I.W. Harper 15 Year Bourbon

The nose is rich but subdued with wet wood, cinnamon, almond, and butterscotch. The palate is mild for a bourbon with an initially light flavor until some bitter wood comes in in the background. The cinnamon and allspice flavors that come out aren't all that harsh, but they do give this drink a pronounced spicy flavor and accentuate it's woodiness. There's a little bit of bitter herbal flavor in here too, but it's mostly spiced. The wet wood is disappointing, but the wateriness is the big disappointment. It doesn't nearly taste a full 15 years old. Really, it tastes more like it was over-aged with staves. There isn't a ton of fruit here, but there's a little bit of tartness that gives way to bright cherry. Still, this whole thing tastes really watered down. At barrel strength, I bet this would be really good. Some strong floral and present vanilla notes eventually make it in, but the floral flavor adds to the lightness. I just don't understand why they watered this down so much. It's good, but far from worthy of the price. This has more fullness of flavor than Evan Williams Black does, but it also has a more watery mouthfeel. Of the two, I definitely prefer this one; however, you could convince me that this was just Evan Williams Black stuck in a jar with some lightly toasted wood chips for a few days quite easily. It has substantially less presence than Jim Beam Black does, though it also tastes less like it has added sugar. It's better than Jim Beam due to its smoke and woody richness, but it's just so watery. It's heartbreaking to taste how good this could have been at a higher proof. There are some good flavors in here, but they are just so weak. Eagle Rare has more richness and more diversity of flavor without that wet wood. At well under half the price, Eagle Rare is far better than I.W. Harper. This is mintier and grassier than Eagle Rare. This is a good follow-up to tequila. It has some nice caramel that doesn't reach the butterscotch level. The sawdust is partially masked by the strong vanilla, though it does unfortunately still show through. The palate is viscous enough relative to the tequila. The finish is disappointingly short though. I do that get grapefruit dryness on the nose and on the palate now. Maybe that can help to explain and forgive a lot of the sawdust since it mixes so much with the earthy presence. That grapefruit kind of fades and blends into some nice bits of ref fruit, with sweet raspberry being the most prominent flavor, though fresh cherry being clearly present as well. The refreshing raspberry is nice for overcoming the cardboard. I know thst this all sounds nice, but compared with other bourbons this is really quite a mild and simplistic release. There's a lot of vanilla and sawdust on the finish.

Very smooth! Lots of oak

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