Forty Creek Founder's Reserve

Too expensive for what you get. Not bad... but... Buy Michters Rye, Pendelton, Crown Royal Special Reserve or Lot 40 instead.

Rich, feels like scotch

Founders Reserve is scored perfectly at an 88 by the experts. The nose of this whisky packs a punch. For some odd reason I feel that I can smell peat. I will say that it has a watery flow in the mouth. A strong presence of tobacco is one note that sticks out for me personally. I can agree that this would be a 3 out of 5 based on the smoothness, slight complexity, and a 45% abv. In reading different reviews on the net, I came across one that made me simply laugh while trying to put pen to paper (so to speak). Quote "The tonsils are whacked gently by the higher than normal alcohol strength of the whisky". I don't know what this dude is talking about when being whacked in the tonsils; however, going from a 40.5% abv to a 45% abv isn't all that a big deal. If you prefer drinking whisky's above 45% you should don yourself as a Padawan. An office administrator of the Jedi council if you will. A rye below this threshold just doesn't provide enough complexity to bump it up to a 4. Drinking Founder's Reserve deserves some props for a decent tasting whisky, yet, all the flash of a nice bottle that comes in a box doesn't supercede the extra "umph" this could have made if they had something a little stronger in alcohol percentage. A great dram for the die hard fans, but one I will not pick up again. It just doesn't whack the back of my tonsils.