Tastes

Nose - Hint of vanilla, dried apples, dark chocolate laden sweet bread, oaked chardonnnay, hint of orange zest. Taste - Sweet honey, toasted oat cereal, like Honey Smacks cereal, caramel corn, Cracker Jack, cocoa nibs, creme brulee, dried apples. Finish - Lingering Cracker Jack / caramel corn, cocoa nibs, latte foam, sweet roasted nuts. Score - 88/100 Final Thoughts - I like what Westland is doing with their multi-malt mashbill. I think their pale chocolate malt and brown malt add this very nice nuttiness that helps hide this whiskey's youth very well. Their standard offering is very tasty on its own given its youth and I can only imagine what some additional time in barrels will do to mellow out this malt and smooth out the rough edges.

Nose - Dried apples, fresh pears, floral, hint of clean salty sea air, hint of grass, riesling soaked golden raisins. Taste - Lightly oaky grape/apple juice, light apple/pear skin bitterness, peppercorn spice. Finish - Lingering peppercorn spice, lightly bittersweet apple/pear juice made from the cores. Score - 86/100 Final Thoughts - This is sadly a bit disappointing as the nose promised so much more than what it delivered on the palate. The nose was great, but it was a bit one/two dimensional on the palate. Tasty in its own right, but I guess a bit of a letdown from the nose. Is great neat, but I can see the slightly higher proof help it stand up to something like a blood and sand.

Barrel #5043516 | Aged Since 05/2006 Nose - Dark brown sugar caramel, oaky vanilla, hints of coffee, roasted sweet nuts, light milk chocolate. Taste - Very smooth milk chocolate covered dark vanilla caramel, oaky vanilla, hints of sweet mocha foam, lightly drying, hint of cherry at the back of the palate. Finish - Dark cherry lingers and mixes with a nice oaky vanilla caramel sweetness. Score - 87/100 Final Thoughts - The nose on this one doesn't do the taste justice. It noses a bit oaky, but it's not as much so once it hits the tongue. Has a nice mix of flavors I find quite enjoyable (coffee, dark caramel, cherry) and sips very well neat. Has enough "oompf" to stand up in a cocktail, but try to focus on cherry/chocolate flavors as I think those would go best with this. As always with a single barrel product, be aware of barrel variances and no two barrels are the same.

Nose - Vanilla/cinnamon caramels, light sort of stale peanut brittle, salted peanut shells. Taste - Spicy cinnamon/vanilla caramel, light black pepper kick, hint of salted peanuts, lightly drying oak, tiny hint of Luxardo cherry sweetness at the end. Finish - Lingering but muted cinnamon spice, sweet Spanish peanut sweetness that fades fairly quicky that only leaves this dry oaky, light heat. Score - 81/100 Final Thoughts - If I tasted this blind, I probably would've pegged it as a Beam product due to the peanut "Beam funk." It's a very easy sipping bourbon for the proof for sure, which I guess is a result of the charcoal filtering. The balance of caramel and peanut funk is a bit weird to me in that it works up until the finish where the peanut funk turns to be a bit too much like stale peanuts. This might be something I turn into something like a peanut butter cup old fashioned by using some chocolate bitters in place of Angostura.

Nose - Sweet vanilla caramel, hint of "smarties" candy, hint of orange zest. Taste - Sweet vanilla, creamy caramel, light cinnamon spice tingle, hint of malt powder, latte foam sweetness. Finish - Pleasant smooth cinnamon vanilla caramel sweetness that slowly fades. Score - 87/100 Final Thoughts - I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It's sadly a bit one dimensional and I think it might get lost if mixed in a cocktail or over ice but it's amazingly smooth to sip neat. Flavors are a bit subtle but tasty. This might make a good mixer to something with a bit more oak or spice to tame that back a bit and add a bit of creamy caramel sweet.

