Tastes

Compass Box – Juveniles 46%, Non Chill Filtered, Natural Color Compass Box is a favorite around here.  I pretty much love everything I’ve tried from them.  Juveniles is no different.  The bottle is a bit gimmicky – I could do without the bell underneath but I suppose that makes it unique?. The bottle is also sealed with White Wax – something you don’t see much of in the scotch world. This is made up of 4 malts (Strathmill, Balmenach, Clynelish and Glendullan) Smelling this is quite nice, honey and crisp apples. Very light, waxy and fruity. Tasting neat is a blast of vanilla and sweet candies, with orange creamsicle and some light soft fruits.  Much like the smell this is pleasant and delivers what was expected from the smell.  Tasting with water gives more of the tart green apples and less of the vanilla.  The finish is a bit short but the green apple is there the entire time.  Overall, I really like this.  It’s sweet, more of an after dinner dessert drink in my opinion but very nicely done.  Not sure it’s worth the $130 price tag but the whisky itself is nice.  Good thing I didn’t purchase this at that price, it was a gift from the wife….oh wait...I did purchase at this price.  Ouch! Overall Grade:  B

Johnnie Walker Blenders Batch Wine Cask Blend. 40%, Chill Filtered and Colored Ok so first off - it’s a JW blend that is priced right and isn’t trying to fool you into thinking it’s something more than it really is (like some of the higher prices JWs). Smelling this is full of young grain and a little fruit and cherries. The Taste is what you would expect.  Thin, sweet, boring but enjoyable. Certainly better than a lot of the competition in the $30 blend space. The Finish is immediate….maybe a little grain spice hanging back This isn’t terrible for what it is.  In fact - I can verify that after 12 hours of walking the Disney resorts with a 7yr old and a newborn this whisky works just fine on it’s own in a tumbler.  Overall Grade: C

Bookers (Bluegill Creek Batch) 6yrs, 5months.  64% abv. Bookers is the one of the 4 premium Jim Beam small batch bourbons and is barrel proof.  It’s an excellent example of just how good Jim Beam bourbon can be.  The smell is really nice with burnt sugar, caramel, brown sugar, oak, mint. The taste is awesome, even sipping it neat you get a blast of flavor. Caramelized Sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, oak, toffee.  For being barrel proof this is really enjoyable neat or with some water.  The finish is long with the same Brown Sugar with some Cinnamon, Spice, Burnt Toffee Sugar and vanilla  Bookers is great, it’s certainly my favorite of the premium Jim Beam line. I have sampled multiple batches and some are better than others but  I haven’t come across a bad Bookers yet.   Overall Grade: A

Glenfarclas 105, 60%, NAS   This is a cask strength Glenfarclas that will definitely kick you in the ass.  It is basically the cask strength sherry bomb that isn’t Aberlour. After giving it some time it’s surprisingly drinkable at cask strength but early on you definitely get hit with all the alcohol.  This one needs time and water but it’s worth the effort. Smelling this after some time the Alcohol burn goes away and you get some of the normal sherry bomb smells. Dried Red Fruits, cranberry, orchard fruits, apple, pear, sweet cherries. The taste (neat) is Bitter red fruits, cranberry and vanilla.  With Water – more of the darker/drier red fruits come out. Figs, dates, raisins as well as apple, pear and bitter orange peel. The finish is Long, sweet, vanilla, baked apple, spice, burnt sugar turning bitter. Smelling and tasting neat starts slow but adding water gets you past the alcohol and really brings out the expected smells of a sherry bomb.  I love the transition this whisky takes over time.  These bottles aren’t cheap but I have been lucky to score a few off auction sites for about $70 all in. I haven’t seen them on the shelves near me for less than $80, usually it’s around $100.  Even at $100 it’s probably worth the effort with the crazy whisky prices of today.    Overall Grade: A 

Wolfburn Northland 46%  Natural Color, Non Chill Filtered Smelling this one really makes me think of a young Talisker….which is a really good thing.   Pepper, Vanilla, Spice, Soft Peat, Slightly vegetal.  Really nice   Taste is full of Pepper, Spice, Citrus Rind, Soft Peat Smoke.   The Finish is more of the lingering peat smoke and orange carrying it out.   Overall I really like this. If you are looking to try something different and get a good craft presentation I strongly suggest you give this a try.  I am looking forward to what Wolfburn produces in the future.  In fact I am looking forward to trying their current releases that I haven’t been able to get my hands on. Overall Grade: B  

Breckenridge Bourbon 43%   This was another Flaviar sample. I had sampled a Breckenridge years ago and honestly it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.   The smell on this is a huge blast of rye dill spice.  Smelling and tasting blind I thought this was a rye whisky.   As it turns out it’s very high rye (38%) and it certainly shows in the smell.  Past the rye dill spice you can also get some traditional corn sweet caramel smells.   The taste, like the smell is dominated by the rye.  Again…when tasting this blind I thought for sure this was a rye whisky but those sweet corn and caramel flavors show up after the initial rye blast.  Very nice flavor on this.   The finish is short to medium, like the rest of this whisky it’s rye that fades into the corn sweetness.   Overall I think this is a good bourbon but not all will like it due to it’s high rye content.  If you like bourbons with a good grassy rye dill kick to it then I suggest you try this one.  I do like this but it’s a little boring overall for me.  I feel like the Rye content is just enough that I want to go and grab a rye whisky instead of drinking this Breckenridge in front of me. It’s definitely a good bourbon and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for a high rye take on a craft bourbon.   Overall Grade: C+    

