Wild Turkey Master's Keep 17 Year Bottled in Bond

Thanks in large part to /r/bourbon, I am very big Wild Turkey fan. Wild Turkey 101 has been my house bourbon for years now and I've been on more barrel picks of Wild Turkey more than any other whiskey. That's partly due to Wild Turkey having more availability but it's also because I know I can almost always find a winner or two on a trip there. While my love of their regular offerings is quite high, I've had varying experiences with their limited release Master's Keep series. The first 17 year was good but not outstanding. Decades was good but a high price for what it was. I loved Revival - probably my favorite of them all. Cornerstone was a disappointment as I didn't think it was much better than the regular Single Barrel Rye. All in all that's a bit of a mixed bag when you are talking about bottles that are nearing the $200 price mark so I entered into this latest release with tempered expectations.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 17 years; 50% ABV; $175

Nose: Dusty bourbon funk, butterscotch, woody vanilla sweets. It's sweet, oaky, and slightly funky. The heat level is pretty low yet it still has plenty of depth.

Taste: The flavor profile is compact and dense - dusty old bourbon, dark red fruits, burnt caramelized sugars like toffee, and lots of syrupy/sugary oak. Again like the nose the heat is very well tamed. It's not quite as viscous or dense as some of the best dusty bourbons I've had but the calling cards of a great older bourbon with a balance of sweet and oak are all there.

Thoughts: I've loved this from the moment I opened and I still do here today. This is the closest I've come to tasting modern turkey that drinks like dusty turkey. Given that is 17 years old and bottled in bond that means all of it was made before Wild Turkey upped their entry proof from 107 to 110 and I think that certainly shows in the quality here. I didn't get to try a lot of new releases in 2020 but for me, this was the best one I was able to get my hands on last year. $175 is a lot to pay for a bourbon but I'd buy this again if I saw it on the shelves.

Rating: B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Maker's Mark 101 Review

 Maker's Mark holds a special place in my bourbon journey as it was the first real bourbon I stocked as a house whiskey. That was probably 15 or so years ago and my preferences have changed considerably since then. These days I consider regular Maker's Mark a very middle of the road, average bourbon, somewhere around a C rating. If there are no better options I will happily drink it but there is no denying it is rather thin and lacking in depth. Given those shortcomings and my nostalgia for the brand, I was actually quite excited to hear about the release of the 101 expression. 

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 50.5% ABV; $38

Nose: Very familiar wheated bourbon smells - vanilla cake frosting with a pinch of fruits and wheater zippy spice. It is sweet and woody with a decent amount of depth / oak backbone yet all the while maintaining that soft and approachable wheated profile. Even if this might be the same age as standard Maker's, it doesn't nose as young. I suspect that is the increased proof giving it more umpf.

Taste: A reiteration of the nose - vanilla cake sweets, a bit of wood, and an overall soft profile. Again like the nose though, where the standard Maker's falls short, this actually has some legs to it and delivers a good amount of flavor depth across all the boxes I want checked - wood, sweet, fruit, and spice.

Thoughts: This is a very nice upgrade over standard Marker's. I will reiterate that I have some nostalgia for this brand so it might be skewing my judgement but I quite enjoyed this. It has that classic soft profile a good wheated bourbon should exhibit without being thin and shallow. All in all, it's a moderately well balanced bourbon and at a sub $40 price point, a pretty decent value in this market. I certainly thought so as this is my second bottle.

Rating: B-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

New Riff /r/bourbon Single Barrel Review

This is a bourbon I am reviewing as part of the /r/bourbon community review series. While I am moderator of that forum, I did not participate in the selection of this single barrel.

Things sure have changed a lot in the last ten years of American whiskey. I remember a time not too long ago when enthusiasts were all joking we would be seeing tons of shuttered "distilleries" once the craft whiskey glut hit. Yet here we are in 2020 where I go into my local and I don't even know what half the shit on the bourbon shelf is. While I am sure some of these upstart "distilleries" are putting out decent stuff, a lot new products are just bad. 

Despite the abundance of crap craft whiskey out there today, one new distiller that has been garnering a better reputation is New Riff out of Newport Kentucky. They hit the ground running with their sourced OKI products and that reputation carried over into their own products which starting coming out at the barely no age statement mark (four years old) last year. Having experienced a lot of hype in previous non distiller producers that never translated into produced product (I'm looking at you, Smooth Ambler), I was cautiously optimistic.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 4 years; 55.5% ABV, $57

Nose: Nice, classic, young to middle aged bourbon scents: caramel, vanilla, toasted marshmallow, and light fruits such as pears. In a way the nose reminds me of EHT Taylor Small Batch.

