Tastes

These notes are from a blind tasting (Flaviar Advent Calendar) The smell is awesome. Light peat, brine/salt, barley sugar, vanilla, and campfire smoke. The taste - a blast of peat smoke, salt, sweet barley, and vanilla. Wow - this is really good. After a bit of water, you open up some oak, black pepper, cinnamon, and clove.   The finish is long with peat smoke, vanilla and clove spice carrying it through. This is my favorite so far from the advent calendar. I’d happily have this on my shelf any day of the week. Plenty of flavor and complexity here.  Overall Grade: B+  (Very Good)

These notes are from a blind tasting (Flaviar Advent Calendar) The smell is pleasant and very light. Vanilla, honey, cooked red fruit and fresh green apple. The taste - light, but spicy. Cooked red fruit, sweet vanilla, and honey. The spice is a red fruit spice but a nice bit of fresh ginger and green apples as well. Very nice.  The finish is - short but pleasant. Apples and ginger spice carry it to the end. This is very enjoyable. Happy to have it on the shelf anytime depending on the price. It isn’t the most complex but it delivers a nice experience.   Overall Grade: B  (Good)

These are blind tasting notes (Flaviar Advent Calendar) The smell reminds me mostly of vodka. Like, an oaky vodka, with some off-putting sour wax element. With water, the smell actually gets worse The taste - this is very hot when sampled neat. As the alcohol burn fades, there is a really nice and unexpected caramel flavor that is punching above the sour wax.  With water, the promising caramel note is muted. There is some dusty corn/grain husk and some cinnamon spice, but the wax element is still noticeable. Oddly, the finish on this one is where the flavors come out.  The finish is long and once the sour wax fades there are some nice corn, caramel, cinnamon, and dill spice flavors.  This reminds me of one of those four grain mash up whiskies.  This has its enjoyable moments but I find myself fighting the rest of the sour waxiness to get to those enjoyable moments. This is a pass for me.  Overall Grade: C-  (Below Average)

These notes are from a blind tasting (Flaviar Advent Calendar) The smell is muted but I can get some red and green apples, and pears. Pretty nice. It doesn’t jump out of the glass, you have to go looking for it but what you find is nice. The taste is spicy red fruit, baking spice, and a strong red wine grape sour element but in a good way. Black pepper, clove, menthol, and mint. The finish is medium/long with the clove and mint really showing up and hanging around late. This is a nice surprise in the Flaviar box. What’s even better is the taste delivered above the smell. Would be happy to have this anytime.  Overall Grade: B - (Good)

These notes are from a blind tasting (Flaviar Advent calendar) The smell is very light. Oak, vanilla, cereal/grain/corn husk, and a little red fruit spice The taste is soft but the red fruits and baking spice hit first, then vanilla and some honey. It’s spicier than expected from the smell. This isn’t a complex experience but it is enjoyable. One dimensional but pleasant flavors and easy drinking. The finish is short to medium. It’s pretty much the same experience as the taste, it all fades about equally.  Maybe the spice hangs around longer.    This is good. It’s right there in the middle. Not great but certainly not bad. It’s a light, easy drinking Irish whiskey. I really get 3 flavors, vanilla, honey, and baking spices. It doesn’t deliver a lot but what it does deliver is enjoyable. Depending on the price this is worth a look. Overall Grade: C+ (Above Average)

These notes are from a blind tasting (Flaviar Advent Calendar) The smell is pretty muted, it takes some time but you can pull out some vanilla, fruitcake, oak, dried red fruits, and baking spices. The taste is dried red fruits, clove, baking spices, mint, and some nice bitter dark baking chocolate. This is really nice.  The finish is long and warm. The baking spices and cloves start strong on the finish and give way to some nice sweet/sour flavors of sherry and vanilla.  This is a good one. Very enjoyable.  Happy to have this on the shelf anytime. If I had to make a complaint about this it would be the smell. It remained muted for most of the time drinking this however, the taste and finish more than make up for the smell. It is actually pretty nice because you get an unexpected upgrade when you taste it after smelling it. Whatever this is it is worth the effort. Overall Grade: B+ (Very Good)

