Jameson The Blender's Dog

Sweetness up front vanilla caramely, creamy mouth and a little spice on finish. One of the Irish closer to bourbon I’ve tried

Plum on nose Carmel and toffee on pallets

Rating: 13/23 N: It smells oily with some orange, bit of apple, and faint hint of apricot. Otherwise, there isn't a ton going on here. P: It's oily and youthful. It's spicy and kind of floral like rye with a bit of sugary sweetness and some minerality. I think I get a dash of pear or something in with the floral sweetness. There is some of the orange, but not a ton. There's some harshness in here, but it isn't overwhelming. There's actually a decent amount of subtle complexity here, but it's merely adequate and doesn't make up for how young and otherwise lacking this is. The harshness is really quite strong. F: The sweet minerality, pear, and sort of a jasmine floral flavor linger along with some vague references to spices and an unreasonably (though perhaps not unexpectedly for a grain whiskey) large amount of harshness. - Conclusion - This is a grain whiskey. It tastes like a grain whiskey. Maybe it's not as young as it tastes, but I can't tell for sure. I'd probably put this above Jameson Distiller's Safe, but below Jameson Cooper's Croze. None of the three achieve the quality of Redbreast 12 Cask Strength. This isn't bad, but it does seem quite in the mediocre range. Considering the oiliness, I thought that Sir Edward's 12 would be a fair comparison. Side-by-side, Sir Edward's is smoother and richer, but perhaps a bit more muddled and sulfuric. This has more deeply subtle complexity, but It's also lighter with more of an alcohol flavor and more harshness. The easily accessibility of Sir Edward's makes it a strong contender in this comparison. Considering how this fares against Sir Edward's, I think that I could go as low as a 10 on this. To some extent, this being a light Irish grain whiskey meant that it would just never be my jam, but even looking at measures I know others will be using, I don't like this. I'd take this over regular Jameson because the profile is more interesting here, but I think I recall Jameson being a smoother product as well, so they're closer than I expected. Considering the light, floral, caramel nature, I find myself wanting to compare this with Ancient Age as well. Again, the qualities are surprisingly close. I would place this above regular Ancient Age, but it's not tremendously higher. They're actually very close in quality. I want to give this a higher rating, but I keep trying things that I gave middling or lower scores in the past and thinking "huh, these are pretty close in quality". I was for a while thinking that this could be as low as a 10, but now I'm thinking that even an 11 would be too low. I'm leaning toward a 13, but this could be a 12 because of the harshness. A 14 is probably not happening. I'm going for a 13. 12 is a solid possibility though.