u/FroznBones

Europe trip was awesome, but it’s great to get back in the saddle with this nice little weekend haul. Hope to see you all and catch up over a pour. I’ll be around all we end and for the US/Belgium game on Monday night

Headed to Edinburgh, Amsterdam, and London until the end of the month. Got a nice early Father’s Day gift. Which 5 whiskeys from our collection should I take?

Bopped into Left Coast Beverage for a handle of Fireball (gotta keep the Buffalo happy, don’t ya know?) and a New Riff Single Barrel bourbon to go with the surprisingly good SiB rye I grabbed last week from Josh at Baseline. I was super stoked to run into a raft of other store picks. I grabbed the Penelope Project X and Bardstown Barrel Proof Wheated. There was Maker’s pick and one other that’s slipping my mind. Their last Maker’s pick was one of my favorite local MM picks from the past couple years

I’ve already cracked the Bardstown and it it’s really good. I have some initial notes, but I’m looking forward to sitting with it for a bit before I post a full review.

3 pretty solid bottles all day under $80? Sign me up

Rittenhouse, 10 Year Bottled in Bond Rye, 250th Anniversary Commemorative Edition, 100°, $99.95 51% rye, 35% corn, 14% malted barley

Appearance: Auburn, edging towards mahogany

Nose: Like an afternoon sitting in the shady part of the garden. Sweet tea, light floral notes; I thought gardenia at first, but it's not that flamboyant, more like lemon balm. Some citrus zest sharpens things a bit. The spice notes are soft and tend towards the savory end of the spectrum. The oak is super plush, there's a whiff of char, and something like saddle soaped leather in there too. It is very composed and harmonious.

Palate: Mouth and tongue coating. Candied citrus, apricot thumbprint cookies, Vietnamese cinnamon, black caraway seed, there is a varnish quality to the oak that is very attractive. It is silky and syrupy, just tons of finesse. Honestly kind of surprised me.

Finish: Like taking a pie out of the oven. All the flavors marry up and get a drizzle of caramel or piloncillo sugar. The citrus note takes on an orange jelly candy note, but is kept from becoming cloying by the vanilla from the oak.

Heaven Hill knocked it out of the park with this one. Composed from a batch of 90 barrels, this expression is a slight variation on the normal Rittenhouse mash bill with a touch more malted barley and a bit less corn, but still 51% rye. Perhaps that small change, along with 10 years accounts for how different this is than run of the mill Rittenhouse. Sure, its 4 times the MSRP of the standard, but I think the juice is worth the squeeze.

I was super stoked to lay hands on the Black Maple Hill and Pride of Anderson County. I figured I missed the boat.

I’m excited about the Rittenhouse. It’s a slightly different mash bill than standard Rittenhouse and is drawn from a 90 barrel batch. I’m digging these 250th anniversary commemorative editions.

I’ll be working on reviews of all 3, but it’ll take minute. Stop on by and enjoy an ounce or two!

Appearance: Tawny port, weak orange pekoe tea

Nose: Melted vanilla ice cream, root beer float foam, cream soda, fresh oak shavings. It doesn’t come across as older, but spry and fresh. I did get a deeper oak and some cracked pink peppercorn on my second tasting.

Palate: creamy, sticky, and viscous; this sip has an amazing tactile component in the mouth. Sticky toffee pudding, old school banana twinkies, pecan praline, cocoa nibs, walnut skin. This is like a trip to Farrel’s Ice Cream Parlor in 1976.

Finish: So. Rich. I just sat there as flavors lava lamped around my nose and tongue. Spice cake with brown butter frosting, very streamlined oak. Nuts toasted just to the last point before they scorch, just a breath of campfire smoke high up in the back palate.

This was everything it was cracked up to be. Not gonna lie, I don’t think I’ve looked forward to a bottle more since maybe the Starhill Farms 2025 that I listed after. It kind of put my objectivity to the test, but I’d like to think I could pick this out of a lineup. It’s almost June and I’m planning on putting together a list of my top 10 halfway through the year. This will probably crack top 5 for me.

Appearance: burnished redwood

Nose: This was a bottle crack pour. The first whiff was an absolute uppercut of rye spice and mint, but this dissipated after about 10 minutes. The rest helped open up aromas of cola syrup, fresh orange peel/citrus oil, toasted marshmallowy oak, bbq smoke, then a wave of mint edging over towards menthol.

Palate: big initial wave of ethanol followed by loads of mint, crushed candy canes, ground coffee, and deep layer of dark rye spice, the oak is there but obscured by the rye notes.

