Heart of Mystic Single Barrel Straight Bourbon

Barrel No. 50 NAS (purportedly 4-5 years) 59.3% abv; 118.5 proof Open 2 years Nose - Dry malt, musty barn, sharp grain, smoked corn, black pepper, light caramel, burnt marshmallow, medium oak, and strong ethanol. Palate - Burnt wheat, burnt corn, burnt malt, black pepper, light brown sugar, and oak extract. Finish is medium with tannic oak, musty grain, and sharp ethanol. This is just not good, and overpriced. I purchased this before moving to Cincinnati as a token of an NC produced whiskey. Clearly I made a mistake, should've bought a cask strength wheater from Southern Star. Their process of farm-to-glass using local grains from their own farm is commendable, but the end result isn't good. It's way too harsh, spicy, sharp, grainy, and young. It has almost no sweet or fruit flavors, a huge no-no with bourbon. There is no age statement like there was with earlier bottles. It used to be 2-3 years, and they removed it. Now it is purportedly 4-5 years. The explanation from one of the distillers didn't make much sense. Why would you remove the age statement for a product that is almost twice as old as your original releases? I would stay far away from this.

Barrel 72, bottle 381, 113.9 proof. Very vanilla in the aroma with some burnt oak. Flavor is cinnamon, vanilla, and corn with oak.

Comes in strong through the nostrils with a floral scent. Smooth with a slight heat on the back side

Pretty smooth, nothing in particular stood out