Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington
Remus Repeal Reserve Series III (2019 Medley)
Bourbon — Indiana, USA
Reviewed
September 14, 2020 (edited April 29, 2021)
Bold statements have been made about this mix of 11 and 12 year bourbons. The bottle isn’t without heart and fancy. The price tag is hearty as well, outpacing infamous 12’ish year bottles of ECBP.
First pop of the cork I get cranberry juice and tobacco. In the glass I get dusty leather notes, creamy vanilla icing, cinnamon, fruitcake and still just a hint of pipe tobacco. There’s also a noticeable ethanol singe, more pronounced than what I usually get at 100 proof, but without an associated aroma of ethanol.
Oh my, this is leather, an interesting mineral note (different from Dickel, more like fertilizer than flinstones), rich dark fruits, cardamom, a touch of anise and then a long, tingly fade into an oily rich vanilla finish with older, slightly tannic and drying oak notes.
This is funky stuff. I’m immediately sold because it manages to do something other bourbons don’t with regard to its spice profile and mineral quality. I’m bastardizing (word?) George T Stagg but if you threw a dusty old quilt atop the fire that is GTS to smother the heat I suspect you’d find something like this! Without the heat this is almost easier to dissect but takes time to do so.
I’ve never had a Remus Reserve before. This one sat 3-4 deep for at least the past month on a local shelf and was the lone bottle when I caved and brought it home. I’m incredibly glad that I did. The nose, the texture, the slowly evolving palate and finish are all something special. It drinks like something I’d expect to be older and I intend to work on this bottle over years. If IV is anything like III my hunting spirit is (irritatingly) alive again.
85.0
USD
per
Bottle
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Great review as always! Repeal is slightly better IMO but they are very close... what was crazy is out here in Phoenix metro bother of these were collecting dust at Costco for $59.99 for months!
@ContemplativeFox @DHSILV2 just manages to find a quite literally “dusty” Remus I that I will try to get to before long. That one looks to be a blend of 3 high rye 11-12y MGP. Will say though, stacking the III vs the Boone Co 12y also shows what a little more proof can do so seeing what a little less proof brings will also be interesting.
@dhsilv2 Thanks for the comparison between 3 and 4, and also with GTS! I sure hope I can find a bottle of this. I haven't seen it anywhere around here unfortunately, so I think my odds of finding the 3 are not so good, but maybe I'll find the 4 somewhere.
@ContemplativeFox I liked this better than the 2019 stagg, and while I don't have a review on the GTS, I've drank about 1/4 of a bottle of it one night and have had 3 other pours, so I think I can speak well to it. This is a great bottle and ti's crazy to me that they are still on shelves when complete crap flys off shelves due to the name on the bottle and not the contents.
So review of the IV is coming soon, I might be a bit too deep in my drinking (or I might skip my late night plans) to get a review on it up, but the IV isn't up to the III's standards, and ESPECIALLY for you and you're loving the funk of the III which the IV doesn't do. That said, buy the IV for SURE, it's awesome. This one however imo is one of the best bourbons that came out last year. Very like a top 10 bourbon from 2019 and the IV might "just" be a top 25 for 2020 which I think is going to be a flagship year for great bourbons.
Similar to GTS at <$100? We'd all better start looking for this.