Finish: the toasted oak reappears, peppermint patty candies, and a counterpoint of darker spice notes. There is a definite creaminess to the finish that was quite enjoyable.

This is the first whiskey is I’ve had from New Riff. It is built with their own distillate, but based on the MGP 95/5 high rye mash bill. Their in house mash bill substitutes the malted barley with malted rye. Perhaps this accounts for the creamy note? I dig their approach to craft distilling of slightly tweaking the expected, but not going completely, unnecessarily, off the rails. At $57 it’s kind of a steal.

Making some flight boards for my bar using staves from our last barrel of Stagg. When the forstner bit starts working through the char the whole place is perfumed with bourbon and Rickhouse.

Definitely adding the aromas to my Stank Bank for describing oak aromas in the future.

Snips is a one ball at a time kind of gal. She won’t play with a new one until the cover is completely gone and it splits in two.

2026-16: RY3 American Light Whiskey, 14 year, SiB, Baseline Liquor pick, 131.2°

Appearance: Apple juice orange/gold

Nose: orange drink, canned peach syrup, there’s ethanol but nothing nose singeing, some very soft, gauzy vanilla, kettle corn caramel

Palate: Sweet & syrupy peach cobbler, Cracker Jacks, charred marshmallow, Ceylon cinnamon, crème anglais. For 131.2° it sure sips easy.

Finish: This is where the age showed up. The finish lingers longer than some of the higher proof ALW that I’ve had. I’ve been on a runner with some real hazmat expressions and they seem to flash away. At this lower proof point (seems funny to call 131 and change low, but in this category it seems to be the case) the flavors continue to develop from the sweetness of the baked fruit down to the darker notes that undergirded the palate.

This is a great summer whiskey. It’s like sticking your nose in the stem end of ripe peach. It would be a perfect bottle to pass around a fire on the beach. It has a brightness that belies its age statement. Gotta say, one of the easier to enjoy American Light Whiskeys I’ve had in a minute. Nice job u/JoshTylerClarke

We’ve had some awesome Friday drops before, it this is a pretty exciting collection of bottles. I had the RC and the Commander’s Club on my visit to Kentucky and was stoked to have them turn up here.

I’ve been on a Maker’s kick for a bit so I’m looking forward to trying the newest Wood Finishing Series, “The Stewards”. I really need to track down pours of the first one. If anyone sees it around town give me a shout, would ya?

Shenk’s, Bomberger’s, WFP and, last but not least the Evan Williams 250th Commemorative Ed, 7 year SiB 117.76°. This is a fantastic value in the mid-$40s if you can track one down.

Hope to see ya soon!

Jack Daniel’s 14 Year, Batch 02 117.6°

We got this bottle in Thursday afternoon and I was surprised to see any left when I got here on Wednesday after my weekend. I poured a couple ounces for folks who stopped in and there was just enough left to taste, but not to sell. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

Color: dark, burnished copper fading to orange tootsie pop at the shallows. (Is rim variation an indicator of age like it is in wine?)

Nose: Black Forest gateau, dark chocolate covered dried cherries, toasted coconut, hint of char, light sweet tobacco. Everything is coated in dark sweet aromas. It reminds me that the words for decadent and decay are kissing cousins and have their root in something that has been buried away. This smells old, like opening an abandoned library.

Palate: the nose didn’t lie. Loads of cherry, chocolate, and buttercream drape over other flavors like charred, polished oak in the mid-palate, 3 Musketeers nougat, and cigar wrapper.

Finish: surprise… it’s cherry! This time like a syrup or reduction, a stab of rye spice, a touch of caramel, but then an assertive, but not overly tannic, leather wrapped oakiness that sharpens the focus as it fades away.

This whiskey never, ever felt like it was almost 118°. Incredibly balanced, poised, integrated, and purposeful. This is one of those whiskeys that evokes the poignant nature of our hobby. Sometimes you get to taste something truly extraordinary, but you know it’s a one and done sort of deal. So you absolutely wring every bit of experiential perception you can out of the moment. Ephemeral, but memorable.

Jack Daniel’s 14 Year, Batch 02 117.6°

We got this bottle in Thursday afternoon and I was surprised to see any left when I got here on Wednesday after my weekend. I poured a couple ounces for folks who stopped in and there was just enough left to taste, but not to sell. Poor, poor, pitiful me.

Color: dark, burnished copper fading to orange tootsie pop at the shallows. (Is rim variation an indicator of age like it is in wine?)

