Russell's Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Smooth yet spicy with Christmas spices. Morish. A must have for Rye lovers. 92-94

Nose - Sweet vanilla caramels, light sweet mint, faint milk chocolate powdered cocoa mix, hint of sweet artificial cherry. Taste - Thin but drying, sweet oaky vanilla simple, hint of sweet mint, cherry candies, cinnamon heat, light oaky bitterness. Finish - Sweet oaky simple lingers, cinnamon heat, long light slightly medicinal cherry sweet. Score - 84/100 Final Thoughts - This was a tiny bit disappointing to me as it had a very pleasant nose, not overly complex but showed a lot of promise. Once it hit the tongue, it fell a bit flat from expectations in that it had more of a medicinal artificial cherry flavor than cherry candies and it had this slightly off putting wood/apple stem bitterness to it. Overall not too bad, but maybe single barrel variance made me have a slightly off barrel? It's good but not great and for the price, makes me want to reach for WT 101 Rye.