Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye

Barrel #16-1353 (bottled 2-24-16). Colour on this guy is a surprising almost-wine-finished ruby/chestnut, although holding it up to the light reveals the colour to have a certain thin-ness to it. Initial smell (Distiller's notes ain't lying) IS seriously a pretty intense banana candy (Runts is the brand-name; if you've never had them, the other analogue might be that banana-flavoured medicine, Amoxicillin). Maple syrup. Fuzzy marker, slightly metallic. Creamed corn. Sweet mint and herbal notes, some floral character, and--way distant--are the bakery/deli smells I usually associate with rye (clove, dill, caraway, baking bread). Smoky BBQ sauce. Taste offers an initial soft sweetness, then the heat grows. But there are some interesting things going on here--think regular JD on steroids, but with a distinct sense of the grain: maple syrup, more banana, custard, bitter fruits (cranberry?), deli spices. As with most JD products, the weakness is in the finish, which leans a bit soggy, metallic, and faintly bile-ish--but less egregiously so than many of its siblings, I must say. All told, it's not bad. It's definitely a member of the JD family (the sugar maple, the banana-flavour, some corn sweetness), it's definitely a bit overpriced, and it could definitely use another year or so for the flavours to integrate more fully. All told, though, it's STILL my favourite entry in the Jack Daniel's line-up.

It's a shot full of flowers. I don't think I've ever had a whiskey with such big floral note. Then after a few minutes, you get great coffee and chocolate flavors. Definitely a keeper

6/10. good flavor. bad price.