Ah, Blantons. I'm excited to add my comment to the hundreds already here, even if it will be buried like a sandstorm in about 10 days. I have an odd history with Blantons. My friend went on the bourbon trail around 2015 and became a Blanton's fan, but he was the kind of guy that thought dumping it in an Old Fashioned was how you drink pricy bourbon. As a result, I'd tried Blantons before I became a whisk(e)y fanatic, but hadn't really tried it. I tried it one other time neat as part of a flight of whiskies at Hard Water in SF and though it was just fine but nothing special after blowing through a bunch of American Single Malts right before (I started my whisky journey with scotch). Fast forward to now. Blantons has become impossible to find for under $125 where I live and is derided as a "tater bottle" by people who have moved on to non-allocated whiskies or barrel proof monsters. And the fact is, they're right. No one should spend $125 on this bottle because it's beautiful and has a friggin' horse on it. There are dozens of equivalent or better whiskies you can get for Blantons now theoretical retail price, notably from Wild Turkey (shameless plug for Russell's SiB here) or honestly whichever of the major producers you prefer - stuff like Old Forester 1920 or Four Roses Select or Jack Daniels Single Barrel at Barrel Proof or . . . you get the picture. So that's it, right? No need to ever re-visit this because it's just hyped John Wick garbage for people who don't know anything? Maybe. That's part of the reason it's expensive. But I'm human. I went to BevMo to buy a Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit and nearly had a coronary when I saw two Blantons in a display case. In one of the most pitiful moments of my life, I had to ask a sales associate if the Blantons was actually for sale and if I could buy both. You'd have done the same thing. So humiliating retail experiences aside, what do we have here? Well, in this case a damn tasty bourbon that doesn't blow your face off. Nose is beautiful, balanced caramel and vanilla. Perfectly executed. Palate is smooth as silk, cherry cola with a slight tingle from the "high rye" (not really high rye, honestly, just higher than Mash Bill #1) in Buffalo Trace's Mash Bill #2. It's delicious. It's friendly. It's smooth. This is a conversion bottle. Your friends that don't care that much about whisky will love it. Your significant other will love it. Your parents will love it. Let them try it at a holiday. Gift them one on their birthday. And then pivot them towards one of the other dozens of bottles out there that is better value for the money and really stands out from the pack without reliance on horses and holy hand grenades and action movies. TLDR: I'm sad to report that Blantons is tasty and I'll buy it whenever I see it for retail. And it makes a spectacular gift, which is where the second bottle I snagged at BevMo will go. Such is life. But it doesn't mean this is the only thing you should drink. Far from it. Use this as a gateway to convert people to whisky and to make people feel special on big events. It has its place. That place isn't a daily drinker for whisky nerds anymore. That's the long and short of it. And it's okay, because if you're reading this, you know of tons of better bottles anyway for everything except gifts and special events.