Taste: More of the same from the nose with more wood influence plus some honey and slight rye spice bite in the finish. There is a considerable amount of wood depth for this being only a few days over four years old. Also notable is the lack of overbearing grainy new make notes that you usually find in bourbons this age. It's surprisingly robust and drinks older than it should. Heat is well balanced for the proof and the mouthfeel is as thick or slightly thicker than you'd expect for a 111 proof bourbon.

Thoughts: This was my first experience with New Riff and I'm really impressed. Granted, this is a single barrel so quality may vary but this is one of the better / best four year old bourbons I've had in a long time. The ceiling is only so high for a whiskey of these stats and it's ultimately limited by the age but all in all I've had older, more expensive bourbons from well established distilleries that were not as good as this.

Rating: B- (82/100)

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

1990 Wild Turkey Cheesy Gold Foil Review

Not much to say that hasn't already been said, this is the much revered jewel of the dusty turkey lineup. I pull out a bottle of special turkey every year on Thanksgiving and this one was nearly empty so what better way to polish it off than with a holiday review. Shout out to pappy gift cards and /r/scotchswap (RIP) for making this possible.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 12 years; 50.5% ABV

Nose: All the classic bourbon flavors but in highly decadent forms - butterscotch cream, caramel syrup, vanilla cake frosting, and a touch of baking spices. A wonderful well rounded nose. It's woody but the wood is heavy handed towards the sweet side which is just the way I like it.

Taste: All of the same from the nose - it tastes like super condensed bourbon. This is a common theme I find in great dusty bourbons like this, it's like someone figured out how to make a bourbon reduction. The sweets, the wood, the spice, it all just has more pop than anything you can buy off the shelf today.

Thoughts: This is a master class bourbon and I think deserved of the reputation as the pinnacle of Wild Turkey whiskeys. This isn't the first time I've reviewed Cheesy Gold Foil and I was a bit more critical the last time I covered it but here today, drinking the last dram out of this bottle, it's everything I could ask for in a bourbon.

Rating: A

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Bulleit Bourbon Review

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 45% ABV; $17 (375ml)

Nose: Smells like a typical middle aged bourbon only with a jolt of extra spice. A little bit of wood, a little bit of sweet, and a lot of menthol/eucalyptus/cinnamon notes. Overall it's a bit thin on aromas with the hot spiciness being the major player.

Taste: The palate is some honey and sugary sweets. Again, not a ton of wood influence, about what you'd expect for 6-7ish years old. Like the nose the finish brings in a wallop of spicy notes. Peppermint comes to mind as the predominant flavor. Most of the flavors fad rather fast minus that spicy note and on the whole I find it rather thin on taste.

Thoughts: I can't take credit for this but a better name for this "Three Roses". Bulleit's contract distilling relationship with Four Roses ended a few years ago and while there's no telling what Kentucky distilleries this came from, there's a good chance that given the age here this was likely still made by Four Roses. I keep bringing this up because time and time remains when I taste a Bulleit bourbon I can't help but think it tastes like an inferior version of a Four Roses product. Having said that, it's a perfectly okay and serviceable bourbon; one that I won't complain about falling back upon due the lack of better choices. And that's about the only great thing this has going for it - no matter where I am, I can usually count on this being behind the bar.

Rating: C-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Four Roses Small Batch Select Review

Here today is Four Roses first new product in 12 years. It is a blend of V, K, and F yeasts across both their high rye and higher rye mashbills. As a Four Roses fanboy who loves the K and V recipes and has had some success with F, I was personally very excited for this product. Four Roses Single Barrel is one of my rotating daily drivers and though the price here would prevent it from working its way into daily rotation, I have high expectations this will be a quality product worthy of the occasional splurge purchase.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 6-7 years; 52% ABV; Non-chill Filtered; $60

Nose: Caramel, red fruits, and a good amount of sugary oak. I say this over and over again but to me the classic Four Roses calling card is caramel covered red fruits, like candy red apples. The nose here has that in droves. There is also a bit of sugary sweet cinnamon spice like big red gum which I would attribute to OBSK. Things are off to a good start.

Taste: All of the same from the nose. Sugary wood, sugary spice, sugary red fruits. The finish has some chocolatey red fruits and a touch of milder spice that linger for a while. Overall the wood depth seems spot on for 7ish years old and there are only faint hints of untamed ethanol in the mix.

Thoughts: I was expecting a lot and this delivered. It tastes like quintessential, classic Four Roses. The price is reasonable, I didn't have a hard time finding it, and I could have bought as much of it as I wanted. My only knock is I wish it had a touch more age and maybe a tad more proof, like say 8 years and 107 but in this day and age of bourbon hysteria I am pretty happy with it as is. 

