ContemplativeFox
John J Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon
Bourbon — Virginia, USA
Reviewed
June 27, 2020 (edited October 26, 2021)
The nose is rich and deep with some wood and oil, but not a ton of complexity. The palate has an immediate spicy presence with a bitter wood backing and smoke but not a tremendous amount of char. The alcohol presence is pretty intense. There isn't a ton of complexity here unfortunately and it doesn't have a nice sweetness giving it life. It's on the spicy, mineral side like a rye. It doesn't have bad notes, but it isn't what I want. There's too much oil and blandess with too much spice. It has a hint of nuttiness that reminds me of Booker's Shiny Barrel, but it isn't as complex (not a super high bar) or toastily nutty. There's something just a tad mushrooms here that I'm not a fan of.its not bad, but it could really use some work. The quality is close to that of High West American Prarie, but the flavors go together better, so this wins out a little bit.
60.0
USD
per
Bottle
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I discovered this one several years ago and found it to be quite similar to Blanton's and readily available. Opened one a couple weeks ago that I am sipping on now. This is nothing like prior bottles. I am getting a mushroom thing as well. Prior bottles were great, this one not so much but I've had some funky Blanton's as well
@Anthology Glad you found it useful! You're sure right that on the single barrel releases there can be huge variation, so there's a solid possibility that I got a bum barrel though. Hopefully you find something more worth your $50 :)
@ContemplativeFox Nice review! Just saw this drop in at my local retailer for $50, and was considering pulling the trigger. Prolly going to skip based on this review. Only hesitation is since it’s single barrel, there could be huge [favorable] variations in taste from barrel to barrel. Still, although $50 is not much, I think my FOMO is negligible for this one so I’ll stick with my pass decision. Thanks for the heads up!