A Whiskey Vatting Experiment

July 7, 2016 Eric Burke

My vatted whiskey in one of my favorite antique glasses

I try to never dump out whiskey. Not even when it is really bad. I always figure that there is something I can use it for. Even if I don’t want to drink it neat, I might use it in a cocktail. If it isn’t able to stand up in a cocktail, maybe I’ll use it for cooking. If I don’t even want to cook with it I try to see if I can blend it with something.

Which is the thought that inspired my latest experiment.

I had a lot of whiskey on hand after the Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets. A lot of whiskey that was ok but not great. As the bottles were reaching their conclusion I was struck by a little inspiration. Why not start a giant vatting of American whiskey and see what I got after I filled a liter bottle? I mean I wasn’t starting with anything crazy. I think Jim Beam white and Johnny Drum 80 proof were the first two in the bottle.

After a while I decided that if this was ever going to be anything worth drinking that I would need to dip into the better tasting, and higher proof, whiskies as well. So I decided to put one ounce of everything I had opened (or would open in the future) into the bottle no matter if it was a Willett Single Barrel or a Mellow Corn. If it was American Whiskey, it could contribute to the final vatting. It took a couple months but I finally filled the bottle. And after I let it sit for a few weeks to mingle, I decided to see what I had created.

Here is a list of what ended up in the bottle (and it’s proof). One ounce of each.

Jim Beam White (80°)
Johnny Drum (80°)
Dad’s Hat Vermouth Finished (94°)
1783 Evan Williams (86°)
Blue State (80°)
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye (94°)
Old Weller Antique (107°)
Very Old Barton (86°)
Maker’s Mark (90°)
Old Grand Dad 114 (114°)
Booker’s (128.7°)
Willett Single Barrel Rye (115.6°)
Willett Single Barrel Bourbon (118.4°)
Wild Turkey 101 (101°)
Woodford Reserve (90.4°)
Four Roses Small Batch (90°)
MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon (106.5°)
Hochstadter’s Vatted Rye (100°)
Michter’s Barrel Strength Rye (108.8°)
Parker’s Heritage Collection: Promise of Hope (96°)
1792 Single Barrel: Ace Spirits (93.7°)
Rendezvous Rye-finished in Bourbon Barrels (104.8°)
Rowan’s Creek (100.1°)
Mellow Corn (100°)
Four Roses Single Barrel OESF (112.6°)
Knob Creek 2001 (100°)
1792 Single Barrel: Ace Spirits (93.7°) - accidental repeat
1792 Port Finish (88.9°)
Russell’s Reserve Rye Single Barrel (104°)
Old Scout Rye (99°)
Larceny (92°)
Elijah Craig 12 Year (94°)
IW Harper 15 Year (86°)
Maker’s 46 Cask Strength (108.8°)

So the final make up was 34 ounces of 33 different whiskies. It ended up being 95.54° proof. But how did it taste?

Arok’s Vatted Whiskey

Purchase Info: Too many to list or remember…see above.

Details: 47.77% ABV

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, spearmint, baking spices and oak

Mouth: Warm and spicy with vanilla/caramel, cloves, mint, bubble gum and oak

Finish: Warm and of decent length. Lingering bubble gum and rye spices.

Thoughts: More than anything this reminds me of some of the higher end Four Roses bourbons I’ve had. It shows a lot of rye character which isn’t terribly surprising since there are a lot of straight ryes in there. This is quite tasty. Overall, I’d say this was a successful experiment.

Now you might be wondering what comes next. Well, I like this experiment and I think I might keep going. I poured off 500 mL and am drinking that. The other 500 mL will be the starter for the next vatting. I’m thinking of doing it sort of solara style where nothing in the blend is truly ever gone, it’s just there in diminishing proportions. Eventually I’ll get bored, but if I keep at it (and make sure I put in the good stuff too) I shouldn’t run out of something that is decent enough to have as an everyday bourbon as long as I am running this site (needless to say I go through a lot of whiskey).

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Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

June 30, 2016 Eric Burke

I’m four-fifths of the way through the week and before the night is over I will have booked twice the billable hours of a typical week. Needless to say, this has been a hellish week for me on the work front. I’m getting to work on lots of fun projects, but free-time is in short supply. So since blogging doesn’t pay the bills nearly as well as working does, I’ll need to keep this short was well.

