Continuing on my Balcones tour, next up was going to be their Brimstone, but the sample seems to have vanished. After asking my wife and daughter and digging throughout the house, I’ve accepted it was either a hide and seek game gone wrong or Santa’s off season dry run where he fuels up with booze instead of cookies. Either way, it’s missing and instead of it, I’ll be moving on to the French Oak single malt sample that was generously provided by @jonwilkinson7309. The nose starts with toasted cinnamon raisin bread slathered in melted butter then come fruits of cherries jubilee, candied orange peel, figgy pudding that slowly transitions to spices of cinnamon, cloves, earl grey tea, leather and antique polished oak with a high ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with brioche bread, then fruits of raisins, orange zest, peach cobbler followed by cacao nibs, toasted walnuts, leather and tannic oak with high ethanol burn that finishes medium length with dark chocolate, espresso, candied cherries, orange zest, bit-o-honey candy, figgy pudding, leather and tannic oak. Yet another tasty whiskey from Balcones that brings in those big bold flavors, but the tannic oak and high alcohol dominate the palate making identifying flavors harder before fading into a mild tannic finish with those coffee, dark chocolate, and dark fruit notes. This isn’t as tannic of a finish as the True Blue cask strength, but not as balanced as the Blue Corn bourbon putting this right in the middle ground between the two.