Balcones FR. OAK Texas Single Malt

Powerful taste, sweet raisins, chocolate, Boston brown bread, plums all in a long finish. One of my favorites that made me go try some other Balcones.

A man's 6 year old daughter played truth or dare with his wife before xmas. The woman foolishly chose truth."Is it Santa or you and daddy who brings us presents?" asked the girl. As the man knew to well the woman was cunning and answered "We buy some of them" which was true as her aunties bought the rest. The child was not done however...like her mother she waited until the man was at his most vulnerable....hung over and running late to pick up his wife. "Truth or dare" a small voice piped up from the back seat of the car. The man had his hands full literally with a steering wheel so Truth was his only option. 'How hard can it be he thought?' She's only a fraction of the age of her mother.."I've seen a lot of fake Santas so far..is he actually real?" The man did what he often did when hung over or drunk or pretty much anytime he thought he was smarter than he was and spoke his mind... which ladies and gentlemen is NEVER a good thing in married life. "Well think about it darling how likely do you think it is that magic reindeer fly round the world to 3 billion kids to give them presents and a fat man who is 300 years old squeezes down chimneys in an age of heat pumps and eats approximately 4 billion cookies and drinks 2 billion litres of milk in one night?". Instantly as soon as the words were out of his mouth the man knew he was in deep deep trouble from mumma bear as junior bear who deeply believed in santa more than the man believed whiskey would solve all his problems was also in the car. Desperately he said "Let's talk about this later darling and hey you can all have as much icecream as you want... think about the flavors you want". Picking up his wife and driving home in record time whilst praying no mention of santa or a game of truth or dare would occur he cracked open a present from santa aka @PBMichiganWolverine and wrote #5 in the Santa Chronicles. Man this is a nice dram. Initially young and harsh once your tongue gets used to the flavour the combination of French oak and bourbony flavors marries well. Thanks PBM!

Fruitcake, Texas style. The French oak comes out clearly in this. French oak is tighter grained and less dense than American oak, so it imparts more subtle flavors and firmer, but silkier texture. It also gives it a bit of chocolate-y roasted quality, making it almost more elegant. Its American counterpart gives a more sweeter flavor, namely vanilla. But French oak is more expensive than American...just harder to work with, but not as difficult as the Japanese oak mizunara. This here clearly takes that French oak to heart. You get the Texas burnt charcoal, but comes out smoother and a bit less brash. At just about 2 years, personally I felt it could’ve benefited with more aging...but that Texas heat would’ve probably overdone the wood interaction anyway. Out of three Balcones I’ve had ( single malt 1, and Brimstone), this was far better. But...personally, my favorite American craft still remains as Del Bac’s Dorado...this maybe in the top 5 American craft, for me at least.