Rare Perfection 14 Year Canadian Whisky

Whiskey Consensus rated this whiskey 9.1 and I really wanted to try it. I found it for $150 and really pondered about pulling the trigger. It's kind of a unique story. Bourbon from Kentucky aged in Canada making it a Canadian whiskey. Except for Crown Royal Norther Harvest Rye, I don't have any Canadian juice. I do have the Willet 4 year rye, mmmmm. But that price tag and mixed reviews I read on distiller, I was on the fence. HUGE thanks to @Milliardo for hooking me up with samples of the 14 and 15. I tasted 14 and 15 back to back. To make sure my taste buds weren't playing games with me, I tried it again a week later with another buddy. My rating and review of this was the same. Let's dive in. As always, in a GC and let it to rest for minimum of 15 minutes. N(2): I've never nosed anything like this. It punched me in the face, in not a good way. The proof wasn't off putting. I got this weird burned plastic smell. Imagine burning a plastic spork. It was dominant. Then got this wet wood musk. Definitely not pleasing for me. After sniffing it a while, I was finally able to get under those aromas to pull out vanilla and sweet honey comb. P(3.25): Damn you plastic spork, I got that on my tongue too. But you also get this rich sweet cream. Butter. Vanilla. Some rye-ish type of spices on the tip and sides of the tongue. I also get a hint of citrus. Either a sweet lemon or a sour orange. If it wasn't for the spork, I would rate this at 4.25. F(3.75): The wet wood funk came in on the finish. Strong vanilla. Toasted almonds. Sour vanilla pudding. Caramel/Butterscotch sweetness. Medium length on the finish Overall: I wouldn't buy this bottle at $150. I really wanted to like it but I could not overcome the plastic. It is a beautiful bottle, it's unique, but the juice didn't deliver for me. I would buy it at the $50 price point though.

To date, there have been four people that have changed my mind about the quality of a whiskey. The first will never read this because he’s inexplicably averse to distiller. So fuck you big guy. I’m still better at FIFA than you no matter what the record shows. The second was my wiser but far less well endowed friend. The beauty of continually referring to him in that way is that he is undoubtedly reading this right now and is unable to respond, for fear of being labeled as the allegedly less well endowed friend of mine. It’s like taking the batteries out of the other controller before a round of smash brothers, and I’m not sorry. The third was the tasting guide at Willett. She was a prophet. And the fourth was evankatz. Is he the googleable Evan Katz? Or is this another Michael Bolton thing? Perhaps we’ll never know. Summary in case you’re tired of reading: is this truly “Rare Perfection?” No. It’s rare to me, because it tackles some flavor profiles that I’ve never tried before (which TBH is why I didn’t know what to do with it). This whisky deserves stylies for trying something new. It’s very bold. But it’s far from perfection when it comes to enjoyability. It took some gambles here, and to understand what I mean, let’s do a choose your own adventure story. If you want to envision yourself in a post apocolyptic factory, read the next paragraph. If you’d prefer sitting around the campfire in your backyard, skip ahead to the ———. Close your eyes and imagine you’re in a dirty, abandoned warehouse. I’ve been playing a lot of The Division lately, so let’s go with that. There’s a pile of bodies in the corner. There’s flames on something that shouldn’t be flammable. On a nearby counter, you see a flask. You take a sip, because... apocalypse... and this is what you taste. The nose smells like pure rubber. It smells like something not fit for consumption. I could see this being a shoe-polish or some sort of cleaner. The body delivers on that nose. It’s intense. I don’t like it. Finish shows off mild peppermint. By far the most enjoyable part of the drink. ——————— So now go back to a time with good friends around a campfire. There’s a guy with a guitar that you don’t know, but he was a childhood friend of your girlfriend so you’re going to put up with it. He’s playing something that vaguely sounds like Jack Johnson. Your buddy brings you over a s’more. The nose smells like burnt coals. There’s a hint of caramel and sugar, but mostly burntness. Body tastes like a toasted marshmallow. I’ve never experienced anything quite like that in a whisky. There’s a heavy dose of chocolate afterwards. Some coconut too. Finish is cinnamon and gingerbread. I am genuinely enjoying this drink. So wtf happened here? I think this whisky is absurdly bold in flavor. I also think both of my tastings were fair. It reminds me of how the fluoride treatment tastes better when the dental hygienist tells you the flavor ahead of time. Coming into this drink blind, this tastes kinda funky. And I came into this worse than blind—I came into this as a bourbon supremacist who had very strong feelings about Canadian Whisky in general, further jaded by the fact that this wasn’t the bourbon I thought it was. If you come into this with the idea that it could taste of a dessert or something sweet, it hits you in a completely different way. And that is one of the things that is so amazing about whisky. I asked for help understanding this, and a big cheers to evankatz for talking me through it. I’m actually moderately sad that I’ve already offered the remainder of this bottle to a friend, because I think there’s more to find here. But I’m happy that I’ll be able to share a genuinely opinionated whisky, and perhaps help steer the new owner in both directions. Conclusion: This is bold. It takes risks. Not everyone will like it. It’s unique. There’s some interesting stuff here. I will never buy another one at MSRP. IMO it’s too expensive for what it offers, and even with this new flavor profile, there’s not enough value. This should be the poster child for guided tastings, because I understand how this could be a divisive whisky. If you love it, I understand. If you hate if, I understand. My original rating was 0.25 stars. I am going back to my old review to edit the rating out of fairness to the drink, but I will keep the words. For science? I now do encourage everyone who’s curious to try but not buy, if possible. Thanks again to evankatz for encouraging this much-needed re-taste!