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Knob Creek Small Batch Review

Here today we have Jim Beam's flagship premium small batch bourbon. For the longest time it used to carry a 9 year age statement however a couple years or so ago it was removed. In an interesting recent twist however it was just announced that Beam would be adding the age statement back which is a circle of events I don't think we've ever seen before in bourbon. 

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 50% ABV; $35

Nose: Very typical bourbon nose - woody, vanilla/caramel. A bit of the familiar Jim Beam peanut funk is mixed in as well. It might be slightly boring as far as bourbons go but not bad.

Taste: Just like the nose it checks all the boxes of a middle aged bourbon. There is a good amount of wood, a good amount of sweets, and 100 proof gives it plenty of umpf. I know this doesn't have an age statement but I would guess this is still pretty close to 9 years old if not actually still that old. Beam peanut is pretty pervasive as the sweets take on a peanut brittle kind of flavor. The finish lasts quite a bit and is kind of hot for the proof but lingers with a little rye bit on top of the aforementioned flavors.

Thoughts: It's not very exciting but if you don't mind a hefty dose of nutty flavors in your bourbon this will certainly get the job done. This isn't something I buy regularly as I feel there are better values for the money in this price range but if I am out at a bar with a less than stellar selection I can almost always count on this being available and I never regret getting it.

Rating: B- (80/100)

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C918, Knob Creek Single Barrel "The Green Monstah", and Stagg Jr Batch 10 (126.4) Reviews

The state of American whiskey in 2019 is a weird place. The demand for allocated bottles has been in a fever pitch and seems to have no end in sight. Even worse, the list of whiskeys that are now considered allocated has become a sad state of affairs. A quick look the recent influx of posts on /r/whiskyporn that are treating bourbons like Weller Special Reserve and Blanton's as coveted major scores has anyone that's been around a while thinking we've hit rock bottom yet despite that sentiment the WTFs just keep coming.

But for all the silly shit that is happening in the whiskey scene, there are some bright spots, and one of those is that we are in a golden age of well aged, high proof, decently priced, not impossible to find bourbons and ryes. There are so many more good high proof options today than there were 6-7 years ago and even with the crazy demand, most of them are not that hard to come by. So with that in mind, I thought it would be fun to compare three popular options against each other, all of which I was able to find at retail just by walking into a shop, no special favors required.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C918

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 12 years; 65.7% ABV; $75

Nose: Woody and sweet, just like what you should expect from a twelve year old cask strength bourbon.

Taste: Lots of lush sweet caramel up front and some rye spice bite in the backend. The ever increasing peanut note I am getting in Heaven Hill these days is there in the form of peanut butter marshmallow smores. The finish lingers for quite a while with an oak laden sweet spice punch. There is plenty of wood depth there but there are also twangs of a younger, green wood taste that I sometimes get in this product's younger brother, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond.

Thoughts: This is good but if I am going off memory it is far from the most complex ECBP I've ever had. The touch of green wood is the biggest detractor here for me, I don't recall ever getting that in the older ones. It's probably just me but I feel like these just aren't as good as the releases from 2-3 years ago. Still a very solid high proof bourbon and if found a retail is a buy on sight for me.

Rating: B/B+

Knob Creek Single Barrel "The Green Monstah" Selected by Barrels & Brews

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 15 years 1 month (label is incorrect); 60% ABV; $50

Nose: A remarkable balance of a ton of wood and just as much sweetness. Very, very good.

Taste: Sweet nutty flavors like peanut brittle with lots and lots of oak. It's a bit dry but there is a lot of flavor to make up for that without being bitter. The finish rides out with dark cocoa sweet vibes and touches of rye spice but again it's super oaky and yet just as sweet. Not much to say other than it's a flavor bomb.

Thoughts: I've had mixed results with these older aged Knob Creek Single Barrels but this one is a home run for me. I did a bottle split of Booker's 30th with a friend and this is easily better for me and probably the best Knob Creek Single Barrel I've had yet. The Barrels & Brews guys have been doing a hell of a job with their selections and this one is no different. 

Rating: B+

Stagg Jr Batch #10

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 63.20% ABV; $50

Nose: A sweeter, fruitier nose than the other two which make sense given the likely age of 9ish years. Cherries, peaches, stone fruits, and woody caramel.

Taste: A balanced, classic taste of bourbon with an equal combo of fruit, sweet, and oak. Sugary salted fruit pie crust comes to mind for the sweet notes along with just enough wood depth to balance things out.

