Fable & Folly 14 Year Whiskey

Nose: fruits and spice, with a woodsy tree. Has a tartness. Taste: heavy oak. Some sweetness. Short finish. Really needs to breathe. Kind of disappointing.

This one is interesting. On my palette, not the typical vanilla and caramel flavors, but oak and some citrus on the nose, the front palette is like sweet, followed by some apricot. Clean profile, not very complex as I did not pick up too much on the mid palette, but a super long and dry finish with more sugar and orange. There are a lots of tannins in here. Fun pour, maybe it will change after sitting open for a few months. After sitting the barrel char is more prominent

Bananas foster shifts to a more herbaceous nose. Oily and long lasting. A hearty and warm vanilla with good oak structure.

Oh Diagio and their never ending marketing dollars. What oh what have I done this time? So this is some old heaven hill distillate with god knows what...but likely some MGP something. So it isn't a bourbon. It is bottled at a hateful 45% and chill filtered to hell just to spite anyone who may still love whisky. But hey...that's some really old whisky and it's got 20+ year old heaven hill in it....and at 160, I guess I'm dumb enough to gamble. Nose - And inviting classic bourbon nose right off the bat. Clean, extreme vanilla, touch of oak, and some caramel character. Deeper inspection will yield a hint of oak smoke, a surprising touch of rye spice, but not a lot more. There's some fruit, but you really couldn't better describe old school proofed down bourbons that used to contain older whiskies than they stated but were chill filtered and watered down from decades of the past. Taste - So there's no character here, the chill filtering and low abv killed that. Still let it sit and sit and sit in your mouth and some spice will come out, good vanilla, good caramel, and yeah there's a nice rye spice on the finish (that isn't the heaven hill). It even leaves what you can call a pretty good finish. Overall this is the most boring orphan barrel I've had, but it's quality whisky at the base that's been just ruined by terrible decisions from the company. 2 stars, great quality spirit that has been forced down to an average whisky by the insanely low abv and the down right idiotic chill filtration. Seriously guys 50% and NCF and you've have a winner on your hands and you could ask more for it without a blink of an eye from anyone. Is this neck pour closed off? Maybe...but I'm not seeing any qualities to make me think that. Sorry big question? Do you buy it? If you want to try old school style whisky and don't mind the low proof and the lack of oils and fatty acids, yeah, buy 3 or 5. But if you think something like what's in my glass right now, the new riff 6 year malted rye is great...pass. This is just too dulled and stripped of character. After further review and tasting. I'm moving this up to a 2.75. The rye spices are coming out more and those are giving it more body and bite. It's hiding the youth and it isn't hiding the older bourbons. Overall, I really appreciate what they got here. It isn't epic and it's a gimmick beyond belief but the whisky is actually good.