As I mentioned in my previous review of Old No. 7, regular Jack Daniels holds a lot of nostalgia for me as it was the first bourbon whiskey I ever regularly consumed. These days I can barely drink the standard version but I knew when this product was announced that nostalgic curiosity would get the better of me. I wasn’t so caught up that I lost my mind enough to buy a whole bottle though so fellow redditor /u/dannyg483 and I split a bottle. Spoiler alert: in hindsight, that was a smart play.
No Age Statement; 64.45% ABV; $65
Nose: After about 45 minutes of airtime in a Canadian glencairn, the nose is actually alright. Lots of brown sugar banana taffy, a decent amount of oak, typical caramel wood sugar sweets, and corn grain. The grainy new-make flavors make me guess this is pretty young and even with all the airtime it’s still breathes really hot. No surprises here - it smells just like what you would expect from a 135 proof Jack Daniels.
Taste: The front of the palate starts off unruly hot and the heat gets even worse as it goes. Underneath all that heat is a repeat of the nose with brown sugar, banana taffy, and smoky char being at the forefront. It’s stupid hot, so much so that I resorted to adding a little water which I rarely do. When I got this down to around 110 proof, the front and mid-palate where actually pretty pleasant with more sweetness and softer smoky char notes coming through. Unfortunately even when cut down, the finish was still a wretched mess that tasted something like charcoal chocolate covered bananas dipped in lava.
Thoughts: I commend Brown Forman for trying to do something different but this a miserable failure. My opinion, it’s just not an old enough to be ready for barrel proof. If this were about twice the age it might actually be really good. Granted, this is a single barrel product so this could very well just be a bad barrel but you have to question the quality control that let such a hot mess out into the wild. This bottle is getting regulated to old fashioned duty as I don’t think I can drink another glass on its own.
Rating: F
Value: As always, I don’t factor cost into my ratings but his bottle is a serious pass regardless of price. There are much older and much better barrel proof whiskeys available such as Stagg Jr and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof in this price range.
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