Tastes

Nose - Dark chocolaty sweet rye bread, dark vanilla caramel, oaky vanilla, light yeasty aroma like unbaked chocolate cinnamon rolls. Taste - Bit thin, toasted cereal, lightly bitter chocolate nibs, pleasant rye spice bite throughout, dark, almost burnt creme brulee top, nutty sweet like caramelized pecans. Finish - Lingering chocolaty toasted cereal grain notes, like a dark caramel glazed puffed oat/wheat cereal, lightly bitter burnt vanilla caramel/toffee. Score - 90/100

Nose - Clean crisp floral yet spicy. Filtered honeyed apple/pear juice and late harvest sultanas. Taste - Lightly bitter white tea, grape/pear filtered hard cider, white pepper spice/heat, more late harvest sultanas, hints of rum and slight steamed milk sweetness and thinned, yet creamy mouthfeel. Finish - Lingering spice on tongue, lightly tannic oversteeped tea bitterness, white cranberry juice cocktail in that it's a very crisp, slightly tart, sweetness, but tastes a bit artificial. Score - 79/100

Nose - Sweet cherry/strawberry/mint infused water, hint of oversteeped black tea that has a cinnamon stick in it. Taste - Very floral and fruity vanilla, strawberry infused sweet tea, sweet mint, faint hint of cinnamon spice. Finish - Tiny bit of sweet bitter like if you took steeped tea leaves & sucked on them, lingering sweet mint and strawberry sweetness, faint lingering cinnamon heat. Score - 89/100

Nose - Very one dimensional, dominated by wet cardboard and stale peanut brittle. Faint hint of dry un-popped bulk popcorn. Taste - Thin mouthfeel, again very one dimensional on the palate. Stale caramel sweetness like old peanut brittle where the peanuts have gone kind of chewy and oily and the brittle no longer has a satisfying crunch. Muted black pepper spice and this natural peanut sweetness. Finish - Peanuts linger on the palate after it goes down. Thinned out splenda sweetened peanut butter. Lightly bitter like there were burnt peanut skins left in the peanut butter. Score - 55/100

Nose - Light floral, white fleshed fruites, unripe green plums, honeyed black tea. Taste - Sweet golden raisins, sugar coated gummy apples, more honeyed fruity oversteeped black tea lending a tiny hint of bitterness, faint whisp of a smoked tea like if you put tea in one of those cocktail smokers and let that mingle with the whisky in a glass. Hint of candied ginger. Finish - Lingering heat like if you took a bite of a potent piece of candied ginger, faint black tea bitterness. Score - 89/100 Final Thoughts - So I find this quite similar to the Taketseru 12 but slightly less smoky/peaty and has less of a Asian tropical fruit vibe. It's pretty tasty and is a bit higher proof which is nice. It's good on its own but I can see how it could get a bit boring. I could see this doing very well in a highball or maybe even a cocktail that features something like St. Germain, sparkling wine, or a lighter citrus like lemon or kumquat. More on the orange/lime/grapefruit and less lime as I can see that might be a bit too much for this.

Nose - Initially very little alcohol, clean crisp floral pear-pineapple sweet/sour, green hay, riesling/moscato sweet, faint plum wine made from sour green plums. Taste - Toasted barley cereal, toasted rice at the bottom of a stone pot, toasted sour green apple skins, almost like a sour lambic apple cider made entirely with apple skins because it's lightly bitter. Finish - Light medicinal finish, lingering sour, almost like an overoaked riesling in that it's a bit sour, but also sweet. A tiny bit bitter like that of apple skins, but that fades. Score - 67/100 Final Thoughts - So initially the nose on this wasn't that bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't off-putting either. On first sip my initial reaction was that it tasted like a liquefied version of toasted barley cereal in that it tasted exactly like a sample of toasted barley I had during a distillery tour. This quickly turned to be dominated by fruity sour notes. It's not horrible, but not my favorite. I guess you might like this whisky if you're a fan of the sour lambic beers as this kind of tastes like a light version of a sour lambic beer that is mixed with diluted apple cider vinegar.

Nose - High rye bourbon component dominates here in that I get an herbal, sweet mint, hints of cherry coke syrup, Hawaiian sweet bread. Taste - First sip hits the tongue with a sweet, herbal mint, almost like a brown sugar mint julep. Subsequent sips get less of this mint and more of a vanilla/cinnamon brown sugar simple sweetness. Finish - Lingering lightly tannic/oaky warmth with this faint rye-herbal sweet mint. Sadly it's like a splenda-like sweet. Score - 80/100

Batch #303 Nose - Initially a very subtle nose that's masked by quite a bit of ethanol for the proof. Opens up to a hint of vanilla simple syrup, hint of minty herbs, cinnamon, and what I take to be an alcoholic grape gummy bear. Taste - Thin mouthfeel, light watery vanilla caramel sweetness, hint of lightly bitter sweet mint, mild cinnamon and black pepper spice. Finish - Lightly drying, faint bitter sweetness like if you tried to "candy" a green oak sapling. 73/100

Nose - Muted vanilla, milk chocolate covered caramel, wet oak, brown sugar simple, baking soda. Taste - Very thin but "smooth" mouthfeel, lightly bitter oak, almost chalky caramel sweetness, like if you took a vanilla caramel, but made it into the old candy cigarette texture. Finish - Lingering lightly bitter oak, kind of like if you took a brown sugar simple syrup and used a micro barrel to age it, but forot about it for a while so that it's an overoaked sweet syrupy mess. 71/100

Total Wine & More WA Single Barrel #15-26 | 59.7% ABV Nose - Faint hints of sweet mint and fresh herbs, juicy candied bing cherries, strawberries, intense sweet like from those strawberry candies with the green twist top, honey vanilla creamy caramel sweet smell. Taste - Initial lightly diluted honey vanilla cherry coke concentrate, very creamy/oily mouthfeel, transitions into a sweet spicy cinnamon hot, which then fades to a faint leathery and sweet wet tobacco sweetness/bitterness. Finish - The cinnamon heat lingers, leaves a lightly bittersweet herbal vanilla and a very dark, almost burnt simple syrup sweetness with a lingering dark cherry candy sweetness. 92/100