is deeply oaky, leathery and spicy and combines the whole array in a balanced way that’s just plain pleasant; Palate starts nice, but grows in complexity as it open and the dark fruits expand with notes of blackberries, blueberries and raspberries coming up in intervals and playing against the more oaky and spicy notes; Finish is a slow fade that hits the main profiles.

Aroma is sweet and soft, pulling in a lot of lighter sweet notes over the regular bourbon giving it a muted sweeter tone as if it’s somehow removed some of the original oak influence; Palate, again, feels a bit muted, like someone threw a blanket thrown over the speaker and I’m getting a flatter delivery across the board; Finish whispers out with the most oak influence, and bubblegum note, in the whole whiskey.

Aroma hits with a strong HH vibe and is a nicely balanced delivery of rustic oaky, leathery and darkly sweet notes with some bolder peanut butter and cocoa notes that rise as it opens – a touch of coppery spice adds dimension; Palate starts kind of… meh, but as it opens the spice creeps up over time as do the oak and sweet notes; Finish might be the best aspect with a solid spicy oaky fade.

Aroma comes through a bit older than a 2 yo, doesn’t have that woody depth of maturity – it’s quite light across the board, but it doesn’t carry that immature-craft-raw-woody-wet-cardboard-saw-dust note; this is enjoyable, but not very complex. Palate pulls in some light oak but remains light and delicate which is strange to say about a bourbon – again missing that well-developed depth of something like an Evan Williams Bonded, but excellent balance and spice. Finish is nice, simple and enjoyable.

Aroma holds little pockets of spice that pop up alongside the warm sherry notes of dark fruit, nuts and vanilla frosting; Palate pulls in some heavier nutty notes but it stays along the same nicely sherried lines of the aroma; Finish is a nice easy fade of the key fruity-nutty-sherry notes running from nose to palate.

Aroma is not as dynamic as many of the Paul John’s I’ve had but it’s equally interesting with the variety of sweet profiles laying on top of the malt; Palate is deeply sweet, approaching cloying, with a sticky sweet, dark, character all around; Finish picks up a nice charred note that pulls the sticky sweetness back a bit and ends up being my favorite part of this whisky. A bit on the sweet side, but not bad.

Aroma has something clay-like and earthy to it but on the whole it’s warm, spicy and with enough oak to keep everything wonderfully aligned; Palate has a bigger oak and spice presence that also carries nice darkly sweet and candy shop sweet profiles; Finish is oak heavy but carries plenty of sweet and spicy notes to keep a good balance