Tastes

Well worth the chase if you can hunt this bottle down. I belive thats part of what makes the whiskey so satisfying; the effort one must put in to obtain a bottle. It is well worth the demand. Needing about 20 minutes to open up in the glass; creamy chocolate, maltness hits the nose. On the palate, the spicyness of the rye, along with baking spices; cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. With a splash of water, the nose opens up with brown sugar, followed by vanilla. With the heat subsiding by the addition of the water, the taste now brings the sweetness to the forefront, with choclate and brown sugar, with the rye spice on the finish. What a treat!!

Wasn't quite sold on this at first. The review seemed so over the top. I wasnt sold after the first glass, but keeping an open mind, I went back. One thing I did notice, this rye opens up nicely with a cube or two, or perhaps a small splash of water. Though its only 95 proof, the wiskey seems "busy". The water or ice seems to calm everything down, and put everything in its place, flavor profile wise. They become more refined and pronunced. From there it is quite enjoyable, still not a 98, but could justify a 93-95. I read that some revierws made comments about "sitting on the shelf" or "dust on the bottle". Dont be fooled , black maple hill is not marketed to the general public like some whiskies, hence some of the public is uneducated to them. This causes them to get overlooked sometimes for a more marketable brand. I remember at one point I used to see Egale Rares in liquor stores with dust on them, untill the public became educated.

Much like thr previous reviews, I would recommend this as a intro level burbon; not to diminish the quality. It is on the sweeter end, with nice smoothness, and the flavor profiles are pretty straight foward and easy to recognize. If you, or someone else is just getting into the game of burbons and whiskeys, this would be a good one to start with. Normally I would rate this an 87-89, but its quality too price point is very nice. I would give it a 90-91; 94 is a little pumped up.