Hipsters ruin everything. There I said it. And I won't take it back. Remember the good ol days when you could roll into a Total Wine or Bevmo any day of the week and see a fully stocked bourbon shelf with Eagle Rare 10 year amongst the other gleaming bottles? Ready for the picking at a wonderfully affordable SRP of $45? Well, I do. And then some hipster "influencers" decided that this bourbon is pretty good drinking and sent their legions of followers in to all of the local fine retail establishments to wipe the shelves clean of certain bottles including Eagle Rare. Perhaps some of you live in parts of the country that don't have this problem. I live in Orange County, California where the streets are rife with hipsters. And so, when a beloved local retailer calls me to tell me that they've got some Eagle Rare 10 year in stock and will sell it to me for SRP which apparently now is $50... hell I was in my car before he could even hang up. And if that intro offended you... well.. I'm sorry. But my views and opinions do not reflect those of Distiller as a community and let's face it - if you are on a site like Distiller... the chances that you are actually a hipster looking for the next flavor of the week are probably pretty slim. No, chances are if you're reading this you're an enthusiast of fine alcoholic beverages like myself. I tasted Eagle Rare way back in the day. In the infancy of even knowing what good whiskey tasted like. I've been wanting a bottle ever since, with the intent to actually give it a good tasting. What a soft, sweet and delicate nose indeed! Caramel blankets some dark cherries and a bit of cooling mint. The nose just oozes of dessert. The taste starts fruity and sweet. Cherries and pears dance with honey and caramel but only for a fleeting moment. Mid taste a surprising wallop of spice swoops in. Tongue tingling cloves and cinnamon mingle with the sweet fruitiness as they usher in the finish. The mouthfeel of the finish is a bit sweet and powdery, reminiscent of dark chocolate. And in fact, I do detect some chocolate but maybe leaning more towards the sweetness of milk chocolate. Vanilla shines through on the finish with some herbal spices ( this is supposed to be a low rye mash bill but you can just taste a bit of rye spice on the finish ) ending off with a familiar leather smoking jacket at the tail end of the finish. I have this habit of bending my ratings based on price point. I try not to, but I do. If you can find a bottle of this stuff at SRP, it is a screaming bargain. This bourbon is wonderful, complex and delicious. The overwhelming taste profile is spice, but it isn't overpowering or unpleasant. Now if we can just convince the hipsters to buy something else so us whiskey junkies can actually buy Eagle Rare for a decent price...