TheWhiskeyNinja
Russell's Reserve 10 Year Bourbon
Bourbon — Kentucky, USA
Reviewed
August 16, 2020 (edited August 18, 2020)
This is bourbon. A good one. Really traditional vanilla and caramel come through with baking spices on the nose but not a lot there. Clean sweet maple finish and oak finishing. Lots of flavor for a pretty reasonable price point.
30.0
USD
per
Bottle
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@WhiskeyLonghorn Thank you so much. The community is what has made this whiskey journey so enjoyable. I am so lucky to have a great local group AND an amazing whiskey (Bourbon bar) in my town.
@runrevcollins oh, and I still love a pour of 101 or EW BiB, especially on a hot Texas summer afternoon with a big wedge of ice. I never stopped liking those pours.
@runrevcollins I was thinking about your comments about being a whiskey newbie. I think that what you’re doing here is great! I’ve learned so much from this community, and I’ve come to trust certain individuals over the official reviews to help guide my tasting and purchasing. I started out with 101 and EW BiB too, and I gradually built up my palate and mental library of tasting notes. Most of what’s in my collection now I would have never been able to appreciate 6-7 years ago when I first got into whiskey. It’s a beautiful, tasty journey. Glad you’re along for the ride with us!
@TheWhiskeyNinja I’ll review a bottle multiple times if I have the impression that it will change over the course of its life. I have a bottle of Lagavulin Distillers Edition right now that I wasn’t particularly thrilled with when I opened it, but I shared it with some friends and got the fill level down about a third. Now I’m letting it sit and open up for 5-6 months. I’ll probably revisit it around the holidays with the hope that time and air have changed it for the better. At that point I’m reviewing a different dram, so I’ll write a different review. I’ve seen @BlimpsGo90 do something similar.
@TheWhiskeyNinja I try to keep the tastes independent of each other. I have a spreadsheet where I come up with an aggregate score, but otherwise the tasting is what it is. In some cases where my palate is out of whack, I'll decline to rate though.
@TheWhiskeyNinja I personally let that moment stand for what it is. Taste is so subjective anyway.
@ContemplativeFox @runrevcollins @WhiskeyLonghorn Do you all adjust initial ratings when you retaste or let that moment stand and put in a new score? I'm finding even what I stack it against really changed my taste. Like I pulled an Ardbeg against a rye and 2 bourbons and my tongue was confused for 3 days.
@TheWhiskeyNinja @runrevcollins Yeah, it's very interesting how a=in different conditions you can get all sorts of different flavors. It makes it a lot of fun to revisit drams and figure out the optimal conditions to have them, though it also makes the process of actually assigning a rating brutal.
@TheWhiskeyNinja I hear you. I remember the 1st time I really smelled and tasted something. That's why EW BIB is so special to me
@runrevcollins. I'm a newbie right now. it is interesting how much your tastes change. I had never liked scotch and avoided it. Then came back to it this year and really liked it. Some ryes like Bulliet I get a lot of mint one day and barely a whiff the next. Part of what I love about tastings.
@TheWhiskeyNinja Don't get me wrong. I'm a Wild Turkey fan boy. 😂 I really think I needed to grow to really appreciate it. I bought the bottle not long after I first started really drinking whiskey.
@WhiskeyLonghorn Great suggestion.
@runrevcollins yeah really light and I needed to let some air to hit the tongue. For me it's almost like the after flavor of a pancake in real maple syrup where it's not just sugar but almost a molasses quality. Nothing life changing but my first Russell's and I will definitely be going up their ladder to try more.
@runrevcollins if you can, try it side by side with the 101. Helps some of those more nuanced flavors in the 10 year pop out.
@WhiskeyLonghorn Maple? That's curious. All I got was basic butter. Then again I was pretty new when I drank the bottle.
I wasn't a huge fan but unfortunately I also was a newbie when I bought it. I hope to revisit it soon now that I have a better developed nose and palate. I found or pretty bland and meh.
Love the maple note on this one. Only turkey I find that note on.