Blood Oath Bourbon Pact No. 5

I'm a little late to the party with this line, but better late than never. My first experience with the Blood Oath line with this Pact No. 5. Let's see if it's worth the hype and paycheck with the rum variant in this lineup. Nose: Standard bourbon notes of caramel, vanilla, cocoa, brown sugar. Orange citrus, as well as pecan, almond, and almond. A touch of molasses and sugar cane, though the rum influence is not too strong. Warm apple pie and apricot.Rounded out with oak, nutmeg, and clove. Palate: Brown sugar, cocoa, caramel, and vanilla translate. So does the almond and walnut. Grilled pineapple note. Still some molasses as well. Sawdust and woody notes. Meanwhile the nutmeg and clove is kicked up a couple notches, with a powerful black pepper note. Some dill in there. Dry and spicy oak. Finish: Some caramel, vanilla, and some mint/milk chocolate up front. Then it's all cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg, clove, and oak spice. Moderate/long length. Let's break down the score. The nose is above average. The notes I get on the palate closely reflect the nose. However, the presentation of said notes feels disjointed and uninspiring on the tongue. The finish makes up for this a bit with a nice spicy kick, though, like the nose, I can only say it's above average. The rum casks add very little to help set this one apart. It's a good whiskey--no doubt about that. But I paid $100 flat for this. So it'd be hard to recommend it at this price. Especially when you can get a superior rum cask-aged bourbon in Jefferson's RC for $30 less. Conversely, there's the Old Ezra 7 BP, which I was able to find for less than half what this cost. It's an infinitely better value, and just a flat-out better bourbon. The above two paragraphs were written a couple years ago at this point. With every subsequent tasting, I’ve enjoyed this one more. Especially on the palate. As a result, I’m sitting here with my last glass revising my score, and adding a few notes to boot. Considering how rare this is in May 2022, and how much better this has gotten with time to oxidize, I’ve decided boost this from a 3.25 to a 4.25. The latter is how I’d score this in a vacuum where I had never scored it a 3.25 the first time. It’s a much more cohesive drink at this point, and delivers a very interesting, the notes of which I’ve sprinkled into my tasting section as a part of my revision. Since the bottle is now gone as of two minutes ago, 4.25 will be the final mark for what I deem a fantastic comeback performance.

Another from today’s tasting. I found this to be exceptionally smooth and a fantastic pour