Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Bourbon

MGP: Nevada H&C distilling, 56.22 Batch 66 Norlan, served neat Rested 10 minutes Color: light rust Nose: sweet tea and ethanol, pralines and brown sugar, tobacco, vanilla, caramel, dark fruit lingering in the back ground Palate: thick, sweet, cinnamon and brown sugar, more caramel with wild berries, some tea tannins, oak and leather Finish: long with cocoa, oak, leather, brown sugar; man, this just keeps on going Humminah/humminah! T8ke score: 8, excellent, really quite exceptional

After trying the Smoke Wagon small batch, I was curious to find out how their uncut and unfiltered offering compared to it. Thankfully @Scott_E was very generous and provided me with a sample of batch 50. The nose starts with a thick rich caramel along with a medium oak spice that fades to notes of Girl Scout Samoas followed by grilled oranges, dehydrated mangos and cinnamon apple fritter then spices of nutmeg, cloves, dill, fresh picked spearmint leaf, worn leather and rich oak with high ethanol burn. The taste is a thick caramel coating rich mouthfeel starting with a s’mores sandwich followed by fruits orange push pop, mango lassi and apple coffee cake before a high and drying spice that then transitions to spices of ginger, dill, clove, nutmeg, fresh picked spearmint leaf, leather and medium tannic oak with a high ethanol burn. The finish is medium length with Samoas cookies, honeycomb, orange zest, toasted walnuts, apple coffee cake, ginger, clove leather and drying but polished oak. This is a vast improvement from the small batch that really ramps the flavors up from light to bold traditional bourbon notes along with some tropical fruits and rye spices that veers towards a highly dry spice on the mid-palate before fading to moderate tannic oak and finishing medium length with those enjoyable traditional bourbon notes reemerging with a bit of a dry oak spice. Doing a side by side with my Bardstown Goodwood Walnut brown ale finish, it was close but the Smoke Wagon is a bit more spice and tannic oak than the Bardstown. I then did a side by side with my Barrell 15 year 2021 edition and they were equals which is impressive for an $80 to hold up against a $220 bottle. A solid offering from Smoke Wagon, but as these are batch varieties they could vary wildly.

F-ck me. I searched far and wide for a bottle of this stuff and paid handsomely for it. The sexiness of barrel-strength MGP juice aged in a Wild West state like Nevada clouded my judgement. This bourbon was hot. Like, really hot. The only other thing that stood out to me other than the heat was the bitter taste that overpowered the smokiness and the notes of sweet corn. Most expensive mixer I’ve ever bought.

Nose of roasted corn, cinnamon, charred wood, brown sugar, leather, rye, grass, caramel, apple, vanilla and tobacco. On the palate barrel spice, cinnamon, caramel, rye, vanilla, brown sugar, pecan pie, dried peach, orange, cherry and oak. Rich, spicy and sweet, dessert-like, and pretty smooth for the proof. Finishes spicy and leathery. It took some time but this has really grown on me.

This is a clear bottle, there's a review place for that...I however see no reason why "Clear" should be scored separately. Batch 93. So I over paid for this a bit AND I had to buy their vodka for the right. Not my greatest moment, but hey...I wanted to finally give this a go. Nose - I suppose I have a bit of trepidation each time I pour an MGP bourbon. When done right and well aged these are magic and when young and rushed they're ok on ice. This one is squarely in the middle. Good vanilla candy meets some youthful waxy (waxy on a bourbon?) grain and alcohol notes. Elements of candy corn and traditional bourbon notes with light hints of rye spice. Good, but this isn't going to be a bourbon I pour to smell. Taste - Take your 5-6 year old MGP where there's sharp alcohol and the elements of corn and youth dominate any sweetness, now turn that down to 6 and up the sweetness to 4. You've got this one. It's bold, it's full, it's aggressive and it is starting to get refined. Really a nice spectrum of light chocolate notes, good caramel, nice grain elements with shifting and a wide array of rye elements and corn. The oak is not really showing here but I can't imagine it isn't well woven with the rest of the body. Overall, at about 70 bucks I won't come down this road again, but as MGP CS whiskey goes, you can't really complain too much. 2.5 score. Solid MGP bourbon, but there's nothing spectacular here. But it's a step up from average. Anyone want this vodka? lol