Johnny Drum Private Stock Bourbon

Delightful and at a decent price point!

Green oak, cinnamon, grain spice on the nose. Get earthy, grass spice in the taste. Hint of cinnamon from the nose comes through on taste also. Sweet heat hits roof of mouth on the finish but aside from sweet heat not much there - short. Overall, I like this dram - good sipper for me. Updated: enjoy this more each time I have it. Now getting some red apple on nose. Not quite as cinnamony on taste, but still sweet. Much longer finish than initially tasted. Great bourbon for $30!

Cinnamon, floral

Nose - cherry, orange zest, butterscotch, toffee, sweet tobacco, apple, leather, milk chocolate, cinnamon sugar almond, vanilla, musty nut, hay, brown sugar, caramel, strong oak, plastic, moderate to high ethanol burn. Taste - cherry juice, leather, chocolate, coffee, tobacco, orange and lime zest, apple, caramel, vanilla, walnut, almond, cinnamon, allspice, brown sugar, toasted tannic oak, dusty corn, black pepper, mint, high alcohol bite, finishing medium length with cocoa, sour citrus, leather, and strong tannic oak flavors. This reminds me of a sweeter, hotter, oakier Elijah Craig. I get some of that characteristic Heaven Hill musty nut going on here. It tastes simultaneously overoaked and relatively young. Not four years young, but definitely not fifteen years old, as it was before becoming NAS. Maybe there’s some heavier than average char going on with the barrels they use. A bit like EC Toasted Barrel, but definitely not as well executed. I’m a bit split on this. There’s a good amount of tasty complexity to be found on the nose and palate, especially if you have a sweet tooth. However it’s too hot, sour, and bitter (especially in the finish) for me to recommend this as an after dinner dram. Another reviewer recommended this as a good match for an Old Fashioned. I haven’t tried that yet, but could see it working well when cut with a bit of demerara syrup and water. If you find it near the $30 retail price, I think it’s worth trying, but absolutely does not justify the secondary markup I’ve seen on this one recently. I’m going with a better than average rating, but not quite good.