I tend to like whiskey put out by Wild Turkey. This is no secret. I tend to like Rye whiskey. This is also no secret. So when I saw a rye whiskey on the shelf produced by Wild Turkey, that I hadn’t yet had, I felt the need to buy it on the spot. And buy it I did.

This is Russell’s Reserve Rye Single Barrel. It is a non-chill filtered rye whiskey bottled at 52% ABV. And it is delicious.

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Purchase Info: $59.99 for a 750ml bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Details: 52% ABV.

Nose: Tobacco, mint, Bazooka Joe bubble gum and oak

Mouth: Nice and spicy. Bubble gum, mint, baking spices, vanilla, black pepper and oak

Finish: Long and warm with lingering vanilla, baking spices and just the faintest hint of pickle.

Thoughts: This is an extremely tasty rye. It’s spicy and has enough sweetness to balance that. It has a wonderful mouthfeel. It pairs fantastically with a well aged cheddar. I can find no faults with the whiskey and look forward to buying another bottle.

I can however find faults with the packaging. This is a single barrel whiskey. And a single barrel whiskey could allow the consumer the opportunity to learn a little something about the whiskey that they are buying. Is it older than the typical release? Was is aged in a specific place that seems to help create notes they like? What barrel did it come from in case they like it and want another of the same one? The packaging tells you none of that. It tells you how long Eddie and Jimmy have been working at the distillery, but not how long the whiskey was aged. It tells you it’s a single barrel, but not which barrel it came from. One bottle looks just like the next even though the whiskey inside might taste different. It’s a small thing, but for $60, the small things are sort of what you are paying for.

That said, I’ll buy another. It’s too tasty not to.

Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

June 21, 2016 Eric Burke

So there I was. At a Maker’s Mark Ambassador event in Andover, Minnesota. It was interesting. I got a couple black dipped glasses that I will probably never use, I had a free bratwurst for lunch and I was hanging out with other Maker’s Ambassadors trying cocktails and sipping a little bourbon. I didn’t end up buying any Maker’s that day. But I did buy something that sorta surprised my wife.

I don’t normally buy Michter’s products. The juice is alright, but each purchase comes with a little baggage for me. When I first got into bourbon they were an NDP. Now there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, but they were a more than a little dishonest about it. They were selling a story about how they could trace the company back to the American Revolution. The fact of the matter was that they registered an abandoned trademark and ran with it.

I don’t like being deceived and sometimes I hold a bit of a grudge. Which is why now, when they seem to have become much more honest in their story and have actually started distilling (according to Chuck Cowdery they produce more than 500,000 gallons per year), I still seem to find myself reaching for something else when I see them on the shelf.

But on that day, something made me go grab the manager on duty to open the case this was in. Like maybe this grudge had gone on long enough and I should give them another shot. I used to like their Straight Rye quite a bit, so a Barrel Strength version was a bit intriguing.

Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $71.99 for a 750 mL at G-Will Liquors, Andover, MN.

Details: Barrel No: 15C200. 54.4% ABV. Single Barrel (as is the regular release of their Rye)

Nose: Cedar, mint, cloves and a hint of earthiness.

Mouth: Bold and sweet in the mouth. Mint, caramel, vanilla, cloves and cedar chips.

Finish: Very sweet. A nice long warmth that lingers with herbal mint and spicy cloves numbing you tongue.

Thoughts: This is very good whiskey. Price and availability will demand that this be a treat not a shelf staple but if you see it and can see yourself through to it, pick it up. Because though I’m still a little upset at being deceived years ago, maybe it’s time to let that be in the past and let the whiskey speak for itself. And this whiskey is saying some very nice things.

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers

June 14, 2016 Eric Burke

A very long time ago, by today’s standards, bourbon was not popular. It was so not popular that many people selling it almost of included it as a kind of “value-add” when they sold ceramic decanters. Ceramic decanters seem to have been immensely popular during the 1970s. I have people in my own family who will reminisce about purchasing a couple of them for a decent amount of money and then claim: “I don’t know that [the buyer] ever did drink any of that…”

Now the buyer in question above was a prolific drinker. And if he didn’t drink the bourbon, you can bet that he was not an edge case. This is born out by the fact that I have bought multiple ceramic decanters that are still full and sealed at antique stores or shows for under $25. Including the one above. That one only cost me $18. $18 at a bottle and advertising show where I saw a piece of Four Roses ad signage marked up to over $100.