Laphroaig 18 48% NCF, Natural Color  Laphroaig is a love-hate relationship for me.  When they actually make an effort they are excellent (Lap 10 CS, older Lap QC, Cairdeas 2015 and the wine cask finishes, the now defunct 15yr, and this now defunct 18yr).  On the other hand, they release some overly branded crap to the market which is really a shame because their whisky is excellent when treated right.  Also - I have experienced only a few indy Laffies and they have been excellent - one of them as young as 5yrs old. Anyway on to this one - the now defunct 18yr.   Smell - Typical Laphroaig but slightly tame, mild iodine, peat smoke, vanilla, spice, oak.  Mild medicinal. Basically, all of the normal Laphroaig characteristics but refined/mellowed out.  They are all present but deeper and richer. Taste - Sweet peat, vanilla, clove spice, almond, seaweed, light smoke, heavy, oily, and thick.  Just excellent.  You can really taste the full bourbon cask maturation.   Finish -  Barley Sugar, Ash, Seaweed, smoke, almond, hazelnut, oak, spice and vanilla. It’s really a shame that Laphroaig discontinued this excellent whisky.  If you can find this I would suggest getting it but you will pay a premium. Either way - get it if you can, it’s an excellent version of a Laphroaig that isn’t available anymore.   Overall Grade: A

Thomas S. Moore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in Cabernet Sauvignon Casks, 47.65%, Non-Chill Filtered, Natural Color Barton 1792 Distillery uses its high rye mash bill aged 5-7 years in new charred oak barrels. Then the whiskey is transferred to a secondary cask for “extended” finishing. Normally a finish is measured in months, in this case, they are finishing in wine casks for 1-3 years. The smell - sweet candy corn, corn husk, vanilla, brown sugar, maybe some dried red fruits. Very nice but I am missing the cab sauv influence on the smell.  The taste - There’s the cab sauv! Nice dried red fruits, figs, baking spices, and slightly sour red grapes but integrated nicely. Musty corn, caramel, fruitcake, vanilla, and some dill/menthol spice. This is quite enjoyable. With water, the wine influence fades to the back but remains integrated.  The finish - is medium with baking spices but the cab sauv influence is riding this out, fortunately it is well integrated with the bourbon and a very nice finish to this unique bourbon experience. This was the first one I had opened of the three Thomas S Moore’s and obviously (see picture) enjoyed it quite a bit before opening the others. After opening the others I think I’d rank this just behind the port cask but well ahead of the chardonnay cask. This is a good bourbon with a very well-integrated red wine influence.   Overall Grade: B (Good)

Thomas S. Moore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in Chardonnay Casks, 48.95%, Non-Chill Filtered, Natural Color Barton 1792 Distillery uses its high rye mash bill aged 5-7 years in new charred oak barrels. Then the whiskey is transferred to a secondary cask for “extended” finishing. Normally a finish is measured in months, in this case, they are finishing in wine casks for 1-3 years. The smell - this is more of a traditional bourbon smell. I am not getting much chardonnay influence here. Cron husk, caramel, honey, some rye/dill spice, and vanilla The taste - Ahh, there is the sour chardonnay. The first blast on the tongue is a confusing mix of chardonnay and bourbon. There is the sourness of the chardonnay and it hangs around a while, but eventually, you do get some candy corn, and spice but the sourness from the chardonnay overstays its welcome.  Adding water calms everything down but that sour chardonnay component overwhelms the other flavors.  The finish - is medium but the chardonnay sour white grapes continue to dominate the finish. The rye spice tries to make an appearance but amazingly the sourness of the chardonnay keeps the spice in the background. I am quite surprised that a white wine like Chardonnay can wreak this much havoc on a high rye bourbon. This could be an acquired taste OR it could just be a failed experiment. This one doesn’t work for me. It won’t be wasted thought, I’ll experiment by blending this with other bourbons. If I find a good blend for this I will write about it and let you know. Overall Grade: C-  (Below Average)

Thomas S. Moore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in Port Casks, 49.45%, Non-Chill Filtered, Natural Color Barton 1792 Distillery uses its high rye mash bill aged 5-7 years in new charred oak barrels. Then the whiskey is transferred to a secondary cask for “extended” finishing. Normally a finish is measured in months, in this case, they are finishing in wine casks for 2-5 years. The smell is really nice. Corn husk and musty dried red fruit, sweet baking spices, vanilla, and cinnamon.  The taste - this is pretty hot, alcohol burn and dried red fruits hit first.  With water, the alcohol burn fades and some nice burned brown sugar, and musty corn and fruitcake flavors open up. The port influence is obvious here and it works well. Oak, vanilla, and cinnamon are present as well.  This is really enjoyable. The finish - is long with mostly baking spices finishing this off.  I wasn’t sure what to think about these when I purchased them. I really enjoy port finishes in scotch whisky but outside of scotch, the port finishes have been hit or miss. This one is a hit. I think I paid around $70 for this one and I have no regrets about that purchase. This bourbon delivered good results. Overall Grade: B (Good)