If You've Had... Maker's Mark edition

I've always envisioned this site as a place where people can come to learn. Learn a little history. Learn a little about what they like. Learn what they should check out (whether it is bourbon or not). And ultimately learn enough to make informed decisions about where they put their money.

I've been including tasting notes as a method of trying to give people my feelings on a particular whiskey for a while now. But while a tasting note can give you an impression of how I felt about something on a particular day and it can certainly tell you a lot about the types of things that I'm reminded of, they aren't always a great way to compare whiskeys one to another.

To that end, I'm starting a new series on the blog. Every once in a while if I find I have a bunch of whiskeys that follow a theme, I'll do a basic comparison. The set up is like this: "If you've had Whiskey A then Whiskey B is..." hotter, spicier, sweeter, more floral, etc. Each section is written as compared to one of the whiskeys. So if you've had that one, but not the others. That section will be of the most use to you. Remember there are no value judgements here. You get to decide based on what you know of Whiskey A if Whiskey B sounds like something you'd want to try.

First up is the Maker's Mark family. I happened to have the entire line on the shelf and a lot of people have had Maker's Mark so it was an easy place to start. 

If you've had Maker's Mark then...

Maker's 46 is: sweeter, spicier and more flavorful with baking spices and a nice nuttiness.

Maker's Mark Cask Strength is: more bitter, hotter and spicier with more concentrated flavors including more traditional wheated bourbon flavors.

Maker's 46 Cask Strength is: sweeter with more pronounced baking spices and a hotter finish.

If you've had Maker's 46 then...

Maker's Mark is: lighter, more bitter and fruitier.

Maker's Mark Cask Strength is: hotter and not as sweet with more pronounced baking spices, an oilier mouthfeel and a much longer and warmer finish.

Maker's 46 Cask Strength is: similar with more concentrated flavors including more maple and stronger baking spices, an oilier mouthfeel and a longer finish. 

If you've had Maker's Mark Cask Strength then...

Maker's Mark is: as you'd expect, a softer and more muted version of the same flavors. The lower proof makes it easier to find the cinnamon and nutmeg flavors.

Maker's 46 is: softer, sweeter and oakier with more pronounced caramel and vanilla flavors.

Maker's 46 Cask Strength is: sweeter and spicier with a nicer finish. 

If you've had Maker's 46 Cask Strength then...

Maker's Mark is: softer with an almost watery mouthfeel. It has a more pronounced fruitiness and tastes almost chalky in comparison.

Maker's 46 is: less sweet and not as hot with more distinctive fruity flavors allowed to show through the lower proof.

Maker's Mark Cask Strength is: hotter and drier allowing more oak to present itself on the palate. 

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Heartbreak and Hope (and then Maker's 46 Cask Strength)

It’s autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. The time of year, in North America when minds turn to falling leaves, kids in school, the upcoming holidays, whiskey and football. In my case, college football. Specifically Minnesota Golden Gopher football. 

I grew up in Wisconsin. A place where the state of Minnesota is deemed a slightly better neighbor than a garbage dump, Illinois or Michigan. But only just. There is no real reason for the enmity. The two states are much more alike than they are different. The land is mostly farms, trees and lakes. The people are mostly farmers, hunters, fishers. They are both mostly rural with a single large population center. Historically, the politics in both both leaned left but with a hearty dose of wariness about new people and ideas when you got to the Northernmost reaches. There seems to be one of those conservative blips happening in my former home right now, but the point still stands that these two states are much more alike than they are different. They are two siblings always sniping at one another. Each convinced that the other is an idiot. 

This, of course extends to their football teams. In the, increasingly hard for me to care about, NFL you have the Packers and the Vikings in the same division of the NFC. And across both sides of the border, you have both Packers fans and Vikings fans. Many of the fans of both teams are insufferable, spewing venom everywhere. I once watched a Viking fan swear at a little kid for wearing a Packer shirt and I’ve seen Packer fans do equally unspeakable things. 

In college, you have the Wisconsin Badgers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the same division of the Big Ten. In these parts, college fans can be less venomous than the fans of the pro teams. Not always, but as a general rule you can see Badger fans hoping the Gophers win certain games and Gopher fans hope that the Badgers win certain games. Still, growing up in my family in Wisconsin, you were expected to love the Packers and the Badgers and never waver. And I didn’t. Until I enrolled in the University of Minnesota after high school. 

