If you're like me and you read up on various reviews before deciding where to spend your money, you'll discover that Clermont Steep is a divisive one. Not only did Breaking Bourbon rate it 3.5/5, which in their ranking system is "Well Above Average," their admiration grew throughout the year so that they placed it on their Best Malt Whiskeys of 2023 list. Drinkhacker gave it a B+, not bad. It's got an expert review of 85 here on Distiller, which is also not bad. But if you also comb through the random blog reviews, the main complaint that people who dislike it is that it tastes young. And given it's aged 5 years, they're not wrong. There is a raw sense of graininess to it. But that doesn't necessarily make it bad outright. Maybe I'm giving it a little bit of a pass because I just recently tasted Garrison Brothers Small Batch and that came off as brown moonshine to me. I also recently tasted New Liberty's Bloody Butcher Straight Bourbon, which is better than Garrison but still retains something of a moonshine quality. Then again, both those are bourbons, corn is prominent, and this here is a single malt made with barley, and I've never tasted "white whiskey" (aka moonshine) made entirely from barley, so the youth here isn't as familiar. This is also aged 3 years more than Bloody Butcher and 2 years more than Garrison. But suffice it to say, I've tasted young whisky lately more so than usual, so comparing them, this one comes out on top. Aside from the notes of grain that are on both the nose and palate (not so much the finish), you get a sweet cereal note on the nose, vaguely reminiscent of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the grain itself provides a vegetal note, a little like asparagus, and you get the feeling that when people are curious about what this whisky might be with a bit more time in the barrel, you have the feeling they mean it would lean more toward the former than the later. I won't say the vegetal note is a dealbreaker, but it is something that reminds me I'm glad I got this on clearance for $45 instead of paying the full SRP of $60. The mouthfeel is nice and thick and one of the better aspects of the dram. There's still a bit of grain but the sweetness overwhelms it. There's savory caramel and a bit of spice mingling with the cinnamon that makes it more Red Hots on the palate than Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In fact, this came off to me like a cinnamon bomb on the tongue with a bit of vanilla rounding it out. The finish evolved into a bit of peach and some creamy vanilla notes, and is quite honestly the best part of this whisky. So while I'm not quite as enthused about it as Breaking Bourbon seems to be, the reviews that don't prime expectations but treat it as a drinkable bottle with the potential to be more interesting with more years are onto something. It'll be interesting to see where this goes if Beam continues to manufacture it and decides to add a little age. As it is, not great, but not bad. I wouldn't necessarily recommend a bottle, but if you see it at a bar, give it a shot. That is, if the asking price isn't too steep.