Very Olde St. Nick 8 Year Estate Reserve Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

So I have all the questions. VOSN 12 is on the short list for my favorite new find of 2019, but finding information on this distillery is like pulling teeth from a jellyfish. Bottle says: “Produced and bottled by Olde St. Nick Distillery Bardstown, Kentucky, U.S.A.” “Produced” to me sounds like code for “not distilled.” If this truly is all sourced juice, I can make sense of this bottle. Otherwise, I got nothing. I would wager that this is from a different mashbill than the 12 year, and possibly also aged with different techniques. They’re that different. The nose is heavy sugar, sweet tarts, honey, slight citrus, walnuts. I know it sounds like bull crap to list that much stuff, but it depends on what you look for. If I come in looking for malty notes, I get sugared walnuts. When I come in looking for VOSN 12 year notes, I get the honey, citrus, and sweet tarts. It’s all there for the sniffing in an incredibly complex nose. Body is funky. There’s almonds, walnuts, honey, fresh grain. Leather too. After a while, I can also pick out chocolate and vanilla. Finish transitions to honey, citrus, and cinnamon. Very dry mouth feel. Very short finish with exceedingly low heat. All the questions. This can’t be the same juice, aged 4 less years. VOSN 12 year tastes like Buffalo Trace juice, akin to RHF and EHT. This tastes like Willett juice, akin to Noah’s Mill or Willett Pot Still Reserve. This is a tasty bourbon, and if you are really into the nutty bourbons, you should probably find a way to try this. However, I feel like it adds less to that flavor profile space (which is already full of high quality, far-cheaper bourbons) than the 12 year does to the tart-apple flavor profile space. Disclaimer: I say that incredibly biased toward the tart-apple stuff. If I could have only one nutty bourbon, prices be damned, this would be on the short list. But I can give you a dozen nutty bourbons I’d rather have 2 of than this 8 year. I can’t say the same thing for the 12 year, and if you’re sitting on the $161 it takes to buy this bottle, find an extra $21 in your couch cushions for the VOSN 12 instead.

Tasty, and I can’t put my finger on it, but it tastes A LOT like another, cheaper bourbon