Remus Repeal Reserve Series III (2019 Medley)

I have had a lot of different MGP in my day. But this one stands out as the best by a good margin. The nose smells of pure candy. Caramel, Vanilla, Raspberries, and honeyed raisins are all prevalent on the palate. The finish is medium with a nice candied oak that lingers in the background. This is a desert whiskey in it’s purest form. A little bit of rye spice since we are talking MGP here, but it’s aged so well that the spice is nice and rounded off. 11 and 12 year old blended MGP honey barrels for $79 a bottle?? Sign me up all day long. You pay way more than this for mic drop and four gate for a lesser product. Remus Repeal is one of the best kept secrets in bourbon and is one of my all time favorites after letting this bottle open up into the beauty it has become.

Bold statements have been made about this mix of 11 and 12 year bourbons. The bottle isn’t without heart and fancy. The price tag is hearty as well, outpacing infamous 12’ish year bottles of ECBP. First pop of the cork I get cranberry juice and tobacco. In the glass I get dusty leather notes, creamy vanilla icing, cinnamon, fruitcake and still just a hint of pipe tobacco. There’s also a noticeable ethanol singe, more pronounced than what I usually get at 100 proof, but without an associated aroma of ethanol. Oh my, this is leather, an interesting mineral note (different from Dickel, more like fertilizer than flinstones), rich dark fruits, cardamom, a touch of anise and then a long, tingly fade into an oily rich vanilla finish with older, slightly tannic and drying oak notes. This is funky stuff. I’m immediately sold because it manages to do something other bourbons don’t with regard to its spice profile and mineral quality. I’m bastardizing (word?) George T Stagg but if you threw a dusty old quilt atop the fire that is GTS to smother the heat I suspect you’d find something like this! Without the heat this is almost easier to dissect but takes time to do so. I’ve never had a Remus Reserve before. This one sat 3-4 deep for at least the past month on a local shelf and was the lone bottle when I caved and brought it home. I’m incredibly glad that I did. The nose, the texture, the slowly evolving palate and finish are all something special. It drinks like something I’d expect to be older and I intend to work on this bottle over years. If IV is anything like III my hunting spirit is (irritatingly) alive again.

Just sinply delicious. Hard to stop drinking it. Buy again: 10/10