Thoughts: This is a completely different vibe than the ECBP and KCSiB which makes sense since it the youngest in the bunch. That's not necessarily a bad thing here though as it's able to showcase more dimensions that just being an oak bomb. This isn't as good as Batch 9 which I still think is the best release of Stagg Jr yet but this is a quality product that I think as time goes by is slowly but surely chipping away at ECBP as the most consistent best bang for your buck high proof bourbon. At retail, these are a buy on sight for me all day long.

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Four Roses Small Batch 2018 130th Anniversary Review

Like most folks who are serious about bourbon, I'm a huge Four Roses fan. I've never had a limited product from them that wasn't good though not all of them are grand slams. Granted, they were a lot better bargain just a few years ago when they retailed for $70 but I've still had enough good experiences that I don't usually think twice about buying them when given the chance even though they cost around double that now. 

This vintage is a blend of the following recipes:

• 10 year OBSV
• 13 year OBSF
• 14 year OESV
• 16 year OESK

Three out of four of those are recipes I usually gravitate towards and the fourth (OBSF) is one I've had at least some success with as well so I'm expecting good things there.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 54.2% ABV; $140

Nose: Very sweet. A hefty dose of brown sugar. The traditional Four Roses red fruit notes are muted which is surprising to me given this has two V yeast components which are known for that.

Taste: Very sweet like the nose with a considerable amount of oak influence without being bitter or dry. Up front it's straight up liquid brown sugar with a little fruit character. The sweet note lingers for quite a while then quite a bit of mint flavors come through which I would attribute to the F yeast component. Oddly, the mint flavors aren't really that spicy, as if the heavy handed brown sugar notes are keeping the spice in check.

Thoughts: This is a pretty good bourbon with a lot of great sweet and oak flavors but compared to other Four Roses special releases it's not really that memorable. It checks all the right boxes of what makes a great standard bourbon but it's missing the whiz bang of red fruit / sweet / spicy that is where Four Roses bourbon shines. It's a really high bar if you want to compare Four Roses limited editions this one would be in my bottom bracket out of releases over the past 6 years. 

Rating: B / B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Michter's 10 Year Single Barrel 2014 vs. 2017 Reviews

I've covered a 2014 version of Michter's 10 Year Single Barrel a couple of times before which you can here and here. The TL;DR is that they are surprisingly good bourbons. I've been skeptical how long the quality would hold up because at some point Michter's has to exhaust their supply of primo sourced bourbon. Here today we will put that question to the test.

2014 Michter's 10 year Single Barrel

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Barrel No. 14A21; Aged 10 years; 47.2% ABV; $75 (2014)

Nose: Rich and mature with lots of compacted sweet notes. It has a bit of a condensed bourbon character that I typically only get in dusty bourbons with a lot more intensity than you'd expect for the proof.

Taste: More of the same from the nose. It's very lush and heavy on dessert type flavors like honey, caramel, and pie crust. The oak is noticeable and provides a lot of wood depth but it's not overly bitter or dry. There are faint hints of a dusty type flavor that I usually get in bourbons from 20 or more years ago. The finish is a touch short and has a bit of an earthy old wood note but it's faint.

Thoughts: A fantastic dram. From memory it's not the best 2014 single barrel I've had but it's very good. If not for that touch of earthy bitterness in the finish this would be an A-. Either these 2014s are some primo honey 10 year barrels or there is older whiskey in the mix.

Rating: B+

2017 Michter's 10 year Single Barrel

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Barrel No. 17B314; Aged 10 years; 47.2% ABV; $120 (2017)

Nose: Smells younger and more green than the 2014. This is much closer to a typical 10 year profile as a similarity to Henry McKenna 10 year comes to mind. Also a rye profile is more noticeable here as there are some mint / eucalyptus spice notes.

Taste: No surprises here, tastes like it smells. Its a bit sweet but after tasting the 2014, it's not nearly as lush and almost tastes young/green. There are more fruit and mash type sweet notes than dark caramel / burnt sugar. In the finish a bit of dark chocolate comes out but you have to reach for it.

Thoughts: It's a perfectly fine bourbon but it's nothing special and not really any better than an ordinary bottle like modern Henry McKenna which it actually tastes like in a lot of ways.

Rating: B-

Overall Thoughts: When the 2016 came out was able to try samples from several different single barrels. It was immediately evident none of them tasted anything like the earlier versions and the experience here today echoes that. For comparisons perspective, the differences in profile between these two is similar to the differences I observed in dusty vs. modern Henry McKenna.

