George Dickel No. 8

This is perfectly fine whiskey. I began my Dickel journey backwards, starting with the 13 year bib, 8 year bourbon, the barrell select or whatever they called it, and several of the 15 year bottles over the last few years. Somehow I never tried old number 8 or 12. Today, in my ongoing quest to spend no more than $50 on a bottle, I saw the newly named "original recipe" and grabbed it. Its a great 80 proof bourbon. Completely inoffensive on the palate and wallet, it has a nice sweetness and just enogh oak and char to be interesting. Nothing spectacular, but I might add this to my budget favorites with the likes of WT 101(not as budget friendly as ot used to be) Old Forester signature, and Buffalo Trace, when I can find it.

This is the type of accident you have when you’re in a rush. Usually, when I come to Jersey on vacation, one of the things I like to do, aside from sitting on the beach and watching my children play, aside from hanging out at the beach house devouring books, aside from marching along the boardwalk at night munching on confectionaries, is to head across the bridge to the Sommers Point Circle Liquors and pick up a few bottles to bring back to Pennsylvania with me. You see, in PA, the state controls the liquor stores, so the stock across the state is pretty much the same anywhere you go. There are certain items they always have in stock and certain items they never seem to get; the advantage is that bottles tend to go for SRP or not too far above SRP, the disadvantage is, you don’t see a lot of variation, which is why whenever I travel, I look forward to stocking up at distant liquor stores, getting those bottles I simply can never find at home, but have read about and always wanted to try. So why was I in a rush? Well, you see, my wife and children came with me this time. My wife wanted to buy a couple bottles of white wine and the kids, being ten and seven, were constantly bickering and posing a danger of knocking bottles off shelves. So when my wife had picked out her wines, she took them to the car, and I had maybe ten minutes to look at whisky before her patience with the children in the car ran out. I tend to have a sense of what I’m looking for and what I want. For example, I love New Riff, and while we have New Riff BiB Rye and Bourbon and Single Barrels of both in PA, we don’t have the 6 Year Malted Rye, so I grabbed that. Then, at the Circle Liquors, they have Barrell bottles. In PA we only have the Dovetail, but here they have more, and I wanted the Vantage, so the second bottle I grabbed was Barrel Vantage. Third I grabbed a bottle of Kilchoman Sanaig to scratch my Islay itch. We don’t get any Kilchoman in PA, and though they also have Machir Bay here, a year ago my buddy sent me a bottle of Machir Bay Cask Strength, so I felt that to buy the Machir Bay would be a step back. Hence, the Sanaig. Then I spotted a single barrel Knob Creek Bourbon, 9.5 year, 120 proof. In PA we have these but they’re up to $70. Here the bottle was on sale for $50, and I love Knob, so I picked that. And now I had maybe two minutes left. I was scanning. Truth be told, there were maybe two dozen bottles I wanted, but I spotted a George Dickel BiB 13 Year. My wife brought one of these back from Nashville two months ago and it’s already gone because it’s maybe one of the best under $50 bourbons I’ve ever had, so I grabbed that, and with a minute on the clock, I spotted this next to it and grabbed it. Now for those of you with a wife and kids, you’ll get this. You sometimes feel rushed, and when you’re rushed you don’t always make the best decisions. To explain further, Dickel has this, the original recipe 8, that is a 6-year bourbon. They also have a George Dickel 8-Year Bourbon that is actually aged 8 years. I wanted to grab the 8-year bourbon, but in my haste, I grabbed the recipe 8. We crossed back over the bridge to go food shopping at Acme, and I was looking at my receipt and next to this bottle, it read $24.99 and walking the aisles, I immediately recognized my mistake. It wasn’t the case that I was unaware that both Dickel bottles existed, it was simply that I hadn’t taken enough time to actually look at the label on the bottle I was grabbing. And I was a little disappointed. If only because the 8-year is generally only 8 dollars more and supposed to be pretty decent at the price point. The Dickel 8, make no mistake, is a starter drink. An 80-proof bourbon, and can I tell you how long it’s been since I’ve cracked open a bottle of 80-proof whisky? Just not really something I reach for anymore. Last starter bourbon I reviewed was Old Forester 86, and that was disappointing, mainly because it was my go-to at one point when I started my whisky journey. The Dickel 8 carries no such baggage, but still, I didn’t taste it neat first. I actually mixed a whisky and soda with it, and the resulting concoction basically tasted like ginger ale. So, in reviewing this now, tasting it neat, I had a favorable first impression as a mixer, which once you’ve reached a certain point in the journey we refer to as our whisky journey, is exactly what this is for. When tasting neat, this isn’t bad and goes well with the cookies we just ran to the boardwalk to get before a thunderstorm blows through (we got back just as it really started to put). The nose is cracked pepper, vanilla and creamed corn. The palate gives you a little caramel, vanilla and corn. And as had been repeated ad nauseum here, the thing that separates this from say, Jim Beam or Evan Williams or Ezra Brooks is that note of barrel char at the finish. All-in-all, I don’t regret my mistake given that I generally don’t open any of the bottles I get down here until I get home and if I’m going to open one, the mixer seems to gel with a week of rest and relaxation. Would I have preferred to zero in, pay attention and have grabbed the bottle I’d intended to grab? You bet. But I appreciate Dickel. I like what they do. Funny, you always hear about that Flintstone Vitamin flavor in it, but I’ve tasted the Dickel Rye, the BiB and the 8, and I have yet to encounter anything that reminds me of the artificial cherry flavor in Flintstones vitamins (and I am an authority on this; in case you missed it, I have a 7 and a 10 year old who both take a Flintstones every morning). Also, I really enjoy their bottle design. So kudos on that. It’s tough to give this a rating as a neat whisky comparatively since it’s nowhere near some of the best I have but it seems unfair to rate it a 2.5 or less. Let’s stick with a 2.75. I think that’s where I put the Old Forester 86, and this is relatively equivalent. As a gateway starter bourbon, you could do worse.