When I was choosing colleges, there were exactly two schools in the general vicinity of home that offered the Astrophysics that I thought was going to be my calling. And neither had a Badger for a mascot. One was the University of Minnesota and the other was the University of Michigan. Growing up Badger was hard. At the time they were going through a spate of eight straight losing seasons and before that only occasionally flirted with respectability. Going Gopher wouldn’t be any easier, they’d been floating around the bottom half of the Big Ten for thirty years. Michigan on the other hand, was Michigan. That was a team it would be easy to be a fan of. They hadn’t had a losing season in 26 years. Quite a bit longer than I had been alive at that point. 

But the football team is only a determinant of which school you go to if you are a football recruit. As you might have guessed from my choice of major above, I was not a football player. And so I went with the closer and cheaper option in Minnesota and forever changed my college football allegiance. I’ve always had a special spot in my heart for the Michigan-Minnesota game though, both because they are historic rivals and because of my own history. 

All of which brings me to this past Saturday and the game between a heavily-favored Michigan Wolverines and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Michigan was ranked as the 15th best team in the country. Unranked Minnesota was not living up to expectations. Michigan’s coach was the new hotness, a former player returning home from coaching his way into the Super Bowl. Minnesota’s coach had just retired a few days before due to complications from epilepsy after bringing the program back to the brink of respectability. 

Going into it, this was a game that I expected my team would lose. But then, a funny thing happened. The Gophers were competitive. More so than they should have been with a extensive injuries and an interim coach. The lead went back and forth before the Gophers finally went ahead on a last second touchdown. But upon review it was determined that the player was down one yard short of the goal line giving them 19 seconds to go the final three feet to win an emotional game. But after two tries, time ran out. They were half a yard short. 

In the span of 4 minutes I went from the highest of highs as my scrappy team looked to win an emotional game for a beloved coach to the lowest of lows when poor mistakes brought heartbreak. I am a fan of Minnesota Golden Gopher football and that means I am always prepared for heartbreak, but it also means that I always have hope that the next time my heart won’t be broken. 

It’s kind of how I feel about bourbon these days. No matter how much I pay, I’m prepared to be heartbroken. You feel like you can’t lose, that no one would put out a bourbon that expensive and have it be disappointing. But it happens more and more often. Fancy packaging hiding a mediocre product. And then there are times when the package gives you nothing and you just have to hope that you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Heartbreak and hope. Two sides of the same coin. If you don’t have hope that something can be good, you’ll never be heartbroken when it isn’t. But if you don’t hope for something to be good, why are you even buying it?

Maker’s 46 Cask Strength

Purchase Info: $39.95 for a 375 mL bottle. Maker’s Mark Distillery gift shop, Loretto, KY. 

Details: Bourbon finished with Oak Staves. 54.45% ABV. Remarkably plain packaging for something with the Maker’s Mark name on it.

Nose: Very sweet with caramel and vanilla. Nicely nutty with hints of cherry, cinnamon clove and nutmeg. 

Mouth: Sweet and warm with the spicy tingle of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Chocolate, nuts, cherry and oak follow. 

Finish: Pleasant sweet warmth slowly reveals a bitter nuttiness and lingering baking spices. 

A little heart because I love this!

Thoughts: This is one of the times that, despite the homely package it comes in, you hope that a bourbon will be amazing and it turns out to actually be so. As you might expect from a bourbon put out by Maker’s Mark, this is an amazingly easy bourbon to drink at barrel proof. The warmth is not so hot that you’ll need to add water. It’s very sweet, but that sweetness is balanced by baking spices and other rich flavors. In fact, I’d say this might be one of the nicest desserts one could pour. I love this one. If you are in the area of the Makers Mark Distillery, as I believe this is only available at the gift shop, stop and pick some up.

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Evan Williams Red Label, 12 years old & 101 proof, compared to two more reasonably priced cousins

When you are on vacation, it can be really easy to get caught up in spending just a little more than your budget. When you are whiskey fan vacationing in Kentucky, it can be doubly easy to do so. 

Back in September I was wandering through downtown Louisville, trying to decide if I wanted food or a drink, when I realized I was standing outside the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience. Ever since the one time I wandered in and stumbled upon the now discontinued Evan Williams Barrel Proof, I’ve tried to stop in on every visit to Louisville just to take a peek to see if there is anything fun for sale that is under my price ceiling and that I can’t get anywhere else.

We were wandering though, overhearing that they had sold out of that day’s allotment of Parker’s Heritage and looking at the shelves when a red bottle of Evan Williams catches my eye. It is 12 years old, 101 proof, has a nice gold wax dipped neck and a little paper seal proclaiming it to be an Evan Williams Bourbon Experience Exclusive.

