Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon 2023

I’d like to thank the folks at Garrison Brothers for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

A reminder that I am on vacation to the Pacific Northwest this week. If things go as planned, as you read this, I should be hanging around Mount Rainier National Park or relaxing in my cabin outside of the park. Obviously, this was written ahead of time.

Garrison Brothers is not a distillery I know much about, having never purchased their product before. Mostly because the cheapest bottle that Total Wine has is about $90 per 750 mL bottle, with the highest-priced bottle being above $200. That’s a bit too high for me to take a flyer on. But when they offered me a sample of their upcoming 2023 Cowboy Bourbon, I knew I needed to experience this 140°+ proof monster.

2023’s Cowboy bourbon will be releasing Saturday, September 23rd, at a distillery event in Hye, Texas, with the remaining bottles landing at retailers starting the first week of October. The suggested retail price is $249.99.

Here is what the company has to say about this bad boy.

Cowboy Bourbon® is Garrison Brothers’ most elite expression offering the truest taste of Texas terroir on the market. The release comes from what Master Distiller Donnis Todd calls his “piggy bank” of barrels that are just too flavorful on first taste to bottle. He patiently saves and collects these specific barrels as he finds them during his daily, monthly and yearly taste tests, if he deems them of having Cowboy Bourbon® potential. Years later, he takes these barrels out of the already incredibly harsh Texas climate in which they are aging and puts them to the ultimate test: more Texas heat. The already incredibly high-proof barrels continue to age, with some ending up completely empty. Those that remain are collected and married together to make the legendary Cowboy Bourbon® bottled at cask-strength, uncut and unfiltered. Every barrel used in this year’s release was at least six years old.

So, how does it taste?

Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon 2023

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $249.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $16.67

Details: 6 years old. 70.45% ABV.

Nose: Maple, mint, cinnamon, leather, and oak.

Mouth: Holy Fuckballs that's hot! Notes of oak, leather, maple, campfire smoke, and cinnamon.

Finish: Hot and long with notes of cinnamon, maple candy, leather, wintergreen, and oak.

Thoughts: This is a very tasty bourbon. Super fucking hot at 140.9° proof, but no one but internet tough guys would try to sit down and drink a glass of whiskey at this proof without water or ice. Well, not if they wanted to taste anything later that is. My taste buds are blown right out after this tasting. Luckily it takes water well, retaining the flavor but taming the heat. Give me this with a large cube/sphere of ice on a hot evening and I'll be happy as can be. It's quite good.

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Redwood Empire, Pipe Dream Bourbon

I think that it goes without saying that I enjoy trying new bourbons. If I didn’t, eleven years of writing for this site would have long ago become torturous. That said, even I am starting to find comfort in my old favorites. There are just so many new companies and labels on shelves that it is hard to keep up. At least I get press releases for some of them. I don’t understand how you folks make headway in this.

Well, you probably do what I do when I’m in the liquor store. Ask the folks that work there, “What’s new?” “What are people buying these days?” I usually get an answer that I have to ignore as the recommendation is something I’ve already covered. But once in a while, I get a recommendation about something that I’ve overlooked. Such is the case tonight. Redwood Empire Whiskey is a craft distillery that opened its doors in 2014 in beautiful Sonoma County, California. Now owned by Purple Brands of Petaluma, California, the whiskey is produced in Graton, California, alongside Benham’s Gin and Vodka.

This particular release, Pipe Dream, is a blend of both in-house distilled bourbons and bourbons sourced from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The constituent parts are listed as between four and 12 years old on the company website. And the composite mash bill works out to 75% corn, 21% “raw rye,” and 4% malted barley (also per their website). And in case you wondered where the name comes from, the bourbon is named for the 14th tallest tree on the planet. That tree is located in California’s Humbolt State Park. You can read more about the tree here should you wish.

Redwood Empire, Pipe Dream Bourbon

Purchase Info: $35.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.40

Details: 45% ABV. Distilled in California, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Bottled in California.

Nose: Floral vanilla, oak, wood smoke, and toffee.

Mouth: Thin mouthfeel with muted notes of vanilla, baking spice, and toffee.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Sweet with notes of vanilla, toffee, and oak.