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Old Forester 1910 Review

I'm not the biggest fan of Brown-Forman whiskeys. Out of about ten vintages of Birthday Bourbon I've tried, I've yet to have one that didn't make me want to gag from bitter varnish notes. As for their non limited edition releases, I find a common banana note in most all of them that just doesn't sit well with me. Granted, Old Forester 1920 from the Whiskey Row series is pretty good - it's easily their best product and the only one that I've ever bought more than once. Here today we have 1920's followup and what is supposedly the last product in the series. The schtick here is it's a bourbon that was rebarreled and then aged in fresh, lightly toasted, heavily charred barrels. Rebarreling can be a slippery slope, as my recent experience with Knob Creek's Twice Barreled Rye didn't turn out so well. I'm not exactly optimistic but I am hopeful Old Forester has a better showing coming on the heels of something as good as 1920. 

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 46.5% ABV; $60

Color: I don't usually remark on color but this stuff is noticeably dark. It has the deep brown of bourbons in the 12-15 year old category.

Nose: Smells like a rather mature bourbon. That familiar Forman banana note is definitely here - it smells like banana creme brûlée. 

Taste: A lot more of the same from the nose. It drinks like a very mature bourbon with a lot of wood notes yet still has a lot of sweetness to prevent it from being overly bitter. The banana notes are fairly heavy handed. Again, this tastes like some sort of banana caramel dessert. If you take the wheated aspect out of the picture, in a lot of ways the profile here reminds me of Weller 12.

Thoughts: This is pretty good. I don't really have any major faults with it other than being a little boring and the banana notes being a bit pervasive. Unlike in other Forman whiskies where that banana note is younger / more green, the maturity of the profile here actually makes it kind of nice. This still isn't as good as 1920 but I do think this is my second favorite Forman product.

Rating: B- / B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating

Belle Meade Black Belle Review

Here's a fun bottle I picked up on Black Friday at the Nelson's Green Brier Distillery in Nashville. After dumping barrels of their (assuming sourced MGP) product, the Nelsons sent the empty barrels over to a local brewery called Blackstone who used them to make their Black Belle imperial stout. After Blackstone was finished with the barrels, they were sent back to Belle Meade who then finished some of their bourbon in these now twice used casks. Having read good things about at least one previous cask of Black Belle and it being a holiday weekend I was feeling vicarious enough to take a chance. 

Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Imperial Stout Casks; No Age Statement; 48.5% ABV; Cask 4171; $100

Nose: Wafts of your typical bourbon scents, especially typical MGP bourbon but also a lot of dark chocolate and malty cocoa. The nose is really nice.

Taste: Starts off like your typical MGP bourbon but quickly morphs into a torrent of dark chocolate, espresso, and the fruity notes you glean in really good coffee. Those atypical notes start in the mid palate and ride heavily through the finish. It's got a bit of the malty barley grain taste of a stout beer in the finish but the thing that strikes me most are the espresso notes. At less than 100 proof for cask strength it's super easy to drink and yet still full bodied, rich, and complex.

Thoughts: I have traditionally had bad experiences with beer finished whiskey but I am glad I took a chance on this - I really enjoy it. The imperial stout imparted coffee notes are really unique but not as overpowering as something like the Abraham Bowman coffee finished bourbon which basically tasted like barrel proof coffee. I've had slight ups and downs with Belle Meade's experimental finishes but this one is a winner for me.

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Old Ezra Barrel Strength Review

Here is a new product launched by Luxco in late 2018. Luxco is widely known to source from Heaven Hill so it's highly likely this is 7 year old cask strength Heaven Hill bourbon. It's rare this day and age we see a new cask strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey carrying an age statement that is both affordable and easy to obtain but in some sort of weird 2010 time-warp, here we are. I thought the Old Ezra 7 year 101 (which has been discontinued) was pretty good so I'm going into this expecting the same quality.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 7 Years; 58.5% ABV; $35

Nose: Typical woody bourbon with decent age. There is a bit of peanut, cherry, and a little cedar element to the wood notes. The proof is pretty evident but not overpowering - about right where it should be for nearly 60% ABV. 

Taste: Like the nose, it's pretty consistent with the core bourbon wheelhouse of vanilla/oak/caramel. There is more of the light cherry note and some peanut, something that is increasingly more common for me in Heaven Hill bourbons lately. It has some rye spice and decent amount of wood depth with minimal young, grainy mash notes. The proof is certainly there and it's a touch bold but certainly very drinkable.

Thoughts: This is exactly what it should be - a classic, no frills, no bullshit bourbon. It isn't going to blow you away as the most amazing bourbon you've ever had but it delivers the solid quality that you'd expect of a middle aged whiskey from a tenured distillery. If this had been released by Heaven Hill I think Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Jr would be an apt product name as that's what it tastes like. Considering the price, stats, and how easy this was for me to obtain, I'm calling this my best bourbon of 2018.

