Smooth Ambler Old Scout Single Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon

Better than expected

This is excellent. For being nearly 120 proof, this is incredibly smooth. Has all the notes that I want: vanilla, caramel, and oaky. What a treat!

Earlier this year, around February or March, the local FW&GS got in their store picks for Smooth Ambler Old Scout Cask Strength Bourbon and Cask Strength Rye. It's odd that I've ended up getting the bourbon first, since rye is more my speed, but the rye is only available as an online order where you need $99 to get free shipping while the bourbon is available in stores for $50. I picked this up about two weeks ago while coming home from the memorial service for a couple of friends' seventeen year old son who'd passed unexpectedly on April 1st, and yes, after the service I needed a fucking drink (remember, I don't just see my notes here as tastings so much as a whisky diary, and as a whisky diary, I should note that...well, I needed a drink. I won't linger on the event that prompted it beyond that). Shifting gears to the whisky itself, this is a really odd dram. I thought that when I opened and tasted it, and I still think it now. I actually want to put this in my decanter to see how it opens up, but my decanter is currently occupied. Did I say this was an odd whisky? Usually, when you start a review by saying, "This isn't bad, but..." what you mean is that it's bad. So I can't open with that. This is odd. It's got a spice profile that's closer to a rye but there's also that bourbon sweetness mixed in, it's just in the minority of the flavors. Its rather yeasty and spicy. In fact, given that it's a FW&GS pick for Pennsylvania, the combination of spicy and yeasty reminds me of a soft pretzel with spicy mustard, which is weird. I've only really noticed the spicy mustard and yeasty profile in one other bourbon, which is the Russell's Reserve 10 Year, but it's not prominent in that so much as underlying. Here it's the main event. It's what this whisky is all about, so when I speak of sweetness, well, there's also maybe a yeasty powdered sugar thing that is akin to funnel cake. It's 60.8% alcohol, which is my math isn't off is 121.6 proof, so it's strong, and it's a 7 year age statement store pick. So I was excited, but I recoiled at the first taste before I settled into what it's doing, I'm not going to lie. It's got a long finish and the best part is probably how creamy the mouthfeel is. Is it worth $50? Certainly. Although given that Larceny BP is still $50 in my neck of the woods, I'd probably have maximized my cash if I'd gone with that. But that's also online only, and I was passing a store I don't often stop at have access to on the way home from the memorial, and this was the most unique option on the shelf at this price. So I went with it. And I don't regret it, but it's an oddball offshoot. I'm always interested in store picks and they're always unique so unless they're awful, you haven't really misspent. Eh, anyway, I usually purchase a bottle a week and this week I picked up the Lagavulin 11 Guinness Edition, which I'm looking forward to. As for bourbon, my wife is in Nashville this week, and I asked her to see if she could get me the Dickel BiB or Chattanooga Cabernet Cask, so I should have some fun things to write about soon. However, if you know of any shit I should ask her to get while she's down there that you can't get anywhere else that's flying under the radar, let me know....

59.5 fwgs store pick

Big fan thanks Brandon