Thoughts: Solid bourbon. The nose is nice. The thin, muted mouth is a bit of a disappointment. But the finish is nice. And if I had to choose, I'd rather have a nice finish over a nice mouth experience just because I spend more time experiencing the finish. That said, I'm pretty neutral on this. I don't particularly like it, but I don't dislike it either. I probably won't buy it again, but if you poured me a glass, I wouldn't complain. (Not even after you were gone... I mean, I am Minnesotan. We are a very passive-aggressive bunch.) I will probably check out some of the other Redwood Empire offerings at my local corner liquor store though. I want to see about the cask strength version of this and maybe try their rye as well.

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Obtanium Bourbon Whiskey

At one point in my life, the Fourth of July weekend was my favorite time of year. I’m ethnically redneck, so there is a part of me that likes to “blow some shit up.” And I spent many a happy holiday weekend during my childhood and early adulthood doing just that. Once you add in the large fireworks displays, well, that was all it took for me to be happy.

These days though, I spend a lot of time as a dog sitter. This means that I comfort pets who are pretty sure that my neighbors have started a war outside. And as an empathetic human, it breaks my heart to see these poor pups so scared. But we try to make it calm and soothing, and fun to distract them from the chaos outside.

So though, I will never tell someone not to blow some shit up—because, damn, that’s fun—please be considerate of your local pets and also your local veterans who could also be suffering due to the noise as well.

Now onto the whiskey. I grabbed this one a while ago and have been sitting on it for a few weeks. As you will see below, my local liquor store had been sitting on it a for a while. That said, it is a wonderful example of a brand that we looked at back in 2021 for their Light Whiskey. As I stated back then:

Obtainium is a line of sourced whiskey from the Cat’s Eye Distillery in Bettendorf, Iowa, one of the five Quad Cities that span the Iowa/Illinois border (yes, there are 5 cities in the Quad Cities…I’d make an Iowa joke, but I’ll just leave it at that). In any case, these guys seem to be doing the sourced whiskey thing right.

What I especially like about the brand, other than never finding one bottle that wasn’t delicious, is that they give you as much information as possible about the whiskey. Back on that old Light whiskey, they named the predecessor of MGP as the distiller. On this one, they called out which MGP bourbon mash bill that is in the bottle. Just very cool transparency with these guys.

So even though it looks like they aren’t currently selling an Obtainium bourbon, let’s take a look at this so you can see if you are interested in picking one of their other products up if you run across it.

Obtainium Bourbon Whiskey

Purchase Info: I bought this at Viking Liquor Barrel in Prior Lake, MN, for somewhere around $50. I lost the receipt, so I can only get that close.

Details: Distilled 8-5-15. Bottled 1-30-21. Five years old. MGP 21% Rye mash bill. 53.4% ABV.

Nose: Sweet, caramel and vanilla, baking spices, and oak.

Mouth: Spicy cinnamon notes without being too hot. Caramel, vanilla, and a bright floral note.

Finish: Medium to long and warm. Finish follows the mouth with cinnamon, oak, and floral notes.

Thoughts: This is a good solid cask-strength bourbon for a decent price. And being a fan of MGP bourbon, that's a great combo for me. Being as this was bottled in early 2021 and isn't currently on their website, availability may vary. But I've liked everything I've bought from this line, and this is no exception. So if you see the brand, give it a shot.

Have a safe and Happy Independence Day. Come back next Thursday with all your fingers and toes, ok?

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New Riff Straight Malted Rye Whiskey

So last week my wife left me…Shit that sounds bad. Let’s try this again.

Last week my wife took a trip to visit a long-time friend and help her out with a fan convention that her friend was putting on. I was left alone to pretend to be a bachelor. I had big plans of eating lots of junk food, watching a lot of movies, just really learning into the whole I don’t have to be a responsible adult thing.

And it turns out that I wasn’t. Responsible that is. Because I ended up mistaking just how long a container of leftovers had been in the fridge, giving myself what seems to be a mild case of food poisoning. It’s been fun. I felt like I was prepping for a colonoscopy at one point. Now I’m just hanging around feeling nauseated and trying hard not to do anything that will upset that. The upside is that I did get to watch a lot of movies once the pups I was watching went home. I just had to do it while laying down and with frequent pausing.

