Rating: 8/23 This is a bottom shelf Total Wine store brand that carries a 3 year age statement (good) and was produced in Minnesota (bad). I have low expectations, but we'll see. N: Light and thin with a faint nectar sweetness with water, faint bananas, pears, and some sort of odd oily funk. Nothing here smells bad, but it overall just doesn't have enough going on, is too weak, and have any particularly good aroma. P: Oh, this tastes young. I'm getting a bit of bitter ethanol, but mostly this just lack flavor. It's watery and slightly bitter, in the way that whiskey gets when its ABV drops too much. There's something faintly industrial, but it isn't too obtrusive. It's sort of just a slight industrial note in the bitterness. There's a slight, watery sweetness, but not much and certainly not nearly enough. There's also some heat from muddled barrel spices that tend toward hot cinnamon. This is also a bit harsh. It has a mild burn, but then it just abrades my tongue. Spots of caramel come through when I get lucky, but that's rare. The flavor is also just really muddled. This palate is challenging, but not at all in a good way. There's really nothing to like here. It isn't the most challenging thing to drink out there, but it's bad. F: Drying, lingering harshness, light, bitter, bland, faint spices, maybe a faint hint of vanilla. It's not all that bad (at least it's better than the palate), but it's certainly not good. - Conclusion - This might be salvageable in something like a maple syrup old fashioned that injects a lot of sweetness and richness. This is bad though. It could be an 8 at most. A 6 might be too harsh given that it isn't actually painful, but a 9 seems generous. Side by side, Earl Settler (11/23) is so much better than this and so is Trader Joe's bourbon (11/23) (rumored to be from Barton's). I gave The Sexton a 9 and it has some really weird, unpleasant funkiness to it. This is actually not that much worse. The Sexton has more sweetness and character though, as well as less of that watery bitterness. This will be a 7 or 8. Ick. Coming back to this, I might be able to be convinced that it's a 9. Really, I'm thinking an 8 though. Ick, again.