Tastes

This is a 4.25 relative to its price point. Yummy, easy sipper I hope to keep around.

Oak, oak, and more oak. I’m not complaining. It was as obvious as every other 18 year old you know skipping class and taking a long lunch. Throw in some licorice, leather, and unsweetened dark chocolate, and you’ve got this in a glass.

This was delicious. Complex in a unique way. Not as overpowering as you’d expect a VW, but still had me searching all over the place. Clove, vanilla, honeydew...just delightful.

Maddie (my wife’s) review: Nose: Butterscotch, fig, pear, caramel. Taste: Grapefruit or something bitter. Finish: Dark chocolate. When asked how to describe her experience: “aromatic”.

Store pick I grabbed. It was fine. Not extremely complex. Got the run-of-the-mill cherries, caramel, and a phenol thing. Fairly waxy and off-putting mouthfeel, this bourbon feels like it’s pretending to be older and more complex than it really is.

Cinnamon is the heavy favorite followed closely by vanilla, pipe tobacco, caramel apples, oak, leather, and some distant meat thing. It’s complex, detailed, but like a good whiskey you can pick it apart with time. A dab on the tongue will point you down an alley of bitter chocolate, molasses, and the tell-tale sign of age...leather. It’s creamy with a bit of bite, too. You don’t want it to end, but like everything, it must. The finish is long and kind. It’s autumn. It’s how you *want* and apple pie with vanilla ice cream to taste. Sheesh.

Tasty. Has a mint thing going on most of the time. Then gives way to thick caramel and vanilla.

Gosh. It’s wonderful. Just wonderful. I don’t think I’ve ever thought this about a whisky, but it’s almost like a fantastically complex white wine. Just vibrant, rich, delicate. It’s wonderful. It’s like someone dragged a paintbrush of flavor down my tongue. Chocolate, fruit, powdered sugar, and a thimble full of evergreen peat smoke. Wondrous.

It’s 13 years old and $39. What are you waiting on, people? People are gonna slam this because it’s Dickel and it’s chill-filtered and the charcoal. But, people are often wrong. Complex, rich, vibrant, tasty. Tobacco, oak, caramel, banana pudding, pepper. All things you love. All things that are good.