Tastes

Very sweet nose of brown sugar and a little fruit, almost rum-like. A mostly-sweet entry, with just a little tartness, some spiced apple and oak, and more tongue tingling on the finish. This is all delivered as smoothly as it needs to be, and not as hot as bourbon tends to be. I like this a lot more than Maker's Mark and is more of what I expected a wheated bourbon to be.

The nose is just as subtle as the original Jim Beam, with a hint of cinnamon candy. The palate is more interesting though: all of its flavor is present in the entry, and remains like a viscous mixture,dry and spicy, buoying up the sweeter notes. What are those notes? Choose any bourbon and strip away everything that makes it interesting. There is an obvious overall increase in heat, char, and spice going into the finish, which lasts much longer than the original, and is a lot more drying. Not sure how much of this is from the higher ABV, and how much involves the secret barrel voodoo, but it makes for a marginally better bourbon either way. I used the rest of this in a hot toddy whilst sick, and it's pretty good for that.

Subtle nose, needs some time to open. Then vanilla antacid, dry heat, and a little banana. Some rye spice hits you, then a slightly thicker sweetness of honey and vanilla. The finish is medium length, not too sweet or dry. This is bourbon.

Brown sugar and citrus on the nose, with a little chalk. I give Jack Daniel's a hard time for smelling like chalk, but a lot of American whiskey apparently does, so maybe it should just be factored out. Palate: a little thin, wood spice up front, with the standard vanilla char. It has an unpleasant sour/spicy/tart note that ironically one would expect a similarly-classed rye to have. Too much of that, and not enough finish. I don't understand the 90 rating at all. This only serves to make what they did to Maker's 46 seem that much more impressive.

Taste 46: Maker's 46! The nose has the contents of a bananas foster, with brown sugar, cinnamon, and banana rum. The palate is sweet with vanilla and wood char, delivered smoothly with a little heat. The finish is sweeter than the original Maker's, and the whole experience is a little smoother. I really wanted to like this one a lot, but it ended up simply correcting the faults of the original.

A light, honeyed nose, with a little vanilla cream. Hey, this is going to be a better Jack Daniel's! ...but then that banana chalk shows up! I swear, if Jack Daniel's ever made a gin, then it would probably smell like bananas somehow. The entry is gentle, mineral, and far more balanced than the other products, but you can copy and paste the same tasting notes. Unfortunately, it never gets anymore interesting. It's simply a tamer version of Old no. 7, with very little variation in flavor and no finish. If the single barrel JD is hellfire, then this is...angel tears? That's about right.

There is a strong molasses and brown sugar presence on the nose, which fades into chalky banana. On the palate, a thin sweet/sour note hits you first, then some char followed by a blast of heat. This briefly calms down into honeyed banana, encapsulated in a chalky plasticine note. The very dry finish brings out the charred bitterness that has been creeping around for a while, and another heat blast. While this is certainly better than "Old no. 7", I wouldn't drink it for fun.

Vanilla and honeyed apple on the nose. Fruit-forward entry with more vanilla, orchard fruits, some apple and pear, with a backbone of bitter honey and a big herbal quality. This greenery actually defines the midpalate character in my opinion, with the honey/apple/peat moving into the background. I have no idea which of the malts (if any) this could be coming from though. A hint of peat remains on the finish, which really works to smooth over the bitterness.

Caramel apple, malted cereal, and a hint of marshmallow on the nose. The palate has apple juice and pepper, with some wood influences, all delivered kind of roughly, and nothing too complex. The finish has a little more pepper and peat, with some bitterness poking through. A whiff of tobacco from the empty glass. Slightly better than I remember, but pretty much the definition of "2 star scotch".