All of that is to say, this is to explain why there wasn’t a post on Tuesday and why this post will be mostly quoting from the website of tonight’s whiskey.

New Riff Distilling is pleased to introduce a new, regular extension to their award winning lineup: New Riff Straight Malted Rye Whiskey Bottled in Bond Without Chill Filtration. This style of whiskey is made of 100% malted rye grain, which is quite rare, even in today’s craft distilling scene. Malted rye is rye grain that has undergone the process of malting. When you malt a grain you alter and, arguably, improve and refine its flavor. That’s exactly what’s happened here, as the typically spicy flavor of rye becomes polished, refined, and subtle.

New Riff Malted Rye is elegant. Graceful. It presents plenty of spice but in a much more sophisticated fashion than our standard 95% rye. It actually makes more sense to us to think of it as a malted whiskey first, and a rye whiskey second. At a generous six years old, our New Riff Malted Rye Bottled in Bond Without Chill Filtration is the oldest New Riff whiskey yet released, and will remain at six years as something of an exclamation point atop our standard portfolio.

Now, if you’ve been around a while, you will know that I don’t usually like whiskey with malted rye in it. Much less one that is 100% malted rye. But I also have yet to find a New Riff whiskey that I didn’t like so I figured that if anyone was going to make a malted rye whiskey that I liked, it would be them. So I bought it. Let’s see how it tastes.

New Riff Kentucky Straight Malted Rye Whiskey

Purchase info: $60.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.07

Details: Bottled in Bond. 50% ABV. Six years old. Mash bill consists of 100% malted rye. Non-Chill Filtered.

Nose: Wintergreen, plum, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Mouth: Thick and sweet with spicy cinnamon, wintergreen, and baked fruit.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Notes of cedar, plum, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: Well, shit! This is damn good! If you'd handed it to me blind, I wouldn't have guessed that this was a rye until the finish when the cedar notes arrive. The mouth is thick, sweet, and rich, which isn't something I usually find in rye whiskey. Especially at less than barrel-proof. I guess my initial thought was correct when I speculated that New Riff would be the most likely to be able to put out a malted rye whiskey that I'd enjoy. And on top of that it makes a damn fine Old Fashioned. This one is certainly worth a look.

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Bluebird Days Whiskey

I’d like to thank Bluebird Distilling, Jordan Davis and their PR teams for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Most of the samples I get come from one of two sources. The vast majority of the samples come from a large producer. But there are also a sizable number of samples from a small producer who has done a deal with a musician. Tonight’s whiskey is from the latter. And since I have never heard of either the musician or the distillery associated with tonight’s whiskey, let’s let them introduce themselves via the press release.

ABOUT BLUEBIRD DISTILLING: Bluebird Distilling is a craft distillery that produces small batch whiskies (that includes a limited release Wheat Whiskey, Four Grain Bourbon, Rye Whiskey, and White Rye Whiskey) and other amazing craft spirits such as Juniperus Gin, Vodka, Sugarcane Rum, and Dark Rum, using a state-of-the-art hybrid copper still. The distillery and tasting room are located in Phoenixville, PA. For more information, please visit http://bluebirddistilling.com/.  

ABOUT JORDAN DAVIS: A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Jordan Davis is set to release his highly anticipated second full-length album, Bluebird Days, on February 17. Produced by Paul DiGiovanni, the album features 17 songs including his fifth career No. 1 hit, “What My World Spins Around,” and his double-platinum multi-week No. 1, “Buy Dirt” (feat. Luke Bryan), which won numerous accolades including CMA and NSAI Song of the Year and earned ACM, AMA, Billboard and iHeart Award nominations. Davis previously notched three consecutive No. 1 hits: Platinum-certified “Slow Dance In AParking Lot,” Double Platinum-certified “Singles You Up” and Platinum-certified “Take It From Me,” each featured on his Gold-certified debut album, Home State. Awarded Best New Country Artist at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards, he is a two-time nominee for ACM New Male Artist of the Year and was named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2018. Davis has over 4 billion streams worldwide and appeared on Ellen, Good Morning America, TODAY, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and more. He has previously toured with artists including Dierks Bentley, Kane Brown, Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts, Old Dominion, and more.

