I had heard a lot of chatter about this bourbon on those Facebook groups. You know the ones. This bottle wasn’t so much a highly sought after thing, but it seemed minimally distributed (at least in my region) and generally respected. So when I finally saw it pop up on the shelves, I was very excited to give it a go. Now checking this in on Distiller and seeing the 3.7 average across 300+ users, I’m a bit concerned I might’ve succumbed to a hype machine. Off the bat, the nose makes me think of a higher tier Jack Daniels product. It’s overall sour, with cedar chips, banana, tart cherry, yeast. It’s inviting, and I’m excited. Front end of the body is where the fruit hits. There’s the cherry and banana, which transitions into cedar, more banana, and yeast. All the fruit flavor, while good, isn’t the best example of fruit in a bourbon. Every now and then, somebody nails a natural cherry flavor, and I can’t say that this is that. This is more of the cherry syrup or cherry candy variety, but it’s not poorly done by any means. Finish is either yeasty or a delicious sweet orange flavor. The yeast is the main actor, but if you force the juice to the back and sides of your tongue and hold it there, the orange pops. I mean... I get it. I get why people talked this bourbon up. There’s some stuff it does really well, and I’m genuinely enjoying this pour. I’m excited to see how the bottle oxidizes, and I’m seeing some other variants out there that I really want to try. I also get why it’s a 3.7 kind of whiskey. If I were wanting to pick up a bourbon at or under $40, I’m not even sure this would hit my top 10. So I’m in that space I find myself in a lot when drinking a decent-yet-not-exemplary bourbon: won’t buy again, will enjoy this bottle, will look for variants to see what else this distillery is capable of in the future. I think I would’ve liked this more if I hadn’t had such high expectations, what with the awards and the Facebooks. Damnit people, never overstate your case. Rookie move.