The Gifted Horse American Whiskey

Nothing to write home about. Apple nose is nice, palate is pretty hot without water. Add water to mellow, which I preferred.

Really top notch.

Tasted at SW - quite complex, although maybe a little strong in ABV.

Flavors abound. Deep Carmel vanilla citrus and smoke. Delicious

Diageo isn't exactly doing their premium Orphan Barrel series any favors with releases like this. The story behind Gifted Horse -- and I stress the term story, because it's blatant marketing speak -- is that the distillery "accidentally" spilled some 17-year old Bernheim bourbon into a vatting of much younger, 4-year old bourbons, then realized that the resulting blend tasted amazing. Yeah, right. The company probably had some barrels of bourbon that got a little long in the tooth, and decided to even out the mix as much as they could with young, sweet juice before releasing it for a big price tag. Apple cider defines the profile of this whiskey, although it's a spiced, mulled cider. The problem with this expression is that the young whiskey gives it way too much heat at this high an ABV -- I see this as something that would have been better below 50%. As it is, it's rough and burns on the way down. Not easy to drink, and not much complexity to justify fighting through that heat. For $100, I'll pass easily.