New Riff Relief 15 Year Straight Bourbon

Amazing birthday gift. Neck pour has sweet nose, almost syrup or light molasses. Some baking spice too. Funky light palate with an odd sweetness at the end, like Sweet Tart candy. Extremely light at the proof point. Really a treat

Neat. Day after neck pour. Opened this last night but didn’t have the opportunity to get my thoughts down. I still have quite a few OKI’s left, I’m obsessed with LDI/Seagrams era MGP, and I love New Riff. I am just excited to have this beautiful bottle on my shelf. Talk about glorious oak. Oiled and freshly polished oak. Oaky McOakerson. Oakiest MGP I have ever had. Reminds me so much of WT17 too. Velvety oak. Red velvet cake even. Vanilla royal frosting. Hint of apple but also finding cherry. Charred caramel. A nice dark honey. I’m finally getting past the oak today. Neck pour was just OAK. I am having fun exploring this now. Butterscotch too. The nose has this overall buttery quality. Mouth feel is silky. Lots of honey up front on the tongue with the oak peaking in stalking me. Bright and sweet mostly though. It’s very rich and silky. The oak is omnipresent. Leather, varnish. Rich caramel accompanied by the rye. Apples and cherries again. It’s interesting. For a 15 year bourbon, it plays these high, mid range, and low notes. The WT17 BiB similarities are still there for me with the oak / cherry combination. This is sweeter though. The vanilla and butterscotch on the finish is so good. The red velvet oak is the best part. It appears right after mid palate and escalates up as the other notes are running down. There is a rhythm and song to this one that doesn’t follow a linear path and makes it really interesting to pick apart. All of the instruments aren’t playing the same thing but weaving in and out in a dance. It’s getting better with each sip. Initially disappointed in this one’s first impression (over oaked) but it truly just needs time to open up and the time to be explored. My favorite pours can make my soul dance, this doesn’t quite go there. My soul is certainly tapping it’s foot and feeling the groove though.