Balcones Texas Blue Corn Bourbon

Youthful, grain, oak, touch of spice.

Light body. Very sweet

Kind of a sad day as I finish this bottle and don't have a backup. I've enjoyed it, so thought I would grace it with another review at the end of the bottle as I did when it was opened. Nose: a strong sweetness of brown sugar, creme brule, and blueberries drizzled with honey- you can still sense the high proof, but it does not burn at all Palate: starts out with a bit of warmth from the alcohol at the start, which then gives way to buttered cornbread which is then followed by some black pepper, a hint of honey, and the slightest bit of dark cherry - again the high proof is quite mild in terms of burn despite the nice amount of spice that is present. Finish: the finish is faster than previously and consists of mostly pepper and a hint of dark fruit - it leaves a very pleasant "tingly" feeling on your lips that lasts longer than the first is itself. Overall: I love how some of the flavors have mellowed and the burn is less intense as more oxygen enters the bottle with the decreased amount of juice. This is one delicious bottle and I hope I can come across it again soon.

Rating: 16/23 I've enjoyed Balcones releases with blue corn so far (except for the Baby Blue), so I'm interested to see what their version of a fairly standard bourbon - but with blue corn - is like. N: So musty and then something that really makes me think of flavored vodka. Ick! It's weird. I'm not getting the corn in that mustiness. It's just kind of underdeveloped and unenjoyable. It may need a few minutes. I do get a little bit of meat right now, which is not great. Hints of caramel, barrel spices, and caramel, but they're very faint. A few minutes later, this still hasn't really developed. I guess this is all I get. P: Caramel with musty blue corn sweetness. A weird fruity layer mixed with some bitter herbal flavors. Maybe a little apricot with a bit of tangerine? Very odd for a bourbon. The bitter herbal flavors are more standard and kind of nondescript. There's a hint of char and some definite sour mash character. I get ginger and black pepper as the main spices. This is increasingly bitter, spicy, and tart. Overall, the palate is good, but kind of bland and not super balanced. It's slightly odd, but not in a way that particularly engages me. There are some hints of maple syrup and char in here, which are kind of interesting. The stand-out flavor though is the blue corn mustiness. F: Kind of bitter and charred with some hot spices. Occasionally, I get bits of musty corn. There's not a lot happening here and it doesn't have the sweet decadence I'd hoped for. - Conclusion - Old Forester 1920 (18/23) is definitely better than this. It's decadent and more interesting. This is more muddled and dull. I'm inclined to place this above my single barrel cask strength Garrison Brothers bottling (15/23), but not by a whole lot. They're close. This could be a 15 or a 16. Russell's Reserve 10 (15-16/23) is more complex than this and also more approachable. It strikes me as likely a little better. That indicates to me that I should be giving this a 15. It's solid, but it's a pretty disappointing dram. Still, I can definitely imagine giving this a 16. Coming back to this, it definitely beats the Garrison Brothers. It might be on the high end of the Russell's Reserve though. I'm thinking now that this is more likely to be a 16. Pikesville Rye (16/23) is pretty on-par with this too. I think that this needs to be a 16. Thanks for sharing this one @soonershrink !

The last sample from sooner. Thank you again OKC for the fabulous care package. This stuff is fantastic(shocking for a Balcones I know) with cinnamon, caramel, buttered cornbread and some Texas funk all juiced from the new oak barrels added to the cask strength corn whiskey. Deep pungent flavors with a long oaked finish. Willing to bet I will raise this score if I am lucky enough to score a bottle to explore. I will be on the lookout as this is an instabuy if you see it.....90/100