The piece was put out by the Hoffman Distilling Company from Lawrenceburg, KY. Haven’t heard of them? Well, don’t feel bad, I hadn’t either. They seem to be one of those pieces of history that has left very little mark on the internet. But here is what I have collected.

Sam Cecil, in his book Bourbon: The Evolution of Kentucky Whiskey claims that the distillery was built in 1880 and after passing through many hands, was in disrepair by the mid 1970s. Saying on page 98 of his book: “I visited the distillery in the mid-1970s, and the still house was falling down.”
Mike Veach tells us on BourbonEnthusiast.com that in 1966 “The Hoffman Distilling Company of Lawrenceburg, Ky. with a capacity of 300 bushels per day is listed with Ezra Brooks as one of its four brands. The executives of the distillery are Ben G, Ripy, William R. Ripy, and Robert Ripy (1966 Red Book, p.33).”
He also says on another post “The Hoffman distillery is the distillery that created Ezra Brooks in the 60's. It went out of business in the 70s and Julian Van Winkle bought the old distillery.”
Speaking of Ezra Brooks, our friend Brian at Sipp’n Corn mentions Hoffman in his post on the lawsuit where Jack Daniel’s sued Ezra Brooks over the marketing of Ezra Brooks in the 1950s and 60s. If you want to read more about that lawsuit, you can.
Ellenjaye.com has a post about what became of the Hoffman Distillery after it was purchased and renamed by one Julian Van Winkle III. You may have heard of him. He really doesn’t figure into this story except as a footnote though.
And finally a reclaimed wood supplier in Oregon has a nice long post about the distillery from the point of view of one who might want to sell you wood from the rick houses.

Most of the research I found claims the distillery went out of business in the mid-1970s and the location was used as a bottling house by various brands and run by a member of the Ripy family at that time. One of the brands that seems to have been bottled there was Hoffman Originals, a brand that seems to have survived the distillery proper (though I can find no mention of any actual relation between them other than having the same name and bottling location) by selling ceramic decanters of the variety described above. They put out quite a few decanters throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Jim Crawford at jimsbottles.com has an extensive set of posts on their Mr Lucky series (the series of decanters which included the Carolers decanter shown below, click for larger images).

This decanter depicts two leprechauns singing Christmas Carols. It is a full sized (4/5ths quart) decanter bottled by the Hoffman Distilling Company, Lawrenceburg, KY. And because neither bourbon nor the bottle were enough to sell this, it is of course also a music box. It is from 1979. The cork was intact and the tax stamp was unbroken. It was $18. I decided to pick it up.

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers plus the box

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers Base (front)

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers Base (back)

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, Carolers, 1979: The Bourbon.

Purchase info: $18 at a bottle and advertising show.

Nose: As is to be expected from a bottle that has been closed for over 35 years, this smells of acetone at the initial pouring. After letting it sit in the glass for a while, we started picking up notes of rich butterscotch, cloves, ripe apples, fresh flowers and hints of lemon zest.

Mouth: Peppery and sweet with more butterscotch and cloves along with a large dose of floral notes.

Finish: The finish follows the mouth and nose with lingering sweet, clove and floral notes along with a gentle, medium length burn.

Thoughts: This whiskey is pretty tasty though not to the standards of other older bottlings I’ve found. Being sourced whiskey, maybe this was lower end stuff bought only to fill the bottle? Or maybe, time just hasn’t been kind to this one. I don’t know. It’s fine, just kinda…meh when neat. Adding water does open it up allowing more sweet notes to come to the forefront, but it loses it’s burn. It goes to show that just because a whiskey is a “dusty” doesn’t necessarily follow that it is really good. Fun to try though.