Few Rye Whiskey 46.5%   This was the third sample in a Flaviar kit and it was the one that was the most impressive.  I really enjoy Rye whiskies and have been spoiled a bit with some very good local (mid-atlantic) 100% Rye offerings from Catoctin Creek. I also enjoy some of the MGP Rye whiskies that provide 95% Eye. Often times the minimum 51% Rye required to make it “Rye” whiskey falls short of what I want in a Rye. Sometimes the label tells me what I am buying but most times not.  I slowly became more demanding of Rye whiskies and found that my Rye purchases were more and more limited.  I had always been intrigued by FEW and I had read many good reviews but I just couldn’t justify a $60+ price tag on something I couldn’t sample...Until now.  On to the FEW Rye Review   The Smell on this is aggressive and full of green fresh dill rye spice.  Just a huge blast of fresh dill rye spice.  Caramel, Citrus Peel and Grass   The Taste is surprisingly soft -  caramel, corn sweetness and vanilla at first then a nice blast of fresh earthy dill/rye spice.  Lots of good flavor and spice   The finish is long with some good dusty fading dill spice and vanilla finishing it out.   This is a real nice whisky and worth the price of admission.  Even at $60+ it’s worth picking up if you are a Rye fan.     Overall Score: A

Legent 47% abv If you don’t know the story of this whiskey it’s basically this.  2 legends of the whiskey world Fred Noe and Shinji Fukuyo work together on a whisky project.  The whiskey is made by Fred and blended by Fukuyo.  It’s also worth noting that it’s partially finished in wine and sherry casks.  I was certainly skeptical of this one but I have to say I really enjoyed it.   The smell is great - burnt sugar, little spice, toffee, caramel, light red fruit.  The taste is also great - burnt brown sugar, cherry, almond, clove spice The finish is similar to the taste with brown sugar and almonds fading into spice This has all of the characteristics of the premium Beam offerings, specifically I am finding similarities of both Bakers and Bookers but without the abv.  This was priced at $40 but I’ve seen it as low as $35.  This is a great value and highly recommended.    Overall Grade: A

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 50% abv, Non Chill Filtered and Natural Color   Bruichladdich Islay Barley is part 2 of the Wee Laddie tasting collection….I expect this to be better than the Classic Laddie which was a bit of a disappointment.  Let’s see how the Islay Barley compares.   The smell is sweet honey, malt, orange/lemon peel, burnt sugar and some flowers.  Really nice The taste is sea salt, vanilla, honey, spice, almond, apples and pears – just excellent. The finish is the same as the taste – all of the same sea salt, honey, vanilla and almond flavors are fading out.   Wow – this is really nice.  I was not expecting this at all.  It has an Old Pulteney feel to it which is always welcomed in this house.  Grab a bottle of this if you can.  I should be able to grab a bottle of this around $60.  It’s well worth it.   I will certainly grab a bottle of this next time out.  I can certainly see why Harrison Ford says this is his favorite Scotch.    Overall Grade: A    

Wigle Oaxaca Rye Wigle is a whiskey company based in Pittsburgh, PA. This is my first time trying their stuff but I have heard many good things. With the influx of new distilleries it’s hard to keep up with all the new Rye whiskies I see flooding the market. This one stood out because they used Mezcal barrels for finishing. Once I heard of this I had to seek it out.     Here is what Wigle has to say – this is a description from their site: “Oaxaca Rye marries two regional spirit traditions – Pennsylvania Rye and Oaxaca Mezcal. We reached out to a small distillery in Oaxaca to partner on this project. The 5th generation family Wahaka Distillery reminds us of Wigle in many ways and they were excited to trade barrels. They sent us used espadin Mezcal barrels and we sent them our used Rye Whiskey barrels. The first time we tried this exchange, the Mezcal barrels were stolen in Austin! Thankfully, our second attempt worked and we were able to transfer our Straight, 2 year old Monongahela Rye Whiskey into their Mezcal barrels for another year of aging.The resulting Whiskey has a soft, herbal smoke that reveals its time and contact with spicy mezcal oak.” Details – 40% abv. 65% Rye, 13% Malted Barley, 12% Wheat The smell full of cinnamon and cheap fireball whisky   The taste is interesting – but too heavy on the artificial candied cinnamon, atomic fireball. Spicy rye with menthol and hot cinnamon and maybe some ash. Not really getting much of the mezcal smoke but the drying ash is there. Almost gives you immediate cottonmouth. I have never tasted anything quite like this.  It has some of the rye characteristics that you expect with Rye and I’ll throw a bit of credit their way for that bit of ash but this is really pretty awful. The finish is quite long, the rye and dill spice hangs around a long time with some of that atomic fireball taste hanging around too long. This is a pretty crazy Rye whisky. At first you think it drinks hot for such a low abv but it’s not hot it's just really spicy. Dill,Rye,Cinnamon and Fireball all contribute to this intensity. This thing is such a crazy and wild whisky. While I appreciate the wacky side of whisky at times this is not something I can get behind.  This is essentially a craft version of shitty ass fireball. At $70 this pushes me even further away.   Overall Grade: D