So now that we know who we are dealing with, let’s find out what the whiskey is (and yes, this sample has been hanging around for a while now, as evidenced by that album's release date). BlueBird Days Whiskey is probably best classified as a blend of straight whiskies as it is made from a blend of 90% 6-year-old Bluebird Bourbon (mashbill: 75% corn, 15% Heirloom Rye, and 10% Barley) and 10% 7-year-old Bluebird Red Winter Wheat Whiskey (mashbill: 100% Whole Grain Pennsylvania Red Winter Wheat).

Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Bluebird Days Whiskey

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $50 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Nose: Mint, a toasted nuttiness, and dried grains.

Mouth: Cinnamon, caramel, chocolate, nougat.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of malted grains, chocolate, mint, and some oak.

Thoughts: This one is not for me. It's not bad or anything. In fact, there will probably be people who think I'm crazy for giving this a neutral rating. But I'm not finding that the bourbon and wheat whiskies in the blend complement one another. They are both there, but to me, they fight instead of combining into a well-integrated whole. Plus, it just sort of feels overly grain-forward for my palate. It doesn't hurt that I get a note reminiscent of malted grain on the finish. And I really don't care for that flavor note. If you are a fan of celebrity craft whiskies, give this a try. Otherwise, it is probably safe to give this one a pass.

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Smooth Ambler Founders’ Cask Strength Series Bourbon, 2022, Batch 4

I’d like to thank Smooth Ambler and their PR team for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Oh my goodness, it is great to be back. As much as I enjoy the brackets each year, they all get written ahead of time. So I usually get a few weeks away from writing to relax and get other things done. And, boy, did I get things done this year. Namely, I started a business. Kinda. I’ve been dog-sitting as a side hustle for six years but decided to formalize that business into an LLC. I had to research, buy, and implement booking software, get insurance, and move my clients from the platform I’d been using to the new one. Hell, even small things like business cards and a website needed to be created.

It was an excellent time to have posts pre-written ahead, let me tell you.

What that meant though was that I had a ton of samples stacked up that I wasn’t tasting. And so, let’s just jump into the first one and work our way through the backlog. Tonight’s bourbon is from Smooth Ambler. Smooth Ambler is a small distillery in West Virginia owned by Pernod Ricard. They are best known for their Old Scout line of sourced whiskeys, but they also distill their own as well. Founders’ Cask Strength is made from one of those bourbons that they distilled in-house. Specifically their “Bourbon Mashbill #2” which consists of 71% corn, 21% rye, and 8% malted barley. Founders’ will be released in select markets (California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas) for $54.99 per 750 mL bottle and 900 cases are going to be produced per year across six batches. The press release was kind enough to share a quote from the Smooth Ambler founder (fitting) so let’s hear what he has to say about the product:

As John Little states, “What’s great about the Founders’ Cask Strength Series is we finally get to let y’all taste delicious whiskey we’ve been excitedly working on for years in our part of the whiskey world – West Virginia. With this Bourbon recipe, we add a modest amount of Rye to play well with high corn content and let it age in Char #4 casks in the Appalachian climate.  It’s a surprising meddling of flavors and geographical superpowers that just work effortlessly.  So please enjoy this newly minted convergence of flavors, from our home to yours.” 

Ok. That’s enough with the background. Let’s move on to the important stuff, how does it taste?

Smooth Ambler Founder's Cask Strength Series, Batch 4, 2022

Purchase Info: This was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $54.99 for a 750 mL bottle and is available in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.67

Details: 61.4% ABV. Six years old. Mash bill: 71% corn, 21% rye, and 8% malted barley.

Nose: Honey, cinnamon, oak, and mint.

Mouth: Chocolate, oak, leather, berries, and cinnamon.

Finish: Sweet and medium length. Leather, chocolate, mint, anise, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: This is quite tasty—lots of oak-derived notes, such as leather and chocolate. The finish is the best and most complex part, precisely how I'd plan it if I were in charge. Delicious.

