Tastes

I've been drinking EW since starting college, so now that I'm fully into whiskey tasting I thought I'd buy all of EW's major expressions to taste against each other. Unfortunately I didn't do this blind because I had no one to set it up. I bought the plastic 375 mL of this for $7.50. It is light and smooth. I mainly get fruit and sugary caramel on the nose and taste, and the finish is short. This is easier to drink than similarly priced EW BiB but less complex. I do love that EW Black and 1783 have 375 mL plastic bottles, because these are absolutely perfect to pick up for camping trips or outdoor concerts with no extra steps needed. I've been buying EW plastic for camping trips almost exclusively for a decade and it never fails. However, the EW BiB and Single Barrel are both better options than this, and the EW Black is pretty even. Did not try EW Green for this series.

I was mildly disappointed with the 1792 Small Batch, so I picked this up a week after that purchase based on a conversation with an ABC employee. I definitely agree with his assessment, this is a great single barrel bourbon in this price range. For reference, the Small Batch is $30 in NC and the Single Barrel is $40. There are not many bourbons in my state that have generic and single barrel at affordable prices. The ones that pop in my mind are Evan Williams, Knob Creek, Four Roses, Jim Beam, and Bowman Brothers. I have not had the Knob Creek or Bowman Brothers Single Barrels, but so far the difference between the 1792 offerings has been the most drastic. I would say that the Elijah Craig Single Barrel Select was even more pronounced, but that was a store pick. I thought the Small Batch was hot on the taste, with mild notes of banana, oak, and caramel. The Single Barrel, with a slightly higher abv, is so much fruitier on nose and taste. This is like a boozy banana dessert, maybe bananas foster or fried cinnamon bananas you'll get at some Mexican and Brazilian restaurants. I tolerate bananas, I don't seek them out. But man does this flavor pair well with spicy caramel oak flavors in whiskey. Unfortunately the bottle provides ZERO information on the barrel, but it's affordable and worth picking up.

Given the prices of standard offerings for Islay, I thought I'd try this since some whiskey somms do appreciate it as a budget offering. Supposedly it is young Bowmore, which I've never had. The only Islay I've had besides this is Ardbeg 10. The McClelland hits you immediately with smoke on the nose and I get nothing else. It is surprisingly light on the taste/mid-palate. But the finish tastes kind of like cheap artificial smoke you'll find in food, not nearly as tasty as Ardbeg 10. I don't get that meatiness you would get from the older peat. If you really like smoke this could be a good budget purchase, it is about half the price of your 10Y malts. This has taken me a while to get through this bottle, and I'm very hesitant to try another McClelland. However, I do not think this whiskey is nearly as bad as the expert review on here, it's fine but it's just one-note smoke.

I was looking to try another ~$30 small batch but spotted this, and an ABC employee said they just got it in that day. I couldn't exactly remember reviews of this, but I knew it was not a bourbon we normally see in North Carolina so I impulsively picked it up due to the small quantity available. I usually wait to do reviews until I'm almost finished with the bottle but I think my opinion is settled after a few days. This is unlike a lot of bourbons I've had recently. It hits you hard with floral oak notes, smelling like it is over 100 proof. It initially is light on the palate but then a strong oak and nut flavor takes over. The finish however lingers with a more spicy dessert flavor mixed with nuts and cloves. To me this is floral, oak, and nutty. It lacks sweetness that many other bourbons have, which could be due to age since the mash bill is similar to many big bourbons I've had recently. If you like more rye/malt influence in your bourbon you may like this a lot. A unique bourbon that is a good change of pace, but not something that I'd consider a good daily sipper. By the way, adding a little water only dulled the nose and flavor. And I really like the bottle design. It pours easily with no dribbling. And the boxy shape has dimples on the side making it comfortable to grab. More bottles should include dimples. Barrel information - #4696 and bottled on 05-06-19. I wish they included the cask date, I'm confident it is under 6 years given the taste.

