Here's another write-up from a whiskey tasting I participated in last night. You can find the backstory and links to the previous tastings at the end of this post but the TLDR; version is a local group of us from /r/bourbon banded together to help each other sourcing booze and also to get together once in a while for blind tastings.
With seven blind tastings under our belt now, "any bourbon goes" has been one of our favorite themes. The broad open-ended category makes guessing much more difficult which has a cascading effect of making you question yourself under the constant fear you might like something you think you hate and hate something you think you love.
Here are my notes of the five blind samples in order of my rankings.
1) Sample D- nose: honey, graham cracker, slight ethanol, cake batter.
- taste: sweet, rye, good balance, slight char.
- guess: Wild Turkey 101
- reveal: Evan Williams Bottled in Bond
2) Sample A (close)
- nose: perfume, rich, good, wood polish.
- taste: rich, chocolate, sweet, wood, slight bitter oak.
- reveal: Abraham Bowman Double Barrel
3) Sample E (close)
- nose: fruity, young?, banana, sweet, grass.
- taste: fruity, red fruits, rich, oak and sweet, nice balance.
- guess: Michter's Toasted Barrel (my submission)
- reveal: Michter's Toasted Barrel Finish
4) Sample B
- nose: flat, light, thin, varnish, not good. richer on second round.
- taste: salty, sweet and bitter, acetone, spicy.
- reveal: Bulleit 10 year
5) Sample C
- nose: young, awful, furniture polish.
- taste: char, bitter, really bitter, no sweet, dry, spice.
- reveal: Black Maple Hill (red label NAS)
To say I was pleased with my rankings would be an understatement - it's exactly how I would have ranked these before the tasting. I've never had Evan Williams BIB but based on my preferences I knew it was a hell of a value pour and I would be a big fan. I've never had the Bowman Double Barrel either but had read enough reviews to know what to expect. I know the Michter's Toasted is getting some praise but personally I've never been a fan nor am I a fan of Bulleit 10 either. As for my last place... I feel complete vindicated for trashing Black Maple Hill - it's just a horrible, horrible pour.
As for the group rankings:
- Bulleit 10 Year submitted by /u/tvraisedme with 24 points
- Abraham Bowman Double Barrel submitted by /u/docjones12 with 21 points
- Evan Williams Bottled in Bond submitted by /u/imcoolerthanu50 with 20 points
- Michter's Toasted Barrel submitted by /u/signde with 13 points
- Black Maple Hill (Red NAS) submitted by /u/werdx with 12 points
Again the Black Maple Hill tanks which makes me incredibly happy. Can't believe people are paying $200 for this on the secondary market. The top three aren't quite how I would have expected it but it's worth noting that the scoring among those is close.
Per usual at the end of the night we shared a few bottles and enjoyed some great whiskey banter. I cracked open a William Larue Weller 2010 - the nose was great but I think I prefer the 2014, 2013, and 2012 over it. We also dipped into Jefferson's Presidential Select 18 batch 13 which I will say is quite a bit better than the batch 14 I've previously reviewed. It's simply a marvelous bourbon. Special thanks to /u/imcoolerthanu50 for bringing a 2013 and 2014 Bourbon County Stout for a side by side comparison, that was fun. Also big thanks to our missing member /u/helios7for being our blind impartial who arranged all the selections.
That's it for the this round but stay tuned for another tasting soon. We hope to get back into the swing of things with one tasting a month. Cheers!
Link to previous tastings: http://signdedrinks.blogspot.com/search/label/Tastings
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