Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend Bourbon

This is my first Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend. I was lucky to find this unicorn bottle at Total Wine after searching for almost a year for this bourbon. This is Batch 111 and comes in at 115.14 proof. Still excited that I found one. I allowed this to rest in a Glencarin glass for 20 minutes before sampling. Appearance: Dark Copper / Amber Color Nose: The nose is sweet out the gate. There are tons of fruit that are hard to decipher, but I pick up peach, plum, and apricot. Also a hint of grapes. There is a slight bread or dough like note that comes and goes. Also, can pick the buttery smell that Nancy mentions in her tasting notes. This is definitely has a complex nose as I am struggling to describe all that I’m experiencing. Palate: The taste definitely matches the nose. While it drinks really smooth, there is a nice spice up front. The sweet fruit notes are present and blends well with the rye spice that I’m tasting. I love the creamy mouthfeel and semi sweet chocolate taste. Finish: The finish is medium to long and with a nice Kentucky hug. A slight drying or leather note is mixes in, but the sweet fruit notes continue to linger. This is a good sipper that I believe will open up more over time. Summary: This is a very complex bottle that I will savor for awhile. This will only be shared with my true bourbon friends. I will be on the hunt for another bottle in the future. Great pour.

Straight: Alright

Back again with another Cigar Blend. This time Batch 110. I'll get into the details. I will just drop, 280, 295 out the door. I hate to say it, but that's a fair price in today's market where these are just not obtainable. I even consider the store owner a friend and he gives me discounts OFTEN, we both knew this wasn't getting a discount. I did ask if he'd knock a few off if I opened it and we had a glass, but no go. Oh well lol. But I'm going to do this differently. I have 3 cigar blends in the glasses. I'm going to compare them. Going forward we have sample A B and C. I do think A is the new one but I'm not 100%. This is simi blind. The focus is not on my notes but why they are different. Nose - A gives me a very generic and kinda dull notes among this group. Saw dust, hints of fall leaves and cinnamon. Extremely middling in terms of boldness or richness. Very easy and approachable. Underwhelming. B comparatively is a huge fruit bomb. This is what I want from a finish cask. There's less of that dusty oak and heavy dried cinnamon. I should add A was very dry. C comes off more candied. More sweetness, almost dare I use marzipan (a term never acceptable with bourbon) to just give context to how much more this is a sweet marshmallow dram compared to the others. This however lingers much more towards A in over all profile. Taste - A - Not that good? So I get a nice sweetness reminding me of a 6-7 year old MGP, certainly the 21% rye. I get some apple notes maybe barton notes? Mouth feel is sold. Body is rich. More citrus and say lime sugar water than I'd expect. B - Oh mamma, I'm doing backflips tasting this one. Big BOLD tobacco, spice, dark fruits. This is freaking outstanding. I know i"m not to the finish but sorry...another wow. C - While no B, this is wonderful. Rich sweetness, with solid transition, good oak, good spice, a bit less of the tobacco and what not but it's doing very well. Just an overall full and well rounded experience. Finish/Other A - I get an almost nutty young MGP here, and it really is noticed on the finish. Similarly, i get an old carter bourbon/MGP note which I've often said was almost a vegetable tomato note (and yes I'm aware they are a fruit which justifies the qualifier). B - This is reminding me of a great four roses on the finish. Big bold spices following up amazing spice.Nancy here somehow crafted a finished version of MGP that brings out four roses's best elements and adds to them. If this was the only bourbon I got to drink again, I'd be more than pleased. C - The finish is sold, quality, nice bourbon. I really like how what I expect are barton and MGP notes playing together and dancing around on the finish. OK - What were they? A - 110 B - 42 C - 28 Well I just reveled my ignorance. B to me is 100% a blend of 36 and 21 MGP rye and C is barton and MGP. Ok I just went back to the bottle to do a test and I am 100% sure I flipped B and C. Sorry for the alarm. I haven't lost my ability to taste. A - 110 B - 28 C - 42 I could edit this but I wanted this to be as raw as a video would be. OK - so what did we learn from that? Well I think I took away about 3-4 things. 