Last night I participated in another blind tasting with our local whiskey group the “Imaginary Internet Friends”. You can read more of the backstory on our group and our previous nine tastings here if you are curious. The theme for this tasting was the ever popular “any bourbon goes” with no price, proof, or age limits. All we knew going into the night was that each of us was bringing one specific bourbon and that for this particular lineup we were told there were no repeat submissions and no barrel proofers. Special thanks to /u/harry_fjord for being our blind impartial who selected the lineup.
This roundup was particularly tough. While there was a clear last place for me, everything above that was pretty much gravy. The difference between my first, second, third, and fourth was pretty negligible as I scored each about the same. At one point I think I threw my arms up and said I didn’t really like any of the submissions.
These are my notes, in order of how I ranked them:
- Sample E: The nose was kind of meh at first with a bit of varnish. On a second round though I got lots of butterscotch. The taste had some rye spice bite. Overall it was sweet and spicy. This was my primary guess as my submission for the night (Smooth Ambler Contradiction). Reveal: 1990’s Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star
- Sample B: The nose was fruity and sweet which made me think it was slightly young. Notes of banana, fruit, and clove which were nice. The taste was rich, full, sweet, and oaky but at the same time fruity and young. Very strange. This was my secondary guess as my submission (Smooth Ambler Contradiction). Reveal: Smooth Ambler Contradiction
- Sample A: On first pass it smelled bitter and hot. On a second pass it just smelled bitter and musty/old. I got lots of bitter oak but also some rich molasses. The taste was a little flat and not very sweet but again I felt it was pretty musty. My guess was perhaps an Orphan Barrel (I’ve only had Barterhouse). Reveal: 1970’s Old Charter 7 year
- Sample C: Nose was thin and warm with some varnish smell but also a slight sweetness. The taste was young and sweet but also nutty. The nuttiness is usually a sign of Beam juice to me so I guessed Beam Bonded or Knob Creek. Reveal: Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 6 Year
- Sample D: Nose: Eww, bitter, varnish, very weird, very Old Forrester Birthday Bourbon reminiscent (I hate OFBB). Taste: Same as nose. Grapes? Sweet. Yuck. Reveal: Lost Prophet
Like I mentioned earlier, everything above 5 was a jumbled mess. I thought the Lost Prophet was truly terrible and it makes me glad I’ve passed on all the Orphan Barrel releases after Barterhouse. I’m a bit sad that I wasn’t more keen on the Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond as I usually love BIB whiskies but the nuttiness kind of threw me off. The Evan Williams Bottled in Bond took first for me last time and I know a lot of people get nutty notes in in but I’ve not experienced them in any Heaven Hill products until last night. Palate lesson learned there.
As for the group rankings:
- Lost Prophet with 22 points via /u/dannyg483
- 1970’s Old Charter 7 year with 19 points via /u/Imcoolerthanu50
- Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star with 18 points via /u/docjones12
- Smooth Ambler Contradiction with 16 points via /u/signde
- Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 6 Year with 15 points via /u/tvraisedme
A pretty close and pretty scruffy lineup with a whiskey barreled in each of the last 5 decades. This was certainly the wackiest and most interesting tasting we’ve done to date.
As much fun as the tastings are things really get into full swing once the blind sampling is over and rare/interesting bottles start popping out. Here’s a rundown with some quick notes on other things we sampled.
