BEARFACE One Eleven Series: Oaxaca Edition

It is 10% mezcal and 90% whiskey... and it's legal in Canada. It's not a mix or cocktail in bottle, it's Canadian Whisky... Is it good or is it bad? Doesn't matter, it is what it is. Nose: sweet with the citrus pinch, there's no dominant tequila aroma, but agave is there. White sugar, floral, vanilla. Ascorbic acid. Palate: you can fill the mix, and I don't like it. Lime peal, light smokiness, spices. Grass, oak bitterness. Some more smoke-dried notes, but different from peat Finish: not a pleasant for me. This type of sweet alcohol feeling that just meh... It's just not "noble" in a way. Some smokiness smoothes the overall experience. It's cool that they experiment. It's good that they went little beyond and made It's 42.5 vol. Love the company spirit but this dram is just not for me. Will not buy again

What is this exactly? As an experiment, anything goes but, at around $50 CAD, this is nonsense. Buy yourself a decent tequila or whisky, or the cheapest of the two that you can find and mix them up yourself.

Floral. Can taste the mezcal

While I applaud bearface for trying something new it's not a bottle in my cabinet that gets picked up very often. Mezcal is such a smoky spirit, to add it to a non-smoky whisky like rye I find it turns into a cheap tasting scotch. Its like a bowmore 12 to compare it to something similarly priced, maybe not quite as peaty but close. I feel like mezcal would pair better with a scotch, although I've also had dewars illegal smooth scotch aged in mezcal barrels, and that too was a little offputting for me. Keep in mind I'm not a peat man. If you like peat then I think mezcal is for you. I love tequila and I try to love mezcal but I'm having a hard time with it. Back to the whisky at hand I would probably gift this to a scotch drinker and they would be okay with it. This is lighter than the standard bearface whisky which I believe is aged 7 years. This one eleven edition is aged 4 years and the mezcal 2 years if I'm not mistaken. That makes it a 6 year aged product... jk forgive the pun. As a younger product it really shows, I wonder if they tried pairing the mezcal with the 7 year? Maybe it was a waste of the 7 year. And I think thats what it comes down to, is the one eleven lacks depth. I will keep this bottle around as it is a curious product and as I said good on them for trying something new.

Do you have any favourite booze mash-ups? While rum cask aged whiskies are now common, I must say that I stopped in my tracks with curiosity when I saw the Bearface One Eleven Series on the store shelf. This whisky is a 10:1 ratio of Bearface whisky to agave espadin mezcal.  The nose smells of herbal steeped tea, smokiness and earth. It later develops with vanilla and rustic charred oak. Mouthfeel is light with bright, faintly sweet agave at the forefront. It transitions to moodier, smoky tones with a swath of white pepper. An earthy finish fades with a sprinkle of light acidity. It's lightly drying but oddly soothing. I enjoyed Bearface One Eleven more throughout the tasting so I'd recommend letting this sit and being patient with it. This whisky begs to be experimented with in some warm weather or whisky remix cocktails as well (Oaxaca old fashioned, anyone?). I'm still undecided if it's a whisky having an identity crisis or delightfully weird, but I'm intrigued.  7/10

What do you get when you mix 10 parts Canadian Whisky to one part Mezcal? This. Full credit to Bearface's Master Blender, Andres Faustinelli, who has taken advantage of the Canadian 9.09% rule (also known as the one-eleven rule) to conjure such a lovely libation. Unlike the 7 Year Old, this particular whisky starts off with a bit of smoke, earthiness, and a hint of bacon on the nose alongside some sweet and spicy undertones. On the palate, you immediately taste the sweet followed by spices native to Canadian whisky. Although the finish is short, the agave makes an appearance which nicely rounds out your experience. Overall, a very tasty whisky that I enjoyed neat, but would also go well in cocktails. I'm stoked for the next release from the One-Eleven series! NOSE: Corn, light smoke, earthiness, hint of bacon, sultana, citrus, spice, vanilla PALATE: Honey, vanilla, bacon, cinnamon, cloves, dried cherries, dried cranberries FINISH: Agave, light smoke, syrup Rating: 83/100 Grade: B Good – not a “must”, but a nice-to-have.

Aroma:sweet corn, hot alcohol Taste: wood shavings, hot alcohol Finish: spicy smoke, lingering dryness