George Dickel 11 Year Bottled in Bond Tennessee Whisky (Fall 2008)

The best dickle I have had. It tastes like bourbon. Good bourbon at that.

Subtle nose. Starts with a nice, sweet caramel flavor that moves effortlessly to vanilla and spice. A nice warmth near the end with a lingering hint of licorice. This whiskey has a light feel from beginning to end. This one is well done.

Rating: 16/23 I liked the first release of this (this is the second) and also Resilient (old Dickel juice), so I'm excited to try this one. N: This has that full Dickel nose with fusty mustiness, peanut shells, and vitamins. It's more full than my sample of the first release is, but that may well be because that bottle has been sitting open on my shelf for 2 years or so now. Resilient 15 has a more interesting nose with a with of candied orange peel and spices as well as a competitive woody fullness. P: Dusty woodiness with some orange leads into a funkier profile that reminds me a bit of Wild Turkey. Some spiciness comes out. with cinnamon and pepper being the most prominent. There's some deep bitterness that might be licorice. There's some sort of sweetness that I'm struggling to place and that vitamin flavor comes out too. Resilience 15 is substantially more complex and balanced. This is puchier and spicier than the first Dickel Bottled In Bond release, but It's again not as balanced. F: Licorice for sure. That dusty woodiness is still here too, but it is reduced substantially. A little green banana in the long finish. - Conclusion - This is a good dram that shows clear age, but it lacks the finesse of its cousin Resilience 15. It's much more competitive with the first Dickel Bottled In Bond release. I'm having trouble deciding which of the two of those is better, but if I had to just pick one, I'd go with the first release because of its better balance. There's a solid chance that that is just the oxygen in the bottle showing though. On the other side, this is clearly more mature and is better than Elijah Craig Small Batch and Early Times Bottled In Bond. I can imagine this being a high 15 because the Elijah Craig and Early Times have interesting, funky flavors that this doesn't. A 17 seems like the high end though because I have the Resilient at an 18 and it's clearly better. An 18 is a faint faint chance. I'll give this a 16.

Another day, another Dickel. Truth be told, I’ve long had a weak spot for their product - it has the right balance of things I look for in an American corn-based whiskey. I even visited the distillery in 2017, back when going places and doing things was still fairly common. This is a solid, very quintessential Cascade Hollow drop of whisky. Maple candy, black pepper, cinnamon, clove, baked apple, pecans, and toffee on the nose - nice and warm and inviting. The palate has a delightfully buttery quality - 50% is a nice sweet spot here for excellent body without too much heat. Similarly to the 15 year single barrel, this has a sweet-spicy-sweet progression of flavors - maple and buttery toffee up front, with the spice and pepper becoming more dominant in the mid-palate, and a nice maple baked apple finish. This is a drinker more than a thinker, so to speak, but I don’t personally view that as a problem.

Dark caramel aroma, some proof comes through too. Super rich, excellent to balance the proof, I taste predominantly caramel and maybe something darker, like toffee. Plenty of burn on the tail but still is great.