Been wanting to try an Ironroot for a while, they hype on these is beyond words. Nose - Oh god....clay putty, please don't like this be another turd like Garrison Brothers! Ok a bit more nosing and there's some sweet notes, its' way better than Garrison brothers. Overall still the nose on this sucks and frankly it smells nothing like bourbon. taste - So I brought the abv way down for this review as I want to get into the notes. There's that clay funk that I get in Garrisons which is simply off putting and frankly if Texas bourbon wants to be a quality product long term they need to get rid of it. I get maple notes which is unique. some red hots, and there's a good nice sweetness. At the end of the day this tastes like younger whisky. It has off notes. It does have some redeeming quality elements. It's complex, actually really complex, and I think there's some real quality going into this one. I personally can't get past the nose or that clay flavor to give this a high score but once again I can tell they're on their way. Over priced for the flavor, absolutely. But for a startup distillery trying to find their grounds and for how unique it is, I'm pretty happy with the price. For bourbon drinkers this is a 0 out of 100. It doesn't taste like bourbon. For people who love whisky this is a 50 out of 100, it's really interesting but you'll likely not enjoy it. For whisky geeks looking to explore, this is a 75. For a distillers score I don't know. Calling it bourbon is really a problem for me as there is no bourbon note in this bottle. I don't see this going in coke well. OK I'm adding ice - the way bourbon drinkers drink their stuff normally anyway. OK I'm getting waxy corn and vanilla. This is starting to taste like bourbon. Oddly enough I don't get the oak notes of a bourbon. That's what's killing this for me. One would think massive oak in that heat but instead I don't get the oak. I think that's the issue. This isn't bourbon tasting because I don't get the first charred oak. As you can clearly tell I really want to give this a high score. I don't think that texas heat works with grain whisky. Going 1.5. There's quality here, there really is but this isn't bourbon and it isn't one I'll ever buy again. A 1.5 isn't bad though, it's a good fair score for a whisky that frankly for me isn't good but I can see the quality and realize there is a niche for this.