Nose - Lightly muted flroal honey, faint hint of pear. Taste - Very subtle hints of cocoa and coffee, pear-honey water, light hazelnut sweetness, light white pepper spice. Finish - Light thin cocoa lingers and mixes with the pear-honey water that fades pretty quickly. Score - 76/100 Final Thoughts - Apparently the stout barrel aging imparted almost no new things to the nose as I couldn't get any stout notes on the nose. Where the extra aging really shines is on the taste and finish. It does add this light cocoa/coffee flavor, although subtle, is quite nice. The aging also apparently gets rid of the splenda sweet finish I get on the standard Jameson which is nice. If I see this and the original similarly priced, I'd probably grab this over the original.

Nose - Sweet grassy grain forward spirit, lightly floral, light fresh/new oak honey water. Taste - Thin mouthfeel, lightly oaky floral honey water, hint of fresh hay, hint of white pepper and ginger spice. Finish - Short finish, "green" wood, lightly herbal honey water, short white pepper spice tingle, hint of splenda-like sweet. Score - 73/100 Final Thoughts - Very similar to their other expressions but a little more one dimensional. I get less fruits and more honey and hay from this standard expression. Not overly complex, but it's not meant to be (I don't think). Perfectly sippable neat and cheap enough that you don't feel bad about mixing it either.

Nose - Lightly earthy, briny salty sea smoke, tiny hint of fresh rubber, hint of dark chocolate cocoa nibs, burnt/caramelized raisins. Taste - Beach campfire smoke, like a campfire that has lightly damp seawater soaked wood, briny dark chocolate covered raisins, hint of rubber, dark red wine poached prunes, white pepper/cayenne pepper spice tingle. Finish - Lingering salty sweet smoke, peppery tingle, salty sweet bitter chocolate. Score - 76/100 Final Thoughts - This is a more tolerable peated Scotch for me. Not being a huge fan of peated whiskies in general, this was a very drinkable dram, although I have to be in the mood for it. It's like being on a beach near the sea with a campfire, with a charcuterie spread of smoked ham, smoked salty aged cheeses, dark chocolate, and dark dried prunes and raisins. The peat is very tolerable in this one, but the lingering salt is a bit off-putting and I think for me, this would be my last or second to last dram of the night in order to cut back on the smoked salt finish.

Nose - Very bright, freshly dried hay, hint of sweet pineapple, sweet sugar cane syrup, hint of ethanol. Taste - Heavy rum influence, spicy sugarcane sweetness, hint of caramelized pineapple, lightly bitter, tastes a bit thin and like it's mostly grain versus malt. Finish - Lingering fruity spice, rum syrupy sweet, light bitter remains, sweet bitter like that of a char grilled pineapple. Score - 70/100 Final Thoughts - A bit on the fence about this one. It does taste a bit more complex than some of the Irish Whiskies I've had, but at the same time, it tastes almost too clean, like it's more of a flavored vodka than a rum finished whiskey. It's almost as if the primary spirit is a grain whiskey with little to no malt which I think would give a bit more backbone to the rum finish. I'm not sure how I feel about sipping this neat and at the same time I'm not sure what cocktails would benefit from this either.

Nose - Dark cherries dominate, dried currants, bright red dried berries, sweet toasted hazelnuts, hint of toasted coconut, cherry cough syrup at the back end. Taste - Intense sweet cherry infused dessert wine and white peppercorn spice, lightly dry yet creamy like what coconut milk can do to your mouth. Finish - Long lingering sweet cherry infused dessert wine with lingering white peppercorn spicy tingle. Score - 84/100 Final Thoughts - Sherry bomb anyone? The sherry cask finish dominates this a bit too much and hides all of the floral and tropical fruit notes I get from their other offerings. It's fairly one dimensional in that it could almost be a heavily fortified sherry versus a sherry finished whisky. That being said, what is there is still pretty tasty but is something that I'd most likely have to really be in the mood for. I'd say this might pair very well with a dark chocolate dessert.