Rating: 19/23 I recently tasted the 2021 Balmorhea and although I liked it, I found it underwhelming considering the hype and the price. Maybe this was a better vintage though. N: A touch of must to the dusty, slightly sawdusty oak. Substantial vanilla and some spices in the cinnamon and clove range. A faint hint of tart, bitter orange peel. After a couple of minutes of sniffing, some chocolate and polished wood come out. There's also a faint meaty youthfulness, but there's very little of it. It's not all that bad, but it is a slight negative. It does come with a bit of an alcohol bite, but that's entirely expected at this proof. A touch of leather in here too. Not the most complex nose, but it's fairly rich and hedonistic. P: Rich and full with polished wood and some chocolate blended together, opposing a blast of spice (black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and just some prickly burn). The spice is actually surprisingly prickly. There's a little leather too, leading into some full oakiness that's a little sawdusty. There's a bit of an oversteeped bitterness to the oak and also some vanilla coming off of it, but it really isn't that over-steeped. There's actually more of a nice, rich virgin oak vanilla mixed with sweet corn that doesn't quite taste like caramel. F: Vanilla remains alongside some minerals. Some more interesting spices come out briefly. I get dried orange peel alongside cardamom and black tea for a moment. The tannins do linger. - Conclusion - Compared with the 2021 Balmorhea, this is less oaky. Specifically, it is less over-oaked. The 2021 is richer with less of a spicy alcohol bite, but it's also less nuanced. I like the core flavor here better because it's less over-oaked, but that spicy bite really is not appealing and there is certainly something to be said about the fullness of the 2021. Resilient 15 (18/23) is a bit lighter than this, but it isn't as much lighter as I initially expected it to be. I get some burn off of the Resilient as well, but not as much as I get off of this. The Resilient is a bit more complex, but it lacks the great polished wood flavor and some of the other nice rich ones that this has. I wouldn't put this too far below the Resilient, but I do think that the Resilient is a little better. Booker's Shiny Barrel (19/23) has more burn than this does, so that makes me reconsider docking this so much for its burniness. The Booker's is more challenging, but it does have more going on and I rather like that about it. I can see an argument for this being a 19, but I don't personally buy it. I had been considering a 16 because of the burn though and I now think that's out of the question. A 17 to 19. I'm increasingly thinking of giving this an 18 as the spicy bite seems decreasingly important. I might seriously consider a 19 now too. I'm thinking that the flavor here is better than in the Balmorhea 2021. This still doesn't strike me as good value for the money, but it's in the range that I would be OK with paying its price, particularly given its uniqueness. I'm increasingly considering a 19 for this. For a moment, I even considered a 20. I think this is getting a 19. What pushed me over the line here is that although this burns more than the super smooth 2021, this still really doesn't burn as much as drams like Booker's and Old Forester 1920. Still, this is a low 19 and I wouldn't be surprised if I dropped it to an 18 on a subsequent tasting. Thank you, @pkingmartin , for this sample! It's good to know that my bottle of the 2021 just isn't up to the normal standards (though maybe it will improve over time) and I'm glad to now better understand what everyone is talking about when they wax poetic about Balmorhea.