A word on lead: There is a forum thread on straightbourbon.com that details the story of a man getting the whiskey from one of his decanters tested for lead and finding very high levels of it. I do not have the equipment to test this myself. I did however allow the bourbon from this decanter to evaporate and then drip the contents of a lead paint tester into the residue (saving a drop or two for the conformation strip) and there was no red for lead. I won’t say this bourbon doesn’t contain lead or that any of the bourbon from old decanters you find will or will not contain lead. But this test satisfied my curiosity enough to allow me to do the small tasting I did for this post.

For more information on lead poisoning visit: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002473.htm

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

June 7, 2016 Eric Burke

High West Rendezvous Rye, Barrel Select, finished in used Bourbon barrels

Funny thing happened to me on the way to write this post tonight. Though let me step back a bit first.

A month or so ago my little girl (she’s in her mid twenties) decided that she was going to buy herself a motorcycle. Everyone asked if I was upset. I wasn’t. She’s a grown woman. It’s her decision to make. She got her motorcycle permit and tried for her license. She didn’t get it the first time so she decided to practice a bit more.

One day, when she comes over to show it off, the bike won’t start. Battery was dead. On top of that as she was trying to start it, she hit the throttle and flooded it. After we charge the battery it starts and because she’s never had a vehicle old enough to flood, she immediately kills it trying to hit the throttle. So she fires it up again and this time she listens to me and lets it run. Everything seems to be going good. She rides home and I go back to work.

The next day it does it again only this time she is at work. Luckily she works in an auto garage and someone there can give the bike a jump. At this point she starts thinking she needs a battery. It’s a thirty year old bike and who knows how old the battery is, so I help her change it.

Yesterday, two days after changing the battery, it does it again. As she is complaining about the new battery, I mention that the dead battery is probably just a symptom of something else. She’s young and still knows everything so she placates me with a yes. She’s near a friend’s house so she pushes it over there and decides she is going to try to ride it home today.

Today, she get’s a couple miles down the road when it dies again and she calls me for a jump. Now, by this time we both know that a jump is only a half-measure so she can try to limp it home. By the time I get there, she’s found out it’s not even going to limp. It won’t stay running long enough to even get into gear, much less go down the road. Luckily about this time, a nice (strong) guy on his own bike stops by. Together we devise a plan to get her bike in the back of the truck.

I have a tall truck, unfortunately. But luckily, there is a park and a business with a large lawn on the side of the road. And even luckier, there is a walkway with a slight hill between the road and the park. So I drive the truck into the lawn so that my tailgate is even with the top of the berm. The nice strong guy and I push the bike into the back. I tie it down as best I can and drive slowly down the side roads to get home.

Once home though, I realize I have no strong guy to help me get it out of the truck. Just my wife and daughter. Luckily my driveway is on a hill and the neighbors here are nice. We put a few pallets behind the truck and stair step it onto the driveway. Now I have a broken down motorcycle to sit next to the broken down jeep she is storing in my garage. And after man handling a 450 pound motorcycle for a few hours, I’m too tired to write a post that is in-depth and well researched. Instead, I’m just going to grab a whiskey and relax for a moment.

Detail label from High West Rendezvous Rye Limited

And what whiskey will I relax with tonight? Recently I bought a bottle of High West Rendezvous Rye that had been finished in used Bourbon Barrels for an additional 1.9 years. This is a tasty rye that according to their website is made up of a six year old MGP rye and a 16 year old Barton Rye. This is normally a very tasty rye. The additional couple years in the bourbon barrel add a bit of sweetness to round it out.

Neat this is a tasty rye, but recently I tried something else with it. I had an ounce left of Very Old Barton 86 proof. I got to thinking that I might try a blend with it so I had a full pour. I added three-quarters of an ounce of this rye and then a quarter ounce of Mellow Corn. It’s a real Franken-Whiskey. But you know what? It was really good. The rye shone through as the star with the bourbon and the corn whiskey adding a touch of sweetness and a nice mouthfeel. that is an experiment to revisit someday, but not tonight. Tonight it will be my favorite cocktail.

Whiskey in a glass.

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

Purchase info: $59.99 for a 750 bottle, Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 52.4% ABV Barrel # 2065. Bottle # 24. Store selection by Ace Spirits. Finished in used bourbon barrels for an additional 1.9 years.

Nose: Pumpernickel rye bread, mint, allspice and nutmeg.

