It’s 2020. It’s December. Let’s shut this year down with a brand new whiskey (or whisky) every day. It’s my own personal whiskey advent calendar. +7! Dec. 27, 2020 This whiskey has a gold medal around its neck. That’s how you know that there’s no way you could possibly be disappointed. This little guy won “Best of Class” in the 2019 World Wine & Spirits Competition in New York. It also appears to be the 2019-2020 “Official American Whiskey” of the James Beard Foundation, which (turns out) is a real-life foundation that celebrates chefs. Good for you, Boxergrail. Nose is hot cocoa powder, dill pickles, maple syrup. Small amounts of caramel & leather. Body hits first with that pickle. Behind it is honey, lemon, tangerine. Chocolate notes build up over time on the back end of the body, making this drink just get better and better. Finish is mild, but there’s sugar, brine, mild pepper. That chocolate resurfaces, and the pepper transitions to a nice baking powder flavor. So good. For my money, this is a solid rye whiskey. I don’t know enough about ryes to do a proper value claim here, but I like this better than bottom shelf ryes (Wild Turkey, Bulleit, etc) and not quite as much as the various Whistlepigs I’ve tried over the years. So I guess what I’m saying Boxergrail is this: I feel like we could have something really special one day, but I’m just not looking for anything serious right now, you know? You’re a lot of fun, and I wouldn’t mind continuing to drink you from time to time, but we shouldn’t try too hard to define whatever this is that we have. Let’s just live in this moment, and we’ll see where the future takes us. ‘Tis the season. I’m day-to-day on my whiskey selection, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments. Merry whiskey to all, and to all a beer flight!