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Elijah Craig Barrel Select 125 Proof Review

Here today we have a gift shop only release from the folks over at Heaven Hill which is affectionately referred to as the Elijah Craig "hand grenade" for obvious reasons. It seems this product exists solely for the purpose of gift shop distribution which I think is great - I wish more distillery gift shops would do bottle sizes like this. The standard Elijah Craig dropped an age statement a couple years ago but is still a blend of 8+ year old stock. I actually like the new blend better than the old age statement product simply because it's not as oak forward / bitter. I'm expecting this is a higher proof version of the current standard product and as such I expect it will be pretty good.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 62.5% ABV; $25 / 200ml

Nose: A bit hot for 125 proof - the ethanol is very noticeable. Underneath that it is a wallop of wood and maple syrup sugary notes which are reminiscent of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof.

Taste: Upfront taste is more of the same from the nose, a ton of woody sugar notes. Lots of oak but it's not overly bitter or dry. Along with all that wood influence are syrupy sweet notes for days - it's like drinking bourbon pancakes. The finish is a lot of those woody and sweet notes but there are also traces of ashy char and harsh ethanol which are just a touch too hot for my taste.

Thoughts: This is good but not great. It's not as elegant or easy as the standard Elijah Craig nor is it as bold / punch you in the mouth as the 12 year Barrel Proof. As such, it seems to kinda dance around in the middle without much of an identity. It wants to be brash and it has the proof to be so but it's missing all the wood punch that makes that boldness work for the Barrel Proof. It's a nice novelty product but I won't be clamoring for them to release anything like this nationwide anytime soon.

Rating: B / B-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Virgin Bourbon Review

Here today we have an uncommon bottle from a weird off brand of Heaven Hill. It's a bit of a sleeper due to the fact that it has very limited geographical distribution but if you happen to live in North Carolina apparently this stuff is dirt cheap and plentiful. I also hear that it's available in Alabama and Japan but I have no idea if it is quite as cheap there. I've had good experiences with similar Heaven Hill products like their 6 year old Bottled in Bond as well as a Luxco Heaven Hill sourced bourbon that shares these exact stats in Old Ezra 101 7 year so I expect this to go well.

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; Aged 7 years; 50.5% ABV; $11

Nose: The poster child of a no frills bourbon - corn, vanilla, oak, sweet caramel. There are hints of grainy new make which tells that while it has plenty of age, there is still a little youth to it.

Taste: A well rounded combo of sweet and oak with a little rye and char bite in the finish. The 101 proof gives it a nice kick in the pants without being overly hot. Again there are traces of younger new make grainy corn mash which are in-line with what you'd expect from a bourbon at this age. It's about as classic bourbon as you can get.

Thoughts: No surprises here, it tastes exactly like a seven year old 101 proof bourbon from a long tenured distillery should. I'm going off memory but this is on par with the Old Ezra 101 so it wouldn't surprise me if it's the same product with a different label. Considering this is significantly cheaper than the Ezra, that makes this the best bourbon I've ever had under $20. If this was available here at the same price it would easily overtake Wild Turkey 101 as my house whiskey since it's less than half the price and just about as enjoyable. 

Rating: C+ / B-

Thanks to /u/rhinusdax for the generous gift of this bottle and be sure to check out his review here.

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Evan Williams Review

Here today we have the flagship of the Heaven Hill whiskey line. Last I checked, I believe this is the third best selling American whiskey in the world behind Jim Beam and Jack Daniel's. I like the Bottled in Bond variant of this which is also no age statement but comes in at 100 proof. While the proof on that one is nice, it definitely drinks like a barely no age statement bourbon in that it tastes right at 4 years old with a good bit of corn / grain forward mash notes. I've can't recall the last time I had regular Evan Williams though and even if I could I've never had much of it so I'm going in with a blank slate here. 

Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey; No Age Statement; 43% ABV; $7 (375ml)

Nose: Yep, smells like bourbon. A lot of sweet wood sugary notes and a good amount of oak. It's got a fair bit more wood depth than I expected as the young grainy notes are there but minor. 

Taste: A lot more of the nose. It's mostly all sweet and wood. Upfront it's sugary caramel which transitions to a darker burnt sugars like creme brulee in the finish. There are hints of a nutty note like peanut brittle which is something I am getting more and more often in Heaven Hill products these days. Again there's quite a bit more wood influence than I expected which is doing well to keep any young corn grain mash notes at bay. It's as easy to drink as you'd expect for 86 proof though I wouldn't say it's watery. 

Thoughts: This is better than I expected. It certainly runs circles around Beam and Jack as it has a lot more depth than those. I went in guessing this was barely four years old but going off profile here I'd guess it's more like 6-7. In a similar comparison, I consider Maker's Mark the baseline of an average drinkable bourbon and this is better than that too. If I had to nitpick, it is pretty much a two trick pony of sweet and wood with not much else and the proof is holding it back. Overall, it's a nice, classic bourbon that comes in at a great price and would be a great choice as a house bourbon to share with company.