Mouth: Hot and spicy with sweet caramel, vanilla, mint, oak and baking spices.

Finish: Long and sweet with mint that fades to reveal more baking spices underneath.

Thoughts: This is a delicious rye. The blend of old and younger ryes lend spiciness and depth while the finishing adds sweetness. This is fantastic and I can highly recommend giving it (or another like it) a try.

1792 Port Finish as Compared to a 1792 Single Barrel pick

June 2, 2016 Eric Burke

1792 Port Finish and 1792 Single Barrel Ace Spirits Selection

So last night I was chatting with my friend Fred Minnick on twitter. He'd posted a shot of the bottle he'd got of Booker's Rye and I made my thoughts on the price known. He countered from a reviewers stand point and I replied with:

@FredMinnick or conversely, tasting notes don’t matter if no one can ever taste it 😉
— Eric Burke (@arok) June 2, 2016

Yes, I was joking. I was mostly feeling salty about the fact I will never taste Booker's Rye due to both my self-imposed restriction on accepting review samples and the fact that the price is about three months worth of my (mostly poorly-followed) whiskey budget.

I have to clarify that I was joking because I review things that few people will ever taste all the time: dusties, local retailer picks, special editions I make special trips to obtain, etc. I'd hate to be viewed as a hypocrite because someone only saw the one tweet as it was retweeted. I mean, my last post was a product that though easy enough to find right now, is out of the budget of the majority of my readers.

So to celebrate my newfound hypocrite-ness I'm going to review not one, but two things that are either limited editions or retailer picks that have been long sold out. I found the Port Finish 1792 at a local municipal liquor store and as I did my review tasting I thought to see how it compares to the regular release. I didn't have that, but I did have a bottle of a store pick single barrel. It shares at least a passing resemblance to the regular release so it would have to do.

1792 Single Barrel Pick - Ace Spirits

Purchase info: $19.98 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 46.85 ABV. Exclusive barrel for Ace Spirits. Barrel no. 11.

Nose: Dry and oaky with hints of chocolate and sweet fruit.

Mouth: Warm and woody with notes of ginger, nutmeg and dark chocolate.

Finish: Warm and drying with medium length. Lingering dark chocolate and spice notes.

Thoughts: This is a bourbon I reach for when I don't want a "sweet" bourbon. It's spicy and warm and has a lovely dry "evaporating" sensation to the finish. This single barrel is tasty, but doesn't stray too far outside the 1792 wheel house.

1792 Port Finish

Purchase info: $38.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Apple Valley Liquor, Apple Valley, MN

Details: 44.45% ABV. After normal aging, this whiskey spends an additional two years in barrels that previously aged port.

Nose: Rich and creamy with a nice port influence of fruit and honey along with oak and hints of chocolate.

Mouth: Warm and sweet with noted of ginger, sweet fruit, oak and hints of rich dark chocolate.

Finish: Warm and sweet with lingering fruit and spices.

Thoughts: The combination of spice, fruit, oak and chocolate meld into a delicious whole. If you can find this and like fruity bourbons, this is one to pick up. It's quite different from regular 1792, but quite taste nonetheless.

Knob Creek 2001 Limited Edition - Batch 2

May 31, 2016 Eric Burke

Knob Creek 2001 Limited Edition in it's fancy box.

Last week I got an email newsletter from a local retailer letting us know that they had received their shipment of Knob Creek 2001 and were selling it for roughly $165. I shook my head pretty well satisfied that I wouldn’t be trying for this one since it was so far above my personal price ceiling.

Thursday or Friday of last week I was reading reviews of Knob Creek 2001 (yeah honestly I don’t know why either) when I noticed that the writer was saying that Beam was hoping to have things price out around $130. Well now. That is inside my personal price ceiling. If I could find it for that price, I’d be willing to pick it up.

Friday night I entered my local corner liquor store for beer to go with the pizza I was making and sure enough right there inside the front door was a bottle. I looked at the price. $145 and some change. Outside the ceiling, but not nearly as far. $10 being easier to justify than $30. Knowing that it was likely this store would still have some the next day (they still have Woodford Limited Releases back from when they were actually good) I decided to wait. Maybe it would be sold and fate would have made my decision for me.

