Bulleit 10 Year Bourbon

A beautiful bourbon. Vanilla, baking spice and cinnamon. Immensely sippable and friendly while maintaining a bold and interesting character.

Loving what the barrel and high rye content contribute to this bourbon on the nose and taste. For me, it’s a two-trick pony: rye spice and barrel notes—that’s all I’m getting. I bought this as a comparator to Eagle Rare’s low rye mash bill, also aged at 10 years. As much as I love the rye notes and how they can balance the sweetness of the corn in this, I actually prefer Eagle Rare. This is not at all a bad bourbon, though, and I would love to try this in a flight compared to their no age statement bourbon and rye.

The nose is kind of subdued, but the body is very woody. It's on the dry side and is surprisingly mild, but the wood is definitely there. It's quite spicy with cinnamon standing front and center, but some clove backing it up. It's a bit fruity with some apple standing out. There's some cocoa powder and dark roast coffee in here with some hints of hazelnut and a some smoke. It's a bit tart, but not too much. The vanilla is fairly present and the hazelnut is quite mild. I wish that it were more robust because as it is it tastes kind of like it's taking its old age. I like it better than regular Bulleit, but barely - not as much as I had hoped to (this may say more about the quality of regular Bulleit though). It needs more complexity too. There's an odd hint of tea that is reminiscent of mineral, but tastes better and less out of place. Still, I didn't really want tea in this drink.

Spicy. AD liked. Smooth going down but spice initial taste.

Nose is caramel, toffee, maybe like a sugar cookie. Slightly fruity as well. Taste is sweet. Cherries. Little spice. Somewhat oily.