Blood Oath Bourbon Pact No. 5

One of the smoothest I’ve had.

Nose: The oak woody smell and sweet corn are up front with some sweet notes and towards the middle of the nose. The rum cask is in the back of the nose and is surprisingly vague. Pallet: the oaky leather taste is up front with some apple peelings with the Carmel and butterscotch and vanilla all finishing with the rum.

Reminiscent of Rebel Yell at higher proof and added sweet fruit from the rum cask. Go with Rebel Yell single barrel and add water at a fraction of the cost.

I just returned from a long weekend in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  The Lower East Side is home to several of the city's best whiskey bars, and my first stop was Copper & Oak.   Copper & Oak is a tiny space, with room for no more than a dozen people at a time.  It provides a space for patrons to sit and thoughtfully enjoy their spirits - mostly whiskey, but rum and mezcal as well. My latest whiskey obsession is American blends, so I started with the Blood Oath Pact 5, which would be the first Blood Oath I've tried. Pact 5 is a mix of a wheated bourbon with two high rye bourbons, one of which is finished in rum casks.  It has some sweet elements from the rum finished rye bourbon and the wheated whiskey. But overall, I found it to be heavily dominated by rye. While I've enjoyed a few high-rye bourbons, they're not usually among my favorites.   Those who don't love rye should not expect the wheated bourbon addition and rum finish to be entirely transformative - this is still a high-rye bourbon at its core.  For rye aficianados, however, I suspect the wheat and rum will likely feature much more prominently   I was glad I had the opportunity to sample the Pact 5.  It's an unusual creation, and at $100-150 a bottle, it's not something I'd buy casually (unlike the $26 bottle of Pike Creek that I recently purchased).   The whiskeys used in the Pact 5 came across as well aged, and I found it to be an easy sipper.  While not entirely a match for my palate, I'm sufficiently impressed and will keep an eye on future Blood Oath releases.