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10th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: The Championship Rounds

Welcome back, folks! Can you believe we’ve done this for 10 years now? Crazy. We are now at the end of the 2023 contest. Eight whiskeys entered the arena. Four have fallen by the wayside. There have been some delicious treats, and contrary to years past, no stinkers. Let’s see how it all ends and see if we’ve learned anything along the way. First, we have the Round Two matchups.

Division 2: Whiskey A (New Riff Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (Old Forester 1897)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: "A" has a nicer nose. Sweet and fruity. "B" has a longer and warmer finish. They are both delicious, but in this case, "A" matches my preferred flavor profile a little better. I tend to like a sweet and lightly fruity bourbon, and "A" is exactly that.

Winner: New Riff Bourbon moves on to the Championship Round

Division 1: Whiskey A (George Dickel Bottled-in-Bond No. 4) vs. Whiskey B (Jack Daniel’s Bonded)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: "B" has a nicer nose. "A" has a nicer finish with dark chocolate notes. In the mouth, "A" is a little fruitier, whereas "B" is got more "candy bar" notes. This one is tough. So tough that my wife and I are split. I prefer "A.” She prefers "B." But at the end of the day, it's my vote that gets published.

Winner: George Dickel Bottled-in-Bond (No. 4) moves on to the Championship Round

Championship Round: Whiskey A (New Riff Bourbon) vs. Whiskey B (George Dickel Bottled-in-Bond No. 4)

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: The nose is very nice on both of these. In the mouth and on the finish, “A” is a little fruitier and gets my vote for the nicer experience. Both are delicious, but "A" is the winner. That fruitiness is intoxicating (and not just because of the alcohol).

Winner: New Riff Bourbon

Congrats to New Riff Bourbon, the 2023 BourbonGuy.com Bracket Champion!

Lessons Learned:

This was an interesting contest for me. When I was reminded that I only had a few days to find a theme, buy, seed, and taste the entire competition full of whiskeys. I had a moment of panic. I actually considered not doing it this year. But I’m not going to lie. This is my favorite post series each year. And once I decided to drop the price requirement as an overreaction to last year’s stinkers, it got even easier. Thankfully my local store had over eight bonded whiskeys, so I had my choice without running all over the metro the night before a big snowstorm.

So what did I learn about each of these?

With George Dickel Bottled-in-Bond (No. 4) competing for the Championship in what is, ostensibly, a bourbon contest, there may be cries of foul play since they don’t call themselves “bourbon.” But, as I told a reader in a comment on the first post in this year’s contest: if you show me a bonded whiskey (in the bourbon style) that is 13 years old for right around $50? I’m going buy that every time. It was no surprise to me that 13 years in a barrel allowed Dickel to stand up tall with the best of the best this year.

Moving on to the other Tennessee Whiskey in the competition, you get the only first-round upset. Jack Daniel’s Bonded knocked out a bourbon from Barton 1792 in the first round and almost made it to the Championship in a split decision in Round 2. That was a surprise to me. Though having had it before, I shouldn’t have been surprised. 100° proof is probably the sweet spot for Jack Daniel’s, as far as I’m concerned. It is delicious at higher proofs but gets really hot real quick. Below that, it is really mellow. Bonded just hits right for me. I was actually shocked that it went blow to blow with a 13-year-old and didn’t embarrass itself, honestly. That’s a lot of age to overcome.

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond handled itself admirably. It didn’t quite have the gusto to knock off a competitor with lots of age on it, but it should hold its head up high. It won last year and lost to the eventual number 2 this year. That’s nothing to sneeze at. It’s good whiskey and an even better value. It should be on everyone’s back bar, even if you just use it for cocktails.

Wolcott Bottled-in-Bond was interesting to me. But probably not for the reasons that Total Wine would have liked. It was the only contestant that I would describe as “meh.” It just goes to show that even a producer of great whiskey like Sazerac isn’t going to put their best stuff into somebody else’s bottle.

