Doc Swinson's Exploratory Cask Series 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon (Release No. 6)

Butterscotch, apple, jam. A bit complex with a jalapeño spice finish.

Nice complexity and well balanced sweetness/spiciness. I'm getting tastes of apple, anise, butterscotch, faint peanut, and -in the finish- a bit of jalapeno.

This sample was kindly provided by @jonwilkinson7309 and is from batch 8 that was bottled at 57.1% from an undisclosed Kentucky distillery. The nose starts with a mix of powdered sugar, florals and dusty old antique furniture that fades to a creamy butterscotch caramel on top of roasted peanuts and dark chocolate cocoa powder then five spiced apple pie, candied orange peel and cherries jubilee that transitions to spearmint and old leather bound books with high ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with candy fruit chews before a moderate ashy oak spice that slowly fades to dark chocolate covered peanut brittle and toasted marshmallow then five spiced apple pie, candied orange peel and maraschino cherries that transitions to spearmint, old leather bound books and polished mahogany with high ethanol burn. The finish is medium length with moderate ashy oak, chocolate covered peanuts, toasted marshmallow, Granny Smith apple peel, maraschino cherries and old leather. Overall, this is a great bourbon that brings bold traditional flavors with a fantastic nose, but the taste starts moderately on the bitter and sour side from that old oak overpowering some of those bourbon notes and finishes moderately bitter upfront before fading to allow the citrus, nuts and leather to come through. This likely could have been bottled a few years earlier to lower that oak influence, but is still a very delicious whiskey.