1. The loss of that 36% MGP rye mash bill bourbon hurts these whiskies for MY personal profile. That's out of anyone's power at Magnus. 2. I get less impact from the cask finishing on these than I'd thought. I say this as the mash bill's and the impact of the bourbons are REALLY easy to pick out in general. Heavier and more aggressive cask influence could have made that a bit more challenging. That said I don't think of these casks in general as over powering. 3. I don't think the 110 stands up at all to past batches. If these aren't younger MGP casks, MGP is putting out worse and worse casks that people are sourcing and I'm glad I'm not in Nancy's role trying to find a way to use these. 110 - Just this whisky I've always though of Cigar Blend best as a wonderful fall days, outside, near a barn, and a place where you'd love to have a cigar and a bourbon. Well it's that perfect weather for me right now. 45-50 degree day, I'm at home but in my head I'm right there at a childhood friend's house which was on a farm. When I nose this, instead of going back there, I feel more tropical, more lime, more fruity vs earthy and fall leaves. While cinnamon sticks come through and even so faint hints of perhaps leather are here, I'm mostly smelling cinnamon sticks, light vanilla, and earthy husky oak. Refined to a degree for sure, but showing what seems like slight hints of youth and immaturity in the blend. Dried and slightly unsweat red fruits with some hints of savory come through. Touches of powdered sugar slip in followed by sharp oak. Taste - I'm taken right back into some of my least favor yet still complex MGP bottles. So much so that instead of trying to finish this review neat, I'm moving forwards water. Sadly water takes me nowhere new. It's a full flavored and rich whisky, but I can't get past these notes I don't like and I can only associate with 7-10 year MGP, a range where MGP confuses me and nearly always disappoints. Is it possible the finishing cask wasn't as wet as in the past? Was there just younger MGP than normal here? I feel terrible with the score I'm about to give because I'm such a fan of this brand, because I love everything about what Nancy means to this community, to her professionalism, and frankly i feel I must be wrong to score her work so poorly, and it doesn't help knowing she'll read this. 2.5 stars. 2 stars is average whisky. 3 stars is wonderful stuff for about 100 bucks. 4 stars is getting into the special zone 300-400. 5 stars are unicorns that nearly don't exist. I'll go back to this in a few months and I hope for a changed whisky, but this is my 3rd session with this one and now after comparing it to two bottle I really enjoyed, this isn't in the same league. A final note - I read Nancy's tasting notes before buying this and went in with real concerns. I also went in excited to try something that sounded off my normal profile for these. So please note, they were transparent with that this might come off different from what I wanted, if you read the online notes. So by no means feel bad for me and a disappointing 280 dollar purchase. I received fair warning through very well written and put together notes. The youthful MGP notes driving some of those flavors is perhaps my one complaint. But looking back...I'm not that shocked I feel there's younger stuff in here. And of course, I'm sure Nancy will tell me it's all 18 year plus MGP :) and I'm just bad at this whisky reviewing. Give me another decade and I'm sure I'll be a bit better all! Sorry again Nancy, but batch 110 doesn't come off as old stately bourbon. It's missing the markets for me but it's still tasty stuff and I still enjoyed trying a different spin on the brand, but I'd have been happier with a bar pour than a bottle.

Batch 48. 65.12% Oaky nougat nose. Viscous depth. Tobacco, earthy oak, caramel. Lingering warmth. Spicy, dry finish.

for me, the nose was pleasing & somewhat passive. taste was savory & full, but not overwhelming. adding a cube made it much more fulfilling with sweet burnt cherry type notes. overall very enjoyable

On the nose I get huge smoky caramel notes, and you guessed it, sweet tobacco. The proof is deceptive because I get very little hints of alcohol. On the palate it has a lot of mouth feel with soft mouth coating vanilla, but also rich barrel notes and spice. I initially get super sweet vanilla ice cream, then it is joined by a building cinnamon and char wave that lingers for a long enjoyable finish and tasty aftertaste. I think this would pair nicely with a cigar.

4.1