Peg Leg Porker Tennessee Straight Bourbon

Pours an orange-gold color. On the inside of the glass it leaves not so much legs as blotches. The nose is more dry smoke than usual, although not as much as I had been led to believe. There is an aroma that is nutty, like the insides of an actual jar of peanut butter. The barrel spice pokes it's head out, but it's a secondary character. The heat of red pepper flakes is what gets me, more than any barbecue smoke. It's like a dry, prickly heat, and plenty of it. The barrel spices bloom here, mingling with candied orange slices and mixed fruit peel and potpourri, with star anise/fennel. A second wave of bitter chocolate and burnt molasses. More of that peanut butter comes around in the flavor. Finishes with smoky ash, tobacco leaf, sawdust and cinnamon/rye. Barrel spices, citrus rind and mint leaf. Black tea, black licorice and root beer barrel candy. Dark chocolate Most of the heat in this comes not from the smoke (though there is that) nor the proof, but from the red pepper. The smoke is charcoal smoke, not the meaty smoke of an Islay Scotch, say. Lots of complexity with spice, dark chocolate, candied fruits and orange peel.