Moving to the other division. Our Champion New Riff was so delicious that my wife wrote, “I can’t wait to find out what this is” on the sheet she was using to keep track of the contest. It won a squeaker in the first round but easily handled two whiskeys that were either a limited edition or part of a “high-end” brand extension. I was shocked because as I was tasting it, I kept thinking, “we don’t have a Four Roses product in the line-up, but if I didn’t know better, I’d think this was one.” It had been a long time since I’d purchased the standard New Riff Bourbon. I need to change that.

I didn’t learn much from Old Grand-Dad Bonded that I didn’t already know. I knew it was a great bourbon that didn’t cost much. It is the second former champion in the mix. Nothing about that has changed.

Old Tub reminded me that Jim Beam makes good whiskey. It just needs some proof on it. Go down below 100° proof, and it gets way too nutty for a lot of folks, including me when the mood isn’t right.

Finally, Old Forester 1897 is much better than I remember it being. I love the 1920 expression. But when 1897 first came out, I thought it was a little muddy and flat. No more. This is a really good bourbon for a pretty good price. It’s going on the list of things I need to buy much more often.

This was such a fun contest this year. Not once did I have to brace myself before taking an initial sip. I knew there were no stinkers in the mix. And the champ was one that I would have never guessed. Honestly, if I was going to guess the outcome beforehand, I would have put my money on Old Forester 1897 to win it all. I also didn’t think that Dickel would make it all the way to the Championship match. I’ve liked all of the releases of Dickel Bottled-in-Bond that I’ve had. But I liked this one the least of the four. That said, it’s still good whiskey when not compared to its earlier brothers. Next week we take a look at the samples that have been stacking up while the contest was going on. As much fun as this was, it’s fun to try new bourbons too.

Once again, congrats to New Riff Bourbon on their 2023 Championship!

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10th Annual BourbonGuy.com Brackets: Round 1: New Riff Bourbon vs. Old Grand-Dad Bonded

Those of you that have been following along know that this is the third competition of Round 1. These were tasted in an order only known to my wife as another bit of obfuscation to hide what was being tasted. So Round 1 of the 2023 BourbonGuy.com Brackets continues with Division 2’s Number 2 seed New Riff Bourbon taking on Number 3 seed Old Grand-Dad Bonded. 

New Riff Bourbon is the flagship product of Northern Kentucky’s New Riff Distillery. As with most, if not all, of their products, this is a bottled-in-bond product that has not been chill-filtered. It was distilled in the Cincinnati suburb of Newport, KY at New Riff’s distillery DSP-KY-20016. It was purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel in Prior Lake, MN. It cost $41.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $2.80 per pour.

Their opponent is probably my personal favorite expression of Jim Beam’s “High-Rye” bourbon line-up. I even like it a little more than Old Grand-Dad 114 proof these days. Old Grand-Dad Bonded was distilled in Clermont, KY at Jim Beam’s distillery DSP-KY-230. This was purchased at Viking Liquor Barrel in Prior Lake, MN. It cost $21.99 for a 750 mL bottle or $1.47 per pour.

All of the competitions this year were tasted blind and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all from before we knew what was what. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and could have influenced the perceptions of one another.

Whiskey A (New Riff Bourbon)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $2.80

Details: 50% ABV. Non-Chill Filtered

Nose: Sweet and fruity with notes of spearmint, toffee, and oak.

Mouth: Spicy with notes of cinnamon, red fruits, vanilla, and caramel.

Finish: Long and warm with notes of cinnamon, fruit, and vanilla.

Whiskey B (Old Grand-Dad Bonded)

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: 50% ABV.

Nose: Vanilla, toasted grains, and mint.

Mouth: Toasted grains, oak, vanilla, caramel, and mint.

Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of caramel, toasted grains, and oak.

Thoughts:

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is a close one, but the depth of flavor in "A" pushes it ahead of the competition. The toasted grain notes are nice, but I'm really digging the sweet, fruity notes of "A". “A’s” finish is nicer too.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: I’m always surprised when Old Grand-Dad does well in these things. And then I get surprised by my surprise. I mean, I like Old Grand-Dad. I buy it three or four times a year in one of its various expressions. I don’t know why I get surprised when it puts up a good fight against more expensive competition. That said, I am in love with this bottle of New Riff. Which reminds me, I need to make a note to buy more New Riff.

Winner: New Riff Bourbon is advancing to round 2.

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