Old Grand-Dad 114 Bourbon

Hot, sweet, and viscous.

Blind taste N: not very strong. Light oak, some ethanol, some vanilla as it mellows. P: Starts with some vanilla, gives way to baking spices and cinnamon that lingers and rolls around the tongue, and fades to some cherry or licorice fruit notes (very nice spice profile). F: spices and the fruit sweetness mix perfectly for a balanced smooth finish. Much more complex overall than the nose.

N: very earthy, leather, rye, tobacco, smokiness P: Rye, toasted oak, good heat and burn F: the blast of heat lingers and stays on the tongue for a while. Fades into toasted oak and rye spice with light vanilla as it mellows

I'm giving this 4 stars, not because it's a 4 star sipping bourbon, but because it finally ended my quest to find the perfect bourbon to mix with Coke. I have experimented with many: Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Buffalo Trace, 4 Roses (Yellow label), Redneck Riviera, Benchmark, 10 High, to name but a few. The verdicts on the above mentioned Bourbons ranged from delicious to literally ruining the Coke so badly that it was no longer drinkable. Using Old Grand Dad to mix with Coke allows me to taste both the Coke AND the bourbon in perfect harmony.