Whiskey Row Distiller's Select Bourbon Whiskey

4 grain, unique flavor but different than traditional bourbon. Smooth and good but I just don’t love the flavor profile as much as others

What a weird product. Definitely tasty as I remember it while touring the Kentucky Artisan Distillery, but just seems like an off brand that doesn't really need to exist. Even stranger, I see a lot of listings and tastings for "Distiller's Select," as shown in this listing photo, but in that place on my bottle it says "Shippingport" instead. Also, maybe the photos I've seen are low quality, but I thought it looked like Distiller's Select has a red cork seal sticker, while this Shippingport version has an orange one. Perhaps different batches or something? I guess, for the record, this is batch #4, barrel #3. Not worth wasting everyone else's time, and especially my own, to create a new listing, though. The nose is extremely dry and watery, but once I get closer to it, I get more warm spice and barrel notes, with a weird addition of brandy or raisin. Honestly, the nostral burn is super intense, like that of a very low quality whiskey, so this scares me based on my memory of tasting it before (again, that could have been a completely different batch or even product). This is why I am very opposed against blended bourbons; even though the flavor profile has a baseline similarity, it deserves to exist on it's own, or not at all, which I believe states the quality of your product before I ever try it. Lots of clinging-to-the-pot burnt sugar, on a body lighter than rain water. Raw distillate is really the best descriptor here, with the grain taking over far too much, and still that weird note of brandy. The finish even reminds me of a Speyside Scotch... What the hell is this? The proof is definitely low, which is obvious at the beginning, but the burn is extreme, and speaks to the shallowness of the quality here. This was a huge disappointment. It's been long enough that I tasted this product at the distillery that I'm confident that was a different batch, and again, since it's blended, it was likely not even in the same thought process. Having said that, I'm really not even sure what the profile was supposed to be here, and I would have loved to be a part of the blending process to better understand this one. I have passed on buying this dozens of times due to the price, and now I can honestly say that I have fairly high resentment for throwing away around $50. If I've sounded too harsh up until now, I hope that knowing someone asked for that amount of money and I gave it up for this letdown, helps make more sense.