Balcones Texas Rum

Sips like a bourbon. The barrel is very present.

Reviewing what I believe is the 2017 release, at a near-hazmat proof of 137. Color - really dark, if this was labeled as a Caribbean dark rum you would assume the color was artificially added, but all Balcones sprirts have this color due to the small-barrel aging. Nose - Definitely more oak than molasses. Nothing funky - to the extent it smells like rum it's pretty clean. But mostly you get the barrel here: smoky & woody along with some ethanol/varnish. Palate - Some sweetness and burnt sugar show up initially, but are quickly overwhelmed by bitter dark chocolate and dark-roast coffee. At over 68% ABV the heat is no surprise, but the larger issue is the bitter/astringent finish which pretty much ruins things for me. Some water or ice tames the ABV heat but doesn't really help with the finish. Balcones is really frustrating for me. As a semi-local distillery that takes their craft seriously and releases a lot of interesting products, I really want to like them. Unfortunately they insist on aging everything in small barrels, and I just can't get into the bitter, woody flavor profile this results in.

The ageing gave it the classic vanilla and heavily charred wood flavour. It does have a smoky flavour as well, not peated, just burnt. And not in a bad way. Besides that you get notes like banana bread and berries. I find it quite interestin, despite how aggressive it seems at the beginning.

Back in July last year prior to departing the shores of NZ for a month road trip of southern USA starting with Texas I thought it would be a good opportunity to bust open a sample of Balcones single malt finished off in the casks they use for their rum. First sip was like woah that's strong... then looked at the label and saw 64.2%. Few drops of water balanced it out. Interesting drop. Definitely strong rum influence in fact overpowering. It's like you are drinking cask strength rum almost. Sweet cough syrup, cola flavour which is almost artificial makes it hard to get past. Not terrible given its youth but wouldn't have another drop let alone a bottle...in fact I couldn't finish this sample I'll give it a 2.5 as despite its youth it does have a powerful impact.