Season finale! This year for the holidays I tried a brand new whiskey every day in December. #lifegoalsweremet Dec. 31 I decided to end my new December mission with a new personal tradition: to crack open a limited yearly release at the end of its year. I’m thinking of this as one last “here’s to 2019,” to offer up one of the year’s finest (in theory) in celebration. I hope that one year from now I can still remember this is a thing. This distillery has sentimental value to me. It was the first bourbon distillery I ever visited, with a good friend who was both far wiser about whiskey and far less well-endowed. While at Angel’s Envy, I got to physically bottle my own port finish. There was a big ceremony, I signed a book. It was a whole thing. I tried my first Old Fashioned in their upstairs bar. They called their version the Henderson, in honor of the family who started the business. I walked into Angel’s Envy “not a bourbon guy,” and left with a bit of that chip removed from my shoulder. That was July of 2018, and shortly thereafter, bourbon stole my soul. I still have no regrets. The nose is deceptive. 61.2% should not be this easy to sniff. I enjoy this nose a bit better than standard AE and my current favorite port finish, Isaac Bowman. There’s cherry, grape, vanilla. It’s a predictable port finish nose, but it’s well done. It smells sweeter than it is dry, as in a well-made sangria. Very promising. Body does not hide the ABV, but I don’t mind. Cherry is the hero here. I can’t remember a whiskey deliver such a pure cherry flavor before. I get vanilla too, and a bit of tart orange. It’s delicious. Okay, the mouth feel on this finish is not going to be for everyone. My lips and gums feel like I’ve gotten a bunch of novocaine shots, and I’m only a handful of sips in. I actually enjoy it a lot, but it’s comically intense. Flavor transitions away from tartness and sweet fruit to vanilla, cinnamon, and a bit of leather. I can get dark chocolate too, but it’s less obvious. With ice: anything this hot I like to try tempered down a skosh to see what changes. From start to finish, a bit of ice takes away a lot of the sweetness. Before I could’ve convinced myself that this was not a barrel finish, just a really unique bourbon. The sweetness reduction makes the port influence harder to argue with, but it’s still a delicious drink. Per usual, you lose some notes with the ice, but the cherry and vanilla persevere. I don’t understand how extra ABV and room temperature can make something seem sweeter, but I can’t argue with science. This is a delicious bottle. $220 is steep, but for special occasions shared with friends, this bottle is worth it. There’s a lot to enjoy here. Will buy again if I can find. This December experiment has been a lot of fun. If you happen to be hoarding bottles like I was, I highly recommend doing something like this every now and then. I now have dozens of delicious bottles opened up (so no pressure pouring a delicious dram from my collection) and I’ve learned a lot. For instance, it’s against Distiller guidelines to start a review request for a liqueur. I don’t fully understand this, as liqueurs are a selectable category in the drop down menu during review requests, but whatevs. I learned that Booker’s are for drinking, not hoarding. I learned that my love for bourbon is likely contingent upon the fact that I’m an American. I now view this love as less of an objective fact about reality and more a subjective statement about regional availability. Next year, I hope to earn my stripes in the world of scotch. I really want to thank everyone who interacted with my nonsense over the past month. You’ve made this experiment all the more fun. If you find yourself in the Chicago area, tag me I’m a post and let’s go find a place to drink some whiskey. ‘Tis the freakin season!