Pours a nice shade in the copper amber spectrum, not much in the way of legs, but pretty enough. Smells intensely of oak, vanilla, oak, caramel, oak, dusty spice, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but also lots of oak. In case the nose didn’t tip you off, the taste features that oak quite prominently, but the traditional caramel and vanilla notes come through in good enough proportions as well as a dusting of spice (I know this is a wheater, but I associate this sort of spice with rye – maybe that’s just because I’m a fraud and am bad at describing bourbon) and an almost bitter oak note (I’m sure whiskey nerds see bitterness as a terrible thing, but as a beer dork who came up in the West Coast IPA days of breweries reaching theoretical limits of bitterness, the connotation is not meant negatively here) . Mouthfeel is medium bodied and for lack of a better term, it’s kinda dry. Overall, it’s delicious, but I can see why someone would call it over-oaked. I’ve had some bourbons that I’d consider over-oaked, but this one fares better than those. Plus, I rather enjoy oak. However, it’s far from the best bourbon I’ve had and I’m not sure it’s worth all the hype… Beer Nerd Musings: Anything in Pappy’s orbit gets pulled into the supermassive black hole of hype, and that includes beers aged in Pappy barrels. Notable examples include Voodoo’s Pappy Black Magick (one of my favorite beers that I’ll probably never get to try again) and the infamous original vintage of Bourbon County Rare (which I’ve never had; I did really enjoy the follow up release, which was aged in 35 year old Heaven Hill barrels). Lots of other notable examples, and usually just the implication that Van Winkle barrels are involved is enough to make the beer scarce. However, it’s worth noting that not every beer aged can be aged in a Pappy barrel and come out perfect. Stillwater aged one of their Belgian Strong Dark Ales in Pappy 20 barrels and the result wasn’t especially accomplished (though it was still rare and expensive)… This was more an issue with the base beer not being able to stand up to the barrel treatment than the fault of barrel (i.e. it probably wouldn’t matter which barrel was used, it would still overwhelm the base). So the hype is real, but like the bourbon itself, there’s a nugget of truth at the center of the hype – a lot of these beers are genuinely great. Is it worth the hoop-jumping and cost? That’s the ultimate question…