Rating: C+ / C

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve Review

Nelson's Green Brier is a local distillery in Nashville that has been distilling their own bourbon for about 2 years. Like most other startup distilleries, they have been selling a sourced product while their own distillate comes of age. Belle Meade currently comes in quite a few forms, all of which is based on MGP bourbon. Of all their products, I find their higher aged cask strength single barrels to be the best. MGP bourbon like any single barrel can vary in quality though and as such off the shelf bottles can sometimes be a slight gamble. That's why I was intrigued to learn the Nelson's released a new product, Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve. According to the website, it is a cask strength, non chill filtered, small batch blend of 7-11 year old high rye bourbon.

No Age Statement; 59.4% ABV; Batch no. 1; $60

Nose: Classic spicy bourbon. Vanilla and caramel wood sweets with tons of rye spice. The heat is well tamed for 120 proof.

Taste: Honey caramel sweets upfront, spicy cinnamon blast in the middle, and a finish of sweet / spicy oak. Throughout the start and finish are the hallmark red fruit notes I usually get in Four Roses OBSV which makes sense since MGP shares the mother V yeast with them. While there are touches of old oak, the wood notes have a lot of maturity and depth without being overly bitter. 

Thoughts: This is great - sweet, spice forward, and the right amount of wood balance. Unlike some older MGP bourbons I've had that could be a touch too bitter, the blend of ages is really working well. On top of all that, it's rather easy to drink considering it's 120 proof. While this isn't quite the best MGP bourbon I've ever had, it's better than any MGP bourbon I've had in quite a while. I love that this is a blend so if you get the same batch you know exactly what you are getting. I wish more folks buying up MGP whiskey would do this with their older stock.

Rating: B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Wild Turkey Longbranch Review

In 2016 Matthew McConaughey signed on as Wild Turkey's creative director. At first his presence was just a short film and then a few commercials but here today we have a new product from them with his name on it. According to a press release it's an 8 year old Wild Turkey bourbon that's been refined (read: filtered) through oak and Texas mesquite charcoal because McConaughey has roots there. It sounds rather gimmicky to me but as a fan of Wild Turkey that is saddened a lot of drinkers don't take their products seriously I'm all for any positive publicity.

No Age Statement; 43% ABV; $40

Nose: Light and easy. Smells like your typical bourbon of vanilla, caramel, honey, and oak. It has some age as any grainy corn mash notes are virtually nonexistent. 

Taste: Like the nose, it's mostly all sweets and oak. It's on the light side in terms of heat so super easy to drink. The lack of proof makes this slant heavily towards a sweet profile which dominates over any woodiness. There's some of the familiar Wild Turkey baking spices in the finish but the spices are mild compared to their flagship 101. Again it tastes like it has some age as there are not really any youthful corn grain notes like I get traces of in Wild Turkey 101.

Thoughts: It tastes exactly like what you'd expect - a slightly more mature Wild Turkey 101 but less bold and noticeably more thin. The flavors are nice but I can't help but think how much better this would be at 101 proof. As a whiskey nerd knowing the significance of 101 to them, I find the proof here mildly infuriating. Having said that, I realize I'm not the target market - this is likely aimed at people who think "smooth" is what makes a great bourbon. Along those lines they've certainly succeeded because it is definitely easy to drink yet still carrying that hallmark Wild Turkey profile. If I were asked to recommend a bourbon to a new whiskey drinker this would be a good suggestion. As for a salty old dog like me though, it was fun to experience and I hope it's successful for them but it's not going to topple my reigning house whiskey, Wild Turkey 101.

Rating: C+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Woodford Reserve Batch Proof Review

I'm not the biggest fan of Woodford Reserve or even many of parent company Brown Forman's products either. Old Forester 1920 is the only one that comes to mind that I've enjoyed enough to buy more than once. I was in Kentucky a few months ago though and decided to knock out the last major distillery tour I had yet to do which was Woodford. I'd always heard the grounds are nice and they are but despite their best efforts to make you believe otherwise it's actually a potemkin distillery in that most all of the Woodford you drink is actually made in their Louisville distillery. The tour was actually really good, the guide didn't mess up any of the basic bourbon facts which sadly is the norm these days on distillery tours. On my way out I happened to notice the Batch Proof product in the gift shop. Normally I'd say I dislike Woodford special releases even more so than the regular product but I was in vacation mode and feeling loose with my wallet so I decided to take a chance in hopes of proof being the missing ingredient that would make me enjoy a Woodford product.