Here’s the part where you can laugh at me. 

Apparently forgetting where I was and what year it was, I thought to myself “Oh cool, an older Evan Williams. Evan Williams is normally decently priced. I should pick this up” And so not seeing a price sign, I grabbed a bottle. I carried it through the gift shop for a little while until I happened upon one of the aforementioned signs. $129.99. I immediately turned on my heel and ever so gently put it back down where I found it.

But the more I thought about it, the more I tried to convince myself that I really didn’t want a 12 year, 101 proof Evan Williams. That I didn’t want to break my $125 price ceiling. That I would be perfectly happy with either a 100 proof Evan Williams Bottled in Bond or a 12 year old Elijah Craig. I looked at my wife. “How much is it?” she asked, seeing the look in my face. I told her. Her perfectly appropriate response was “we’re on vacation, it’s $4 and you let me buy the Master’s Keep. Just get it.” I didn’t need much more encouragement. I picked the bottle back up and made my way to the register before I found something else or changed my mind. Again.

Once I got home, I stuck it in the closet until a couple weeks ago when a spot on the whiskey shelf opened up. This was one that I had put close to the front. I mean if it was $100 more than the same aged Elijah Craig in the same size bottle, it was probably going to be something special, right? The price had lifted my expectations sky high. They wouldn’t charge that much of a premium if it wasn’t better, right?

Upon opening it, I poured myself a small sample and in an identical glass poured a small sample of Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. I was devastated to not notice much of a difference. There was a difference, but it was slight. My expectations came crashing down. It had to be me, maybe I was having an off day. I gave both glasses to my wife who said “not much difference is there?” I was crushed. I’d gotten caught up in a price and forgot the one lesson I always tell people: “A higher priced does not mean anything other than the company wanted to charge a higher price.” And so I set the bottle aside for a couple weeks while I waited for it’s turn for review.

Knowing that I needed to get rid of both my high and low notions of this whiskey, I set up a three way blind tasting for my wife and I. I pulled one of my samples of Elijah Craig 12 out of my sample library and poured a glencairn of it, the Evan Williams Bottled in Bond and the Evan Williams Red Label. I followed my normal double-blind procedure where I pour the glasses and set them on a sheet of paper labeled 1, 2 and 3 and leave the room. My wife then comes into the room and moves them to another sheet of paper labeled A, B and C. I know what bourbon is 1, 2 and 3 and she knows which number corresponds to each letter, but neither of us know which bourbon corresponds to what letter.

Evan Williams Red Label vs. Evan Williams White Label vs. Elijah Craig 12 year old

Purchase info: Evan Williams Red Label: $129.99 for a 750 mL bottle at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, Louisville, KY. Evan Williams White Label: $17.99 for a 1L bottle at MGM Wine and Spirits, Burnsville, MN. Elijah Craig 12 year old: I have no idea as I poured that sample from a bottle I bought back in mid-2013.

Nose: 

A: Dried corn, cloves, a bit hit of alcohol and some caramel sweetness

B: Lots of sweet caramel right off the top, mint, some bubble gum and fleeting hints of dried corn.

C: This is kind of muted. Mint, nutmeg, some bubble gum and a little dried corn.

Mouth: 

A: Starts with a nice heat and is very dried corn forward. A bitterness follows that, since I am allergic, my wife tells me is reminiscent of raw almonds. Cloves bring up the rear. 

B: Soft on the mouth. Oak, mint, caramel, nutmeg and cloves. 

C: Very spice forward with oak, clove and nutmeg appearing with the first sip. Typical bourbon notes of caramel and vanilla follow.

Finish: 

A: Lingering warmth along with a pleasant bitterness. 

B: Bubble gum, mint and a warmth that lasts.

C: Very long and warm finish with lingering spice and sweetness. 

Pre-reveal Thoughts:

A: I’m almost positive this is the White Label. With as corn forward as it is, I’m guessing that it can’t be a 12 year old whiskey. It’s good, but not very complex.

B: This is a very good whiskey. Enough oak and heat to make you notice without either being overpowering. The oak and heat are balanced with just enough sweetness to make this a very pleasurable dram. 

C: This might be my favorite of the three. I’m loving the combination of the sweetness and heat. The finish is darn near perfect. 

