Eight & Sand Blended Bourbon

Rating: 18/23 N: Dusty with some fairly mature barrel spice and a tartness. A nice big corn sweetness, but not in a syrupy sense. That corn is building and I like it. P: Mellow, but spicy with sweet corn and some mild cherry. There's a hint of earth to the woodiness and also some faint anise. The spices include black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and faint clove. The dustiness brings out a big, dusty vanilla. Very faint dill. F: Spicy and dusty with a bit more tannins. Faint vanilla. More bitter and tannic than I'd like, but that occasional vanilla sweetness is nice. - Conclusion - Side by side, I think that this beats Russell's Reserve 10 (16/23). The Russell's is just more challenging with more of an alcohol bite. Blanton's has more sweetness than this does, but it has less of a mature flavor. I think that the two are competitive. I might slightly favor this for that mature aged flavor. Belle Meade Cask Strength (18/23) has some nice herbal and bitter character, but it tastes a bit more youthful and has more of an alcoholic blast to it. This is clearly better. Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered (18/23) has more of an alcohol bite than this does, but it's more decadent and complex. This might taste a bit older, but honestly I'd probably give the win to the Smoke Wagon. Russell's Reserve Single Barrel has more depth but less complexity than this. This Russell's is giving more of an old vibe than the last one was and I think it's pretty close in quality to the Eight & Sand. Overall, I'm getting real 18 vibes here. Some of the scores of what I compared this against are a bit dodgy, so this is not the most scientific of tastings, but an 18 seems about right. Coming back to this a few days later, it's still a really nice 18. Thanks @soonershrink for sharing another great dram!

Fifteen dollars doesn't buy much these days, but it was enough to take this home. It's actually packaged in a decent looking bottle with a good weight, and with an actual cork. The bottle says no GNS or coloring added, so while this is a blended bourbon, it's actually all some form of whiskey, which is all from MGP. The nose is sour strawberry, maybe a little caramel, and after sitting a few minutes behind that are some rye notes, but mostly the strawberry and a little artificial strawberry candy. The palate is reminiscent of other MGP whiskey, which for me is not a bad thing. Sweet, but not overly so, fruity with cherry, caramel, some cinnamon, and a little rye again sneaks in there. A little watery, but this isn't bad at 15 bucks. However, I was told this normally goes for closer to 30, at which I'd say there's not a lot of value.