I struggle with things like this for a few reasons. First, I’m a self-employed artist/designer and $145 is a lot of money. Add in the 10% sales tax I pay on hard liquor and your looking at closer to $160. Secondly, the price ceiling is there for a reason. Before I implemented it, I tended to get a bit of buyers remorse when I bought an expensive bottle that didn’t seem to live up to the price that was being charged.

As I’ve gotten over the sticker shock of paying $50 or $80 or $100 or $120 for a single bottle of bourbon, the price ceiling has gone up over time. It's now $135. I’m sure that it will do go up again in the future. That doesn’t mean I’m eager to rush it though.

Saturday while I was shopping I ran across bottles all over the place. All priced higher. I talked it over with my wife and we decided to go ahead and buy it at our local store.

Knob Creek 2001 Limited Edition - Batch 2

Purchase info: $145.97 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 50% ABV. Batch 2. Bottle #4052

Nose: Oak, cinnamon gum, and a hint of fruit.

Mouth: Warm and sweet with caramel, cinnamon and cloves, a bit of fruit and oak.

Finish: The flavors continue into a nice long, warm finish.

Thoughts: This is a good bourbon. Very very good. It is oaky without being too oaky. It has a nice fruity sweetness that I don’t normally find in Knob Creek which helps to balance the oak and heat I normally do find there. If price is no object or you are a Knob Creek fanboy (or girl), you should certainly pick this up.

If however, you are like me and don’t usually spend almost $150 for a single bottle of bourbon or if you don’t normally love Knob Creek, maybe think about how much you actually want this one before taking the plunge. When I break my personal price ceiling, it is with the expectation that what I am buying is the best thing that a producer is putting out. This didn’t live up to that expectation. And while this is certainly the best Knob Creek I’ve had, it isn’t the best Beam product released in the last few years. Booker’s 25th was better, it was cheaper and it was higher proof. At $90-110, this would be an easy recommend. At almost $150? I wouldn’t buy it again and probably wouldn’t have the first time if I knew what I know now. So yes, I like this, I just don't like the price.

Oh, hi buyers remorse…thought I’d figured out a way to not see you again…

Mellow Corn Bottled in Bond

May 26, 2016 Eric Burke

There are seldom times when I am so pleasantly surprised by a whiskey as I was by the one I’m reviewing tonight. No matter how many times I read that people (even people I trusted) were recommending Mellow Corn, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. In fact, this would probably have never been reviewed if I hadn’t received a big sample from a friend of mine.

I thought he was giving it to me because he was trying to get rid of it and I accepted it because…free whiskey. Over and over I’d have a thought about things I could do with it. But each time I was almost ready to crack the sample the little thought of “you know you’re going to have to put that in your mouth, right?” would start up and I’d put it back on the shelf.

Finally, I’d had enough of that little voice. I decided to just plow ahead and review it. I figured in the worst case, I always need something to warn people away from. And who knows, in the best case, I might actually like it as much as others seem to.

I’ve had a lot of corn whiskey. Most of it had no age on it. Most of them I hated. And even those I liked, I don’t find myself going back to that often. So the fact that this was aged for four years and was Bottled in Bond was a factor in it’s favor. According to Chuck Cowdery it was four years in used barrels, but still four years is nothing to sneeze at.

When I sat down to review this, the first thing I did was nose it. And…the nose was really nice! Hmmm…

Mellow Corn Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: MGM Wine & Spirits, Burnsville, MN. $12.99 for a 1L bottle

Details: 50% ABV. Distilled at DSP-KY-354. Bottled at DSP-KY-31.

Nose: Sweet and fruity with notes of caramel, vanilla and green apple.

Mouth: Hot and sweet. Vanilla, mint, and almond notes are readily apparent.

Finish: Warm and sweet with decent length.

Thoughts: This is not a complicated whiskey. But if you are looking for something warm and sweet to sip on while playing cards or chatting with friends, this is one to check out. I was very pleasantly surprised with this one.

Blog

Arok’s Vatted Whiskey

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, Carolers, 1979: The Bourbon.

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

1792 Single Barrel Pick - Ace Spirits

1792 Port Finish

Knob Creek 2001 Limited Edition - Batch 2

Mellow Corn Bottled in Bond