1792 Full Proof Straight Bourbon

Great butterscotch flavors and cinnamon.

(Total Wine single barrel pick) Fresh corn fades to black cherry, overbaked banana bread and dark chocolate on the nose. I'm getting caramel soaked cake (tres leches comes to mind) with vanilla icing on the palate. Hints of overripe banana. There's a brief buttery note. The flavor and mouthfeel can support the alcohol content here (125 proof). Finish is corn husk into a grassy spice rounded with a soft, almost chocolaty barrel char, then lingering corn. The raw corn on the initial nose and tail end of the finish is a little overpowering and ultimately smothers some delicious notes along the way. I'm not disappointed for $40, but this is probably best used in a cocktail.

Cherry, Cinnamon, bread

Nose - banoffee pie, rich banana, toffee, cinnamon, cereal and cereal milk, creamy vanilla, honey, cherry, nutmeg, clove, black pepper, sweet and spicy oak, moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste - sweet, rich banana, caramel, cinnamon, oat, cereal, cherry, apple, spicy, tannic oak, honey, vanilla cream, lemon zest, assorted baking spice, pepper, high alcohol bite, finishing medium length with caramel, banana, and spicy oak flavors. Wow, what a difference from the single barrel expression. This is so much better. It’s has the richness and depth that was missing in the other. I usually don’t like banana flavors in whiskies, because it’s generally very artificial tasting (looking at you, JD #7), but here they are so rich, like eating a bananas foster or banoffee pie. I love the proof and thicker mouthfeel, although it still feels a bit thin compared ECBP and lacks the bass notes I get from those offerings. This is ripe for comparison with my other favorite barrel proof bourbons, ECBP and Booker’s. Of the expressions I’ve reviewed, I think it like it better than Booker’s, but not quite as much as ECBP. Still, this is excellent stuff and I would be happy to pick this up at retail. Again, many thanks to @ContemplativeFox for the sample.

This makes a killer old fashioned. Reminds me of my wife’s banana bread.

Was not excited by the neck pour but gave it air and tasted it blind with Elijah Craig B519, my favorite recent EC cask strength. To my shock, the 1792 FP won. A lot going on with the nose, taste and finish—citrus, spice, brown sugar, cereal—and a palate-coating mouthfeel. IMO both the 1792 Full Proof and Small Batch punch above their weight.