Henry McKenna 10 Year Bottled in Bond Bourbon

I’ve had 3 bottles of this and they’ve been wildly different. First was really awesome, second was below average, and my current one is ok. Worth the gamble at msrp.

Nose: cherry coke. Very smooth. Ends smoky/earthy. Post water: Carmel. Earthy dirt, thorough but ends sweet. Spicy mouth feel and coated in tobacco as the after-after taste

Not as good as I hoped, kinda disappointed. Not great taste and a little burn. Kind of earthy. Re-rated from 3.25 to 3.5 on 2nd taste.

Minty

Barrel No. 11740; bottled on 2/2/12. N: Lots of cooked corn, sweet wood, cardamom, cinnamon, orange, citrus-tinted ethanol, hint of tropical (or maybe citrus) flowers. P: Earthy, wood, and bitter (tannic) right up front, but that gives way quickly to sweet corn, vanilla, salted caramel, red fruit, orange, milk chocolate. F: Cinnamon candy trending toward chili pepper, charred barrel, caramel, bread, dried herbs, mint, cereal grain. There's a lot going here, but somehow it feels incohesive and like there's some rough edges. I don't entirely mind rough edges, but somehow they hit wrong with this one. The overall effect makes this feel rustic and unpolished, and not in a way that makes you want to drink it by a campfire. Instead, it feels like it could be charming at like $30, but it's not ideal at $65, much less the markups I've seen approaching double that. I can imagine maybe this is a less than ideal barrel, but I've had another bottle of this and thought about the same thing on that one. I'd probably buy another, but that one needs to hit it out of the park to not be a third strike. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord: https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired, please post a comment and I will provide a new one.)