Nose: Black Forest gateau, dark chocolate covered dried cherries, toasted coconut, hint of char, light sweet tobacco. Everything is coated in dark sweet aromas. It reminds me that the words for decadent and decay are kissing cousins and have their root in something that has been buried away. This smells old, like opening an abandoned library.

Palate: the nose didn’t lie. Loads of cherry, chocolate, and buttercream drape over other flavors like charred, polished oak in the mid-palate, 3 Musketeers nougat, and cigar wrapper.

Finish: surprise… it’s cherry! This time like a syrup or reduction, a stab of rye spice, a touch of caramel, but then an assertive, but not overly tannic, leather wrapped oakiness that sharpens the focus as it fades away.

This whiskey never, ever felt like it was almost 118°. Incredibly balanced, poised, integrated, and purposeful. This is one of those whiskeys that evokes the poignant nature of our hobby. Sometimes you get to taste something truly extraordinary, but you know it’s a one and done sort of deal. So you absolutely wring every bit of experiential perception you can out of the moment. Ephemeral, but memorable.

Happy 1st Wednesday of May! I’m taking a page out of MWL’s playbook and steeply discounting some great whiskeys to make room for stuff heading our way over the next few weeks. Who knows, I might even have a couple of other gems hidden away.

I’ll be around until at least 7 tonight to pour and shoot the breeze.

Oh yeah, we still have about 1/2 of each bottle of JD 10,12, and 14 hanging on.

$40 for an ounce of all 3 plus check out this week’s 3 for $30 flight on our instagram

frontrow.or

On a recent visit to Heaven Hill, I treated myself to a couple of fine pours while having lunch at the Five Brothers restaurant after touring the Springs Distillery. They had a great list of pours, but how was I supposed to pass up an opportunity to check a bunch of things off my list? In addition to being a Kentucky only releases and nearly impossible to lay hands on, the 11^(th) Edition is a 13 year BiB from the soon to be decommissioned Deatsville Rickhouse. The 12th Edition spools it up to 19 years and Barrel Strength at 138.2°. Besides that, at $60 for an ounce and a half for each it was half the price of the lovely Heaven Hill 90^(th) Anniversary (it was surprising that they were asking what $120 a pour, essentially the MSRP of the bottle itself). I will list the details in parallel noting the whiskeys as WHH11 and WHH12.

WHH11:  13 Year, Bottled In Bond, 100°. 34 barrels, Deatsville Rickhouse, 4^(th) floor

WHH12: 19 Year, Barrel Proof, 138.2°, 30 barrels, Glencoe & Bardstown rickhouses

Appearance: WHH11: Light butterscotch, sparkling in the glen. WHH12: Deep mahogany, seemed to trap light like a singularity.

Nose: WHH11: Mexican hot chocolate, , caramel, rickhouse funk, toasted nuts, praline. WHH12: Spiced cider, flamed orange oil, bruleed brown sugar, honey roasted peanuts, pastries, polished oak.

Palate: WHH11: cocoa nib and roasted nuts, chocolate covered espresso beans, nut brittle, warming spices, syrupy on the tongue. WHH12: cream soda syrup, apple pie spices, Mars bar, restrained yet powerful oak. Surprisingly the BiB seemed to drink with more apparent proof than the Barrel Proof expression.

Finish: WHH11: sweet, mouth coating finish thick with leather and oak tannins. Seemed to last forever. The oak is edges towards astringency much more than its older compatriot. WHH12: barrel char, savory, bit of pie crust with burnt cherry syrup. With the length of the finish on this I could milk a pour of this all afternoon.

This was my first trip to Kentucky, and it did not disappoint. I was there to pick a Weller Full Proof barrel, but as a whiskey fan I was on a entirely different mission: tasting old dusty bourbon and Kentucky only pours. My visit to Heaven Hill scratched all my itches. These two bottles were literally phenomenal. The WHH11 was a lot punchier that the 100ׄ° would lead you to believe, but it carries so much intensity of flavor across the palate that it seemed to warp my taste-time continuum. The WHH12 was incredibly restrained for something nearing hazmat proof. I have been awash in great HH expressions over the past few months, but this was an entirely different level of exceptional bourbon making. I was also poured a dram of Heaven Hill Master Distiller’s Unity a blend of the last, 34 year old, barrel of bourbon distilled by Parker Beam at the old pre-fire Heaven Hills Distillery, and 14, 8 and 6 year bourbons from Parker, Denny Potter, and current Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll. So, I also got to check off, sort of, Pre-Fire HH. That’s a tale for a different day tho.