Abraham Bowman Vanilla Bean Infused
Pretty tasty if you like vanilla. The vanilla notes are very predominate. Group consensus was pretty positive but not really glowing. I would put this below the Last Millennium and Port Finished compared to other Abraham Bowman releases. Flash Rating: B
Pretty tasty if you like vanilla. The vanilla notes are very predominate. Group consensus was pretty positive but not really glowing. I would put this below the Last Millennium and Port Finished compared to other Abraham Bowman releases. Flash Rating: B
Abraham Bowman Coffee Finished
This is the one that I was really looking forward to opening. Cask strength, finished in barrels that held coffee beans. The front of the palate starts off with some bitter dirty coffee grounds but the finish really comes in and blows the roof off with intense mocha coffee and classic rich bourbon flavors. It’s like someone poured coffee into bourbon without proofing it down. It’s incredibly good and easily one of the most interesting whiskeys I’ve ever had. I absolutely love it. Flash Rating: A-
This is the one that I was really looking forward to opening. Cask strength, finished in barrels that held coffee beans. The front of the palate starts off with some bitter dirty coffee grounds but the finish really comes in and blows the roof off with intense mocha coffee and classic rich bourbon flavors. It’s like someone poured coffee into bourbon without proofing it down. It’s incredibly good and easily one of the most interesting whiskeys I’ve ever had. I absolutely love it. Flash Rating: A-
Michter’s 25 Year Bourbon #4238
Wow. This was was a real treat as /u/tvraisedme showed the utmost generosity in surprising us with this one. Much like the Michter’s 20 year I’ve had before this tastes exactly like what you would expect from a cask strength 20+ year old Stitzel Weller (or maybe Bernheim) wheater. Absolutely does not taste as old or as funky as you would expect for 25 years but has plenty of intricate wood notes and lots of umpf. Simply marvelous and in my top pours of all time. Flash Rating: A+/A
Wow. This was was a real treat as /u/tvraisedme showed the utmost generosity in surprising us with this one. Much like the Michter’s 20 year I’ve had before this tastes exactly like what you would expect from a cask strength 20+ year old Stitzel Weller (or maybe Bernheim) wheater. Absolutely does not taste as old or as funky as you would expect for 25 years but has plenty of intricate wood notes and lots of umpf. Simply marvelous and in my top pours of all time. Flash Rating: A+/A
Wild Turkey American Spirit 15 Year
I’d always been curious to try this one as they always seem to be in high demand on the secondary market. Frankly I was pretty let down. It has some old musty funk notes to it but other than that it was kind of thin and flat. It reminded me a lot of Wild Turkey Diamond in how unremarkable and forgettable it was. I’m glad I never kept any of these as I found quite a few of them in the wild over the last few years. Flash Rating: C-
I’d always been curious to try this one as they always seem to be in high demand on the secondary market. Frankly I was pretty let down. It has some old musty funk notes to it but other than that it was kind of thin and flat. It reminded me a lot of Wild Turkey Diamond in how unremarkable and forgettable it was. I’m glad I never kept any of these as I found quite a few of them in the wild over the last few years. Flash Rating: C-
Alchemist Heaven Hill 12
This is one I was super excited to try. Not because I expected it to be awesome but just because of the incredible backstory on it and the rarity involved. You can read more on this one from Sku’s write up but the gist is it’s a straight bourbon that was distilled in Kentucky, sent to Scotland to age for a while, then imported back to the states. There were only 350 bottles of this so it’s very, very rare. As for the taste, it was actually better than I expected. It tasted like a light bourbon, certainly not as oaky as Elijah Craig 12. It has all the sweet bourbon flavors without the intense oakyness. Very strange but I’m elated to have tried this. Flash Rating: B-
This is one I was super excited to try. Not because I expected it to be awesome but just because of the incredible backstory on it and the rarity involved. You can read more on this one from Sku’s write up but the gist is it’s a straight bourbon that was distilled in Kentucky, sent to Scotland to age for a while, then imported back to the states. There were only 350 bottles of this so it’s very, very rare. As for the taste, it was actually better than I expected. It tasted like a light bourbon, certainly not as oaky as Elijah Craig 12. It has all the sweet bourbon flavors without the intense oakyness. Very strange but I’m elated to have tried this. Flash Rating: B-
William Larue Weller 2010
This is one I opened at the last tasting and something I will probably formally review in the future. Compared to the most recent two releases of WLW this is much softer, cooler, and silky smooth. It has all the classic big boy wheater flavors of cinnamon and cake batter. It doesn’t have quite as much depth as the last two releases though. Truth be told I’m not sure which style of WLW I prefer more, the brash hot 2013 and 2014 or this. Flash Rating: A
This is one I opened at the last tasting and something I will probably formally review in the future. Compared to the most recent two releases of WLW this is much softer, cooler, and silky smooth. It has all the classic big boy wheater flavors of cinnamon and cake batter. It doesn’t have quite as much depth as the last two releases though. Truth be told I’m not sure which style of WLW I prefer more, the brash hot 2013 and 2014 or this. Flash Rating: A
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