1845 just released their first ever
single barrel cask strength wheated bourbon aged for 6 years, so I killed this 4-year bottle to make room for the newcomer.
Leather, peaches, caramelized orange peel, tobacco, pepper... This bourbon is awesome, I can't begin to imagine what the 6-year will be.
It's a limited release, so don't sleep on it.
1845 makes some some of the best whiskey out there, and they keep upping their game.
The James E Pepper Decanter Rye dropped in DFW and I couldn't wait another day to crack it. I'm a big fan of their Decanter bourbon so I was waiting for this bottle since I learned they were releasing a rye. Definitely one of my most anticipated releases of the year. With a mash bill of 100% rye, I wasn't sure what to expect.
On the nose I got caramel, some oak, some mint and floral notes but not overly strong, everything is really well balanced. A nice amount of ethanol considering the proof of 116. The longer it sat on the Glen, the more prominent the caramel and oak got, always with a slight rye background. If this bottle is going to open up like this, it's going to be amazing.
The palate opened with mint, rye spice, and nice floral notes. I got orange lingering on the back palate. Spices kicked in. It's sweet and with a good bit of caramel.
Long finish that stays and never goes bitter.
This bottle is very promising. Their bourbon is amazing, this one might open up to be as great.
Fun HH blind tonight.
A friend gave a sample of a Heaven Hill 7Y Bottled-in-bond SiB T8KE pick and I thought it was much closer to a wheated bourbon than to a Heaven Hill. So I thought I'd blind it with the OG, a wheated HH whiskey of similar proof and age, and an Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B523, proofed down to 100.
Even in this mix, the SiB comes across as a wheater, as much as the Old Fitz.
HH OG > HH SIB > Old Fitz 7Y > proofed down ECBP. I'm not a fan of wheaters, so this all made sense except for how little I cared for the ECBP when proofed down.
HH BiB
N. Fruit punch with spices. Cherry. Caramel. 7
P. Cherry. Creamy. Vanilla and cinnamon. 7
F. 6
6.66 / 10
HH BiB T8KE SiB
N. Wheated with orange. Sliced wheat bread with orange marmalade. 6
P. Wheated. Creamy. Multi grain bread. Unripe berries. Pepper. Apricot. 6
F. 6
6 / 10
Old Fitz 7Y
N. Oak. Baking spices. Multi grain bread. Faint fruits.6
P. Creamy. Bread. Barely any sweetness. Mild spice. Mild bitterness. 5
F. 5
5.33
ECBP B523
N. Orange Creme. Some oak. Faint butterscotch. Barrel funk. 6
P. Mildly creamy. Unripe fruits. White pepper. 5
F. Grainy