I.W. Harper Straight Bourbon

First whiskey night

Nose is very mild, just a hint of undefinable sweetness and fruit compote before you get the essence of heat. Not bad, but certainly underwhelming, especially when compared to a few obvious rivals such as Evan Williams Single Barrel and Elijah Craig Small Batch. Fortunately, the palate is much livelier, opening sweet upon sweet with caramel, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla co-mingling to lead the charge. After a few seconds, the rye influence arrives and the mint overwhelms everything else before a pleasant wave of sweetness tempered by holiday spices closes things out. The numbing zing of clove lingers the longest, seemingly coating your lips and tongue and lasting almost a full minute after the last sip. Very, very good whisky. If this was in the $30 range it would be an expetional bargain. At the $40 range (when I can find it) this starts to be less appealing, especially when compared with the aforementioned EW Single Barrel and the even better Jim Beam 12yr. Well worth the time to find it, and just enough different from my favorite bourbons to remain in my whisky rack.