Rating: 11/23 Could this perhaps be the nectar of the gods?! Is the magic of Buffalo Trace in its juice? This is the same base distillate that's used in the crafting of George T. Stagg. Honestly, I don't expect much from this in white dog form, but I'm certainly curious to try it. N: You know, I don't have white dog very often. So how weird is it that this immediately reminds me of tequila? Specifically, it reminds me of Don Julio Blanco. It has this sweet, papery nose with some vanilla and then vegetal character. Oh, this is a lot like rhum agricole now. I'm getting that squash smell mixed with all of that sweetness. Honestly, right now I would think that this was rhum agricole. It's super funky with plenty of sweetness and I'm definitely enjoying it. I guess the corn must come across as fairly vegetal at this stage. P: Not as rich as I'd expected, but this is quite full with a high proof, moderate viscosity, and high burn. I get squash, which I'd like to think is mashed up boiled corn. There are hints of paper in here and also other vegetal suggestions. Honestly, I would have guessed that this was a rhum agricole if I didn't know the truth. I feel like it has a real Martinique vibe. So I pulled out Clement Premiere Canne (40% ABV rhum agricole from Martinique) and I found that the Clement has more chilis with more sort of dank, highly organic vegetal flavors. It has more white pepper as well and is generally lighter (though the proof could be playing a large role there). It also has hints of soy sauce - both light and dark. Quite an odd spirit. So maybe this is less bizarre? I definitely get more sweet corn now. This sure burns and I get some tartness from the rye, but this is more like a whiskey and it has a fuller profile (almost certainly due to the higher proof). There isn't nearly as much complexity here and there's still a lot of that rhum agricole flavor. Banana peel and all of that weird funk (well, not all of it; more of a sample). Oh, wow, there's a ton of ethanol here and it really burns. F: Vegetal. It's in the range of squash mixed with smashed sweet corn. hints of spices. Memories of alcohol burn. I'm not a fan. The more I let it linger, the more I start to get a little bit of Mexican corn cake. Actually, a bit more than a little. This might be the tastiest thing I've experienced so far with this dram. - Conclusion - Look, I'm sure that this wasn't meant to be consumed neat. Still, that's the way I have to review it. This wasn't fun to taste, though it was quite interesting. I need to think some more about what I should expect from white dog. Honestly though, the Clément Premiere Canne (13/23) was better. It was funkier, but it was also much more complex and interesting. The burn here really gets me, along with the alcohol and kind of flat individual flavors. This is challenging to drink, though not actively bad. Many find high proof spirits difficult to drink, after all. I'm usually pretty fine with them, but the youthfulness really hits me here. Still, this is a clean spirit: it isn't like there are a lot of off-notes here. This is hard to rate because it's so different from everything else I have and it's also going to get a low rating, so I don't have many things to compare it with. To set a low bar though, my single barrel bottle of Ry3 Cask Strength (9/23...somehow) is worse than this. The Ry3 is way harsher than this is, yet it isn't ever quite as high of a proof. I like the rum flavors in the Ry3 better, but this was frankly already a bit too burny. There's no question that this is substantially better. If it weren't for the Ry3's harshness and intense peppery burn, I'd say place the funky complexity here against the Ry3's sweet rum decadence (which, frankly, isn't actually even that decadent). In terms of overall profiles, I think the Ry3 probably has the win. This has some bitter alcohol and a bunch of different flavors that are complex but are also totally out of balance and one-dimensional. There's still plenty of heat here too. Were it not for that awful harshness and burn, I'd probably put the Ry3 1-2 points above this. Considering the painful harshness and burn though, I'm putting this above the Ry3. A bit of a tangent, but I have to give Phenomenal Spirits some credit for finishing Ry3 in ex-rum casks: that's absolutely what it needed. Well, that and a lot more time to mellow. The problem is that they chose to work with some miserably bad rye. So this is better than a 9, but it's not as good as Sierra Norte Red Corn (15/23). This is a bit of a broad range, but it's manageable. This strikes me as closer to the Ry3 than to the Sierra Norte, unfortunately. This really does burn a lot. Eh, it's still a tough call here. I'm not so sure that this isn't just right in the middle anymore. Signatory's Caledonian 29 (1987) (12/23) - OK, imagine a record scratch sound because I'm derailing this tasting here. Signatory bottled this Caledonian less than 2.5 months from it reaching 20 years. It's not over-oaked; if anything it tastes young. Why on Earth didn't they wait another 2.5 months to bottle it?! Oh, right, but Signatory's Caledonian 29 (1987) - how does it compare? The Caledonian is smoother with more oil and that kind of typical single grain scotch profile. This burns a lot more. It's 7% higher ABV, but the difference in how much this burns feels a lot higher than 7%. Sure, this is more complex but I think I prefer the Caledonian. One last comparison: Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition (10/23). The Cutty Sark is less harsh and has less burn, but it does have that sulphur for sure. Still, I'm not so sure how the two compare. Neither is as good as the Caledonian and both are better than the Ry3. Beyond that? Well, considering the sulphur, I think that this does beat the Cutty Sark. An 11 seems the most appropriate for this. It's hard to sip for sure, but it would be a good substitute for rhum agricole in cocktails, so long as the difference in proof were accounted for.