This year for the holidays I’m going to try a brand new whiskey every day in December. #lifegoals Dec. 18 To my knowledge, this was a one time release back in 2017 that is no longer available. I paid $130, originally on sale at distillery for $85. You know how it goes. According to their announcement flyer, some ghosts took only 61 bottles worth of ten-year-old “Eighteen 33,” a name choice that has always bothered me in some deep but unknown way, and finished the batch in a Tonnellerie Sauternes wine barrel. I don’t know enough about wine for that to mean much, other than it’s a sweet white. Additionally, I’ve never had Boone County juice before, and I don’t understand the ghosts bit. Like at all. Only leg-up I have here is a decent exposure to barrel-finished bourbon, and as someone who is generally pro-barrel finishes when used as additional options from a given distillery (read: not the ONLY output of a given distillery, wagging my finger at you Angel’s Envy), I’m very excited to try this little guy. For a white wine finish, this drink is absurdly dark. It looks a lot like AE in color. I get a heavy load of raisin on the nose. Reminds me of Balvenie, but with the astringency of a higher-proof bourbon. There’s some vanilla and sugar there as well, but overall, raisin wins. It’s pretty interesting. I love it when there’s this much stuff going on in a body, regardless of how I feel about all the flavors. This one is very busy. The most obvious flavor is sweet wine. Fair amount of dust, oak, raisin. Cane sugar and citrus fade in and out around the more powerful wine flavor. It’s sweet and dry, and it’s actually quite good. Finish carries off with raisin, orange, and a bit of cinnamon. Very low heat, very dry, still sweet. This drink makes me very curious about the underlying bourbon. I don’t know what the ghosts are doing, but so far I’m a fan. If I had to guess, I’d say the standard 1833 is reminiscent of Wild Turkey juice, and the Sauternes does the rest. By WT juice, I mean I could see this fitting in with the 80/101/KY Spirit portfolio, not the Russels Reserve one. As a sincere WT fan, I mean that as a compliment. In 10 years, BC has accomplished some stuff I generally don’t expect until 15+ years, and them ghosts deserve a pat on the back. I still really want to know wtf is going on with the ghosts bit. Seriously. And yes, I do intend to start a resistance that henceforth calls this bourbon “1833.” I’ll be accepting applications for community organizers beginning March 2020. Edit: I just read a great review that explained the ghosts thing. So just go back and manually change all my consternation to mad respect. Edit 2: I just found out the ghost thing is explained in full on the label. You might be wondering if Milliardo is just a lazy drunkard. In my defense, the bottle is currently down a flight of steps. So yes. ‘Tis the season. I don’t know if I actually have 13 more new whiskeys lined up, so if you’re reading this and there’s something readily available out there you’d like me to enjoy/suffer through this holiday season, leave it in the comments. Don’t say WLW.