Which was which:

A: Evan Williams Bottled in Bond

B: Elijah Craig 12 year old

C: Evan Williams Red Label, 12 year old, 101 proof

Post-reveal Thoughts:

Based on my initial experience with the Red Label right upon opening the bottle, I would have bet money that that C would have been Elijah Craig 12. It had that mixture of heat, spice and sweetness that I remember. While I like all of these, the Red Label really is the best of the batch. Hands down. And it really should be. At roughly six times the price of the other two this bottle has a price that is hard to swallow. I certainly won’t be buying it again, but am quite impressed. 

A smile because it tastes good even if I don't like the price.

Overall, I like the Evan Williams Red Label. It has the Evan Williams approachability mixed with the complexity and spice reflective of its more advanced age. If you are in Louisville and $130 means nothing to you, grab this one. If on the other hand you value your cash like I do, see if you can find it in a bar and pick up a bottle of Elijah Craig 12 when you get home. Because the difference in quality between the two is much smaller than the difference in price.

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J.P. Wiser's Double Still Rye

If you are a fan of more than just bourbon, you’ve noticed that non-bourbon whiskey folks sometimes make a big deal out of what kind of still they are using. Whether it is a column or pot still. How many times it is run through said still. Certain scotches even advertise the length of the neck of their pot stills. 

And while I suppose that such things can make a difference, I’d love to see a real side by side of whiskey distilled in a pot still to whiskey distilled in a column still to the same proof, aged in the same locations for the same amount of time and blended to the same flavor profile, etc. In any case people much smarter than me care about these things so I mention this as a way of introducing tonight’s review. 

J.P. Wiser’s Double Still Rye is a Canada-only product that was sent to me in the same box as the Wiser’s Hopped I reviewed last week. It is a blend of two Canadian rye whiskies. One distilled in a pot still, one in a column still. 

J.P. Wiser’s Double Still Rye

Purchase info: This was obtained from a friend in Canada, but it can be purchased at the LCBO for roughly $30 Canadian for a 750 mL bottle.

Details: 43.4% ABV

Nose: Caramel candy, mint and just a hint of pickle juice.

Mouth: This has a soft mouthful with a nice tingle that runs down the sides of the mouth. More caramel candy, some cloves and a nice nuttiness. 

Finish: A lingering cool minty tingle paired with a nice nuttiness. 

Smile because I like this.

Thoughts: This is a nice whiskey. It is not my favorite product released under the Wiser’s name, but if it were available in the US, I’d probably pick it up now and again as a change of pace. As it is, it’s a Canada-only release and I won’t be making a run for the border to grab it. In fact, it might not make the cut to come home with me next time I go. It’s a tasty whisky, full flavored. It’s just nothing to go out of your way to obtain if it isn’t readily available. 

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A visit to Tattersall Distilling, Northeast Minneapolis.

Cocktails in the Tattersall Distilling Cocktail Room. (Photo Credits: Producer: Sam Kovar. Photographer: Tom Okins.)

Tattersall Distilling Cocktail Room. (Photo Credits: Producer: Sam Kovar. Photographer: Tom Okins.)

Most of the distilleries I’ve been to are just that, distilleries. They might have a sample area or a gift shop where they can interact with the prospective customers. But at the end of the day, they are there to make a product. This is all well and good. But if you are a small operation, you need to get your name out there. You can’t just hope that people will be walking past the shelf and happen to look at your bottle. 

I’ve recently discovered that there is another way to go about it. I recently met a friend for a drink at Tattersall Distilling in Northeast Minneapolis. That’s right, I went to a distillery for a drink. You see, Minnesota recently passed a law allowing distilleries to apply for a license to have a cocktail room on premise. Tattersall was blessed with that all important quality in business—timing—and took full advantage of the new law when they opened. 

The distillery at Tattersall Distilling. (Photo Credits: Producer: Sam Kovar. Photographer: Tom Okins.)

Tattersall was opened by Dan Oskey and Jon Kreidler about a year, year and a half ago. Friends since childhood, the pair decided to make a career change and attended the Michigan State Distilling School. After learning their craft, they got to work getting the distillery up and running. Oskey was a highly renowned bartender, helping to develop the cocktail program at multiple local establishments including The Strip Club in St. Paul. Kreidler was, to quote their website, “a financial wizard.” But it wasn’t just the two of them, drawing on a wealth of talented friends that included marketers, architects, and others, they set out to build not just a distillery, but an experience. 

Tattersall is located in a building with a long history. Built in the 1910s it was a place where they were making the top secret Norden bombsight during World War II. The guard tower still stands above the outdoor patio. With exposed Bethlehem Steel beams, high wood ceilings and concrete floors it was the perfect place to house a distillery and the very cool cocktail room. 

