Tastes

This is a special bottle of whiskey indeed. The smell is a little astringent upon first pour but after sitting in the glass a bit, I got sweet caramel and brown sugar notes. The whiskey is warm from the proof, but it coats the tongue in an almost syrupy, sweet fashion. Besides caramel, there are some spice notes there....nutmeg? At the end of the drink, some peat smoke makes its way in and it goes down warmly. This is a superior whiskey, really one of the best I have ever had.

Extremely peppery. Like a black peppercorn type of astringency. Leaves your tongue feeling oddly tingly. Not good but not the worst thing out there.

Slightly spicy and herbaceous. This is a nice change from sweet bourbons but perhaps not quite at this price point. On ice, there seems to be some rye spice that lingers.

When a buddy of mine who hates ryes told me that he was into this whiskey, I was surprised. When I tasted the whiskey, I was even more surprised. The Rye spice was barely noticeable, only coming out after the whiskey is long gone. Dickel Rye does have an odd tongue numbing astringency with bigger drinks, so just stick to sips. A rye whiskey for people who don't like rye whiskies.

The price per bottle for Proper No 12 has recently dropped to $20 USD around my area so I thought I'd go ahead and give McGregor's elixir a try. Boy do I regret that decision. This whiskey tastes like what I imagine an alcoholic Dr. Pepper with a few melted ice cubes would taste like. Oddly musty, a little bit fruity but mostly without character or real definition. On the plus side, if you used this as a mixing whiskey, you could skip the ice since its already so watered down. This is the kind of whiskey you chug while drowning in self loathing after snapping your leg while squaring up with one of your sworn enemies. Yikes! You know I just had to take a jab at "The Notorious".

Strong fruity taste. Does lack the strong Rye spice of other Rye whiskies. Good if you like whiskies heavily influenced by port or sherry caks. Tasted neat.

What a masterpiece of a bourbon this was. Nose is dominated by sweet baking spice and vanilla. The taste brings in some familiar sweetness from Maker's core offering: vanilla and caramel coat the palate. The finish brings in a sweet and tart wisp of juicy apples along with some sweet cinnamon spice. Why aren't these Wood Finishing Series regularly made?! A shame I tell ya.

Slightly spicy neat, and becomes almost overpowered with Rye once it sits with ice. Great if you like Rye.. but I do not.

An interesting whiskey indeed. At first taste, it is evident that this whiskey lacks proof but sometimes that's a good thing because it has almost no burn at all. Its sweet and tastes every so slightly herbaceous going down. This whiskey lacks the complexity of a good scotch but its a reasonably priced bottle to draw you away from the norm, which is sometimes a welcome change. I saw some negative reviews for this whiskey detracting from it because it doesn't taste like bourbon. Well.. it was never supposed to taste like bourbon. That's why Michter's has a bourbon.

RIP to Cedar Ridge, one of my favorite bourbons that could be had at a mega cheap price point. It had a gentle, sweet corn taste and from what I can remember, lacked any harshness or bite. This one will be missed.