Bernheim 7 Year Original Wheat Whiskey

Slight toasty vanilla on the nose, continues till a smooth sweetness - medium finish. Smooth neat - nice.

You could sip this neat I'm told. As Chris Rock also said, "You can drive a car with your feet, that don't make it a good idea." This is one of those whiskies I've wanted to try for a while. At $25 dollars a bottle on sale (it's $30 at regular price) experimenting with it isn't going to hurt the wallet too badly, but it took me a while to get around to it. I like wheated bourbon, so I assumed I liked what wheat brings to whiskey, thus, why wouldn't I like Bernheim Original 7 Year? And perhaps hype plays a large role in my disappointment. A 91 expert review that details it tasting like toast, honey, vanilla. Sounds good to me. A community score of 3.6, too. Let's roll the dice! The problem is that this tastes like Old Forester 86 Proof bourbon. For someone just getting into whisky, this might be a great gateway. The nose is nice. It's exactly what the expert reviewer here says it would be: vanilla, honey, toast. The palate follows with much of the same plus a little alcohol bite on what's a mid-range finish. So, it's fine. Bernheim might have been my favorite thing in the world five years ago had I encountered it then, but much like I said in my review of Old Forester 86, palates change. You encounter better whiskey, and whiskies that might serve as perfectly acceptable to a novice become muted, bland. So...a 91? Really? Usually I can write tomes about whisky, but here, I'm at a loss for anything interesting to say. I think you can get the jist of this if you know my previous reviews and you see how short this one is. I do like it a little better than the Old Forester 86. But a rating of 91 strikes me as overreach for what I'm sensing is going to end up being a mixer. But hey, my dad gifted me a jar of Luxardo cherries last night, so I'm thinking tomorrow is going to be Manhattan night at the Django household. I should probably look into upping my vermouth game. Any suggestions on that? Also, I'm still curious about Woodford's Wheat Whisky? Has anyone tried that?