Tonight, my beloved Minnesota Golden Gophers kick off their 2019 college football season. And I couldn’t be more excited. I love the first night of football season. For me part of looking ahead means looking back. Taking stock of last year and all the good things that happened always give me a sense of optimism, even when it isn’t warranted. But tonight is the last night that anything that happened last year means anything. All that matters now is the future.
This is the same tactic I take when I do these “revisited” posts. Sure, what happened in the past is important as a starting point, but what is happening now is all that really matters. So in that spirit, let’s take a look at Lot 40 Canadian Rye Whisky. It has been two thousand, three hundred seven days since I last reviewed this whiskey. And I loved it.
I tried it blind as part of an online Twitter tasting (remember Twitter? Back when it wasn’t a cesspool filled with hate?). Soon after, I made a trip to Canada and brought a few bottles back home with me. Shortly after that it showed up in my local market and all was well. I would pick it up every once in a while, but the fact that it was priced above $60 at the time made those times farther and farther apart. Until one day, I realized I hadn’t purchased it in years. so I grabbed it and here we are.
Lot 40 Canadian Rye Whisky: Revisited
Purchase Info: $39.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN
Details: 43% ABV. 100% Pot Still Whisky
Nose: It’s a bit of a caramel bomb. Pencil shavings, caramel custard, spearmint and cloves.
Mouth: Toffee, mint, cinnamon, black pepper and creamy custard.
Finish: Medium length with lingering caramel and baking spices.
Thoughts: This is a lot sweeter than I remembered it being. So much so that I dug into my sample library for my last sample of the 2012 release that I bought so many bottles of. These are two completely different whiskies. 2012 is spicy on the nose and the mouth is complex with hints of dill. The current bottling is nothing like that. The nose mouth and finish are all heavy on the caramel. It is so sweet I don’t want to use it in cocktails, like an Old Fashioned, that have added sugar. I’m very sad. This is the farthest anything has fallen in the Revisited series. It went from a love to a meh.
I really hope that isn’t an omen for the football season…
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