Outside on the patio of Tattersall Distilling. (Photo Credits: Producer: Sam Kovar. Photographer: Tom Okins.)

The cocktail room is the heart of the business. It is a cool, industrial place to grab a high quality craft cocktail made by bartenders poached from some of the top cocktail establishments in the area. Beyond the glass walls is the distillery itself where patrons may occasionally get to watch the products being made on beautiful Vendome stills. 

Though they sell many of their products at local liquors stores and restaurants in Minnesota, the biggest selection is available in the cocktail room itself. It was explained to me this way: the distillery makes all the items that the cocktail room needs. They make gins, vodka, numerous liqueurs and bitters. The notable exception is whiskey. Right now the cocktail room uses a bourbon that is sourced from a distillery in Kentucky and bottled by them for use in their cocktails. 

Barrels aging at Tattersall Distilling. (Photo Credits: Producer: Sam Kovar. Photographer: Tom Okins.)

Don’t be sad though. They have started production on a rye whiskey as well as wheated and rye bourbons. The rye whiskey will be 100% rye using rye grain and rye malt and aged for at least two years. They want to put out a straight product. For the bourbons, though they wouldn’t tell me the ingredient ratios, they did let me know that they are using different malts for both the wheat and the rye bourbons as well as a specialty yeast that was developed in Scotland. Kreidler tells me that the barrels are sourced here in Minnesota and will be aged in “as big of barrels as they can buy, though no smaller than 30 gallons.” 

Tattersall Distilling Chief Officer, Jon Kreidler. (Photo by Eric Burke.)

Overall I like a lot of the things that Tattersall is doing. With the cocktail room, they know where their money is coming from so they won’t have to cut corners and just sell “what they have.” They can take the time to develop products that are innovative, unique, and most importantly good. Knowing that even with their training, they don’t have all the answers, they brought in consultants who did—on every topic from distilling a clean product to how to set up an industrial factory floor. Knowing that the cocktail room was going to be the lifeblood, they hired the best folks they could to make those cocktails and invested in a cool and cozy spot for people to drink them in. 

Overall if you are in the Minneapolis metro area, I’d highly recommend stopping in. I had an Old Fashioned and it was quite good. Tours are given Saturdays.

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JP Wiser's Hopped Whisky

I spend a lot of time reading about whisky. Mostly bourbon, but I branch out in my reading too. I like Rye and Canadian so I read about those as well. A few times a day, I share the ones I find interesting on Twitter. Back in August I read about something interesting that was coming out in Canada. 

I thought a hopped whisky sounded interesting. I know that the most general description of whisky is distilled beer. And I know that certain distillers, like Maker’s Mark, use hops in their yeast. So it didn’t seem like too far of a stretch to see a hop flavor in the whisky itself. If you follow the link above, it sounds like Wiser’s uses the equivalent of dry-hopping a beer (adding the hops after the beer has cooled) to minimize the bitterness hops can provide.

In any case, I assumed that I would put it on the list for the next time I visited Canada and that would be that. But wouldn’t you know it, a friend of mine near Toronto decided it would be fun to send me some to see what my reaction would be. 

JP Wiser’s Hopped whisky

Purchase Info: gift from a Canadian friend, but it sells at the LCBO for $27-$29 Canadian.

Details: 40% ABV

Nose: Sweetness and hops combine to resemble nothing less than dry erase markers. After a while I get a lot of cocoa on the nose.

Mouth: Sweet, chocolate, bready. This is a lot like a chocolate stout with no carbonation and a thinner mouthfeel. There is also a touch of maple.

Finish: Gentle warmth with more chocolate.

A Smile because I like this

Thoughts: I like this a lot. Chocolate stout is one of my favorite beer styles and this hits a lot of the same notes. Aside from the carbonation, it’s almost more like drinking a beer than a whisky. Looking forward to trying this in a couple whisky cocktails to see what it does.

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Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2015

There is a strange phenomenon I’ve noticed when I discuss tasting notes with people. We will often use the most awful sounding descriptors to mean the most pleasant things. I’m reminded of a tasting that I and a few brand new friends of mine had in my hotel room while I was in Toronto last. The statement of “this reminds me of candle wax, terrific!” was heard. We were drinking some good single malt (yes, even for me such things pop up now and then). I thought it odd, but since I had less enthusiastically decided on band-aids to describe the same note I didn’t feel I should judge. Since that time, I’ve kept my eyes and ears open while on blogs and in discussions and again and again, this same thing happens. 