No Age Statement; 62.9% ABV; $130

Nose: Hefty blast of the typical vanilla caramel notes you'd expect from a high proof bourbon. There are some grainy corn and fruity mash notes that indicate it's not very old but they play well with all the ethanol umpf and sweet bourbon notes. It's as hot as it should be for 125 proof but not overly so. I guess we'll call that a win as I was worried it would blow my face off.

Taste: Ooof, there's the heat blast I was worried about. It's a big bold bruiser on the heat front taste-wise. Up front there are some of the caramel / fruity banana / corn new mash notes you'd expect from a slightly younger bourbon but on the mid and back end it's almost all wood. The finish is a lot of dry oak, almost with a lingering sawdust flavor. There are some nice darker sweet notes like cocoa that are there as well which are nice but it's hard to overlook the dry oakiness.

Thoughts: I probably have no idea what I am talking about but given the amount of oak influence here from what I expect is not a very old product, I'm guessing this was aged in the upper floors of a warehouse where it sweat its ass off. It's almost like it was aged too rapidly and the wood influence took over too quickly. All in all, I'd rate my enjoyment of it a little better than the standard product just because the added proof gives it some excitement but it's got some hot tannic tendencies that prevent me from loving it. For my money, Stagg Jr and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof are two products that cost 1/2 as much as this but offer more balance and nuance at the equivalent proof.

Rating: C+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond Arts & Crafts Review Series Part 7/7 and Closing Thoughts

Here is the followup to a huge side by side tasting I did involving twenty years of Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond. The TL;DR version is after trying some amazing Henry McKennas distilled in the mid 80s that run circles around the current product, I thought it would be fun to run through the years since then to see how the profile has changed. The grand side by side turned into a bit of a disaster though as there were just too many samples involved. In an attempt to salvage some sense of usefulness, I'm running through what vintages I have remaining in a more typical review style. On deck we have:

• Barrel No. 0083, Barreled on 12/05/86
• Barrel No. 0208, Barreled on 05/01/92
• Barrel No. 0232, Barreled on 04/19/93
• Barrel No. 0324, Barreled on 05/09/95
• Barrel No. 0328, Barreled on 05/20/96
• Barrel No. 0842, Barreled on 10/24/01
• Barrel No. 1024, Barreled on 05/30/02* 

* Technically not an arts and craft bottle, this was right after the switch over to the new label.

(Left) Aged 10 Years; 50.0% ABV; Barrel No. 2979, Barreled on 03/14/06

(Right) Aged 10 Years; 50.0% ABV; Barrel No. 1024, Barreled on 09/30/2002; Thanks to /u/flavorjunkie for the sample

Nose: Considerably more dense and compact than the current bottle. It smells more like a 10 year old whiskey should - lots of oak, lots of condensed caramel sweets. There are hints of dusty funk which is nice. By comparison, the modern bottle smells more flat, young, and fruity. 

Taste: Largely a reinforcement of the nose. It's not as dense as some of the best of these but it's rather compact. Everything about it taste-wise is just bigger than the current version. The mouthfeel is full, lush, and thick. The traditional caramel and vanilla sweets are very heavy, like thick cake frosting. On the oak side it's very woody but in a nice way with only a touch of bitterness in the finish. Side by side the 2016 bottle tastes fruitier, more honey forward, and younger with way less oak influence. 

Thoughts: Another jarring experience. While the last post fire bottle was a bit disappointing, this is considerably better than any McKenna I've had in the last 4-5 years. Like all of the other standouts in this series, color is again a huge tipoff in quality as the differences here are dramatic.

Rating: B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Final Thoughts: Going into this adventure, I expected the decline in quality of these to be gradual over time, coinciding with the switch from pre to post Heaven Hill fire. That's certainly not been the case - there were low points in even the pre-fire barrels and a high point in a barrel that was dumped just six years ago. What I haven't seen are any standouts any later the last one here. My previous best theories on the differences in quality were things like old-growth wood, bottle conditioning, and environmental factors but I'm less confident in those ideas now given the bottle covered today was so recent. Given that, my best guess for the change in profile is it coincides right with when the bourbon boom started to surge. I'm thinking better quality casks and or warehouse locations were gobbled up by other Heaven Hill brands as they struggled to keep up with demand. That's really the only answer that makes sense to me and if so, I doubt Heaven Hill would ever own up to that reasoning. 

Update 06/19:

I forgot to add some commentary about the volume of barrels over the years. From 1994 to 2012 there were about 1000 barrels selected. From 2012 - 2015 the next 1000. They doubled all that from 2015 - 2017. 

There's your bourbon boom in one concise picture.