I picked this up on recommendation from an employee who said he was a Scotch drinker but this is one of the bourbons he really likes. Plus it was $3 normal price, so why not. I had no idea it was a Stitzel-Weller product when I bought it, and looking back it's the only Weller adjacent bourbon I can find in NC. The clear superlative of this bourbon is the nose. It is truly great for a 91 proof bourbon. The fruit notes jump right out of the glass, no swirling necessary. You also get a burst of spicy oak, I'm guessing it's mostly oak because of the low proof. The taste is lighter than expected given the nose and I get more oak than fruit by contrast. The finish is shorter than average, especially for this price. I'd rate the aspects of the whiskey chronologically in descending order: nose - great; taste - very good; finish - average. You can't go wrong with this bottle despite the price close to $50, especially given its availability compared to other Buffalo Trace/Weller products. I don't understand negative reviews that focused on Diageo heavily advertising this based on the Weller name, because if they did that then they would make the Weller font size the same as Blade & Bow on the bottle. But it's tiny font in all locations, so to me that's downplaying the distillery. Additionally, this bottle design is fantastic. It's one I'm going to save for blending.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jim Beam Single Barrel and thought I'd try one of their cheaper offerings in the $25 range. I purchased a 375 mL of this for $13.95 and I'm glad that's all I bought. This is a weak bourbon. It tastes like very watery Single Barrel even though the difference in proof from 95 to 86 may not seem that significant. Everything is muted here, I barely smell anything unless I swirl it up. I still get that peanut brittle flavor but again, more muted than Single Barrel. This is easy to sip don't get me wrong, but at $27 you can buy plenty of other easy-sipping bourbons at the same price or less. I would steer you towards Wild Turkey or Evan Williams any day of the week.

I've never had an Irish single malt and NC decided to not sell this anymore, so I picked it up over more well-regarded single malts. It has been disappointing. There is negligible difference between this and a Scotch single malt, which I should've expected. The nose is pleasant enough, that sweet bready smell you get with a lot of Irish whiskey. The taste starts out fine, but the finish is not good. It dries the palate almost immediately and it is not enjoyable to keep sipping. I always struggle with this when I pour >1.0 oz, which is why I've had it open for 3 months. I need to try the Bushmills or Tullamore single malts to see if this is an Irish outlier.

Initially I was wary of single malt Scotches under $40 in NC because I thought they'd be crap, but I dove head first when it was on sale for $30. Imagine my surprise, this is a superb whiskey. I've had a few single malt and blended Scotches this year (Monkey Shoulder, Dewar's White, JW Black, Chivas 12, Auchentoshan American, Glenlivet, Glenmorangie), and this is better than all of those. It tastes most similar to Glenmorangie 10, but sweeter and less drying on the palate, and $10 less. I get more complexity from the oloroso finishing that I don't get from other flagship single malts. It also has a similar profile to the popular blended Scotches I've had, which makes sense since Tomatin is a mass producer for blenders. I honestly don't understand some of the reviews I've seen for this on whiskey blogs, it is one of the best affordable Scotches I've had. This is really easy to sip and enjoy, and at 86 proof has slightly more punch than most cheap Scotches.

I'm a little disappointed with this, same as I was with Elijah Craig Small Batch. They're easy to compare: both $30 in NC, both NAS, both ~94 proof, and both dominant hot spice for the abv. I don't get as much hot cherry oak as I do with Elijah, but it is still the dominant flavor. Maybe more rye spice than barrel burn with this. There are subtle dessert fruit notes here that taste mostly like fried cinnamon bananas or artificial banana candy flavoring, but it is subdued until the finish. I definitely prefer this to Elijah Craig Small Batch if you had the option to get one. I also have the 1792 Single Barrel at the moment and it is a lot better.

I bought the Glenmorangie Taster Pack for $34.95, which includes 4 x 100 mL of Glenmorangie Original 10Y and the three primary finished versions. That breaks down to $8.74 for each, which is overpriced for the original but good value to try the Nectar D'Or. (In NC the 750 mL is $69.95.) Let me clearly state that I'm very glad this sampler was available because the Nectar is by far the least impressive of the 3 finished versions, the least different from the original, and is the most expensive. I chalk this up to the whiskey only being finished for <2 years in dessert white wine casks, while the other two are finished in heavy red wine casks. Other than having a slightly drier taste with more pronounced nose, I don't think the Nectar is remarkably different from the Original. At $70 this is not only $25 more than the Original, but it is $15 and $12 more than the much better Lasanta and Quinta Ruban. Don't misread this as I hate this whiskey, because it tastes nice. But based on value I don't recommend this at all because I think you're wasting your money when you can buy the cheaper finished versions or the original.