I say that by way of introducing this year’s Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. I’ve read a lot of descriptions of Old Forester and Woodford Reserve that talk about a “plastic” note or an “artificial” note. They don’t tend to mean this in a good way. Others call it apples, pears, floral or fruity. These are obviously more complementary. It took me until last year to accurately describe what I was sensing. To me it seems like the smell of freshly painted latex paint. And thinking back to that Toronto hotel room, I mean it in a complementary way. Like a freshly painted room can smell fresh and clean, so does Old Forester to me.

In any case, think about this as you read the notes below. I really like this bourbon, but as you read the notes, you might not realize that.

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2015 release.

Purchase info:  Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN. 750 mL bottle for $74.99.

Details: 50% ABV. 12 year age stated

Nose: Strong latex paint (or whatever you call the typical Brown Forman note) along with some vanilla, mixed berries, caramel and brown sugar.

Mouth: Syrupy mouthfeel. Caramel, brown sugar, baking spices. 

Finish: Sweet with lingering heat, latex paint and fruitiness.

A happy face because I like this one.

Thoughts: If you are an Old Forester fan, Birthday Bourbon seldom disappoints. Its got all the same notes as any Brown Forman bourbon. They are just stronger and more concentrated and it’s older so there is typically more oak. This release is no exception. It’s Old Forester, just more so. I would say that though I think I liked last year’s better, this is still a solid pick should you find it.

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Wild Turkey Rye 101 proof, pre- and post-hiatus comparison

If you are a rye whiskey fan, you were probably pretty sad a couple years ago when it was announced that Wild Turkey Rye 101 was going on hiatus. Wild Turkey always maintained that it was actually a hiatus and not a discontinuation. They urged patience. Or maybe you’d like to take a look at the 81 proof rye or Russell’s Reserve Rye?

Why would you be sad that a fairly low priced rye whiskey was going away however briefly? Well that’s the biggest reason, it was very nicely priced. Add in that it was a tasty “everyday” rye and one of the few ryes on the market that wasn’t just MGP rye in another bottle and you have the full answer. 

About a year after it went away, I was walking through one of my local liquor stores when I saw a single bottle of Wild Turkey 101 Rye sitting there. I was a bit surprised when I saw it sitting there. To say that it immediately went into my shopping basket is an understatement. I got it home and immediately put it into the closet. Fun bit of trivia: this was the first bottle of whiskey that I purchased to put away for a future story. 

Now of course, Wild Turkey 101 Rye is back on the shelves. The price has crept up a little in the interval and the label has been updated, but it is back. Of course, I want to find out how it compares to the pre-hiatus juice. I really want to eliminate any preconceived notions, so let’s go double-blind on this one. 

Wild Turkey Rye 101 proof, pre- and post-hiatus comparison

Purchase info: Pre-hiatus: MGM Liquor and Spirits, 750 mL bottle for $18.99. Post-hiatus: Ace Spirits, 1L bottle for $29.99.

Details: 50.5% ABV

Rye A

Nose: Mint/rosemary, caramel, baking spices and black tea

Mouth: Hot and sweet. Lots of mint with some cookie dough, black tea and baking spices.

Finish: This is a hot finish. One that you just want to breathe in on. Allowing the cool minty air sooth your hot tongue. Lingering mint and sweetness.

Rye B

Nose: More muted than A with spearmint, caramel, dried grasses and green apple.

Mouth: Soft and velvety, mint, pickle juice and baking spices. 

Finish: Short and sweet with cinnamon gum and mint.

Thoughts (Pre-reveal): These are certainly different from one another. Neither are bad. A is more tannic, but also hotter. My wife prefers this one. B has more of the mint/pickle rye flavors that I tend to like. It’s softer and doesn’t show it’s proof as much as A. I like B better. That said, neither of us would turn down a glass of either of these and no matter which is the current release, I’ll be happy to buy another bottle. Before I find out which is which, let me say that I’m glad that even though there was an evolution in flavors during the hiatus, there isn’t a step down in quality. 

A happy face because we both like these.

Thoughts (Post-reveal): Well, my wife is certainly a happy girl. A, the one she liked better, was the current release whereas my preferred dram was B, the pre-hiatus release. I’m not sad, but after sitting on the bottle for almost two years,I will be sure to keep the rest of this bottle for myself and not share. Allowing her the same consideration for the rest of the current release. Thankfully my bottle is still mostly full. Of course once both are gone and replaced with another bottle of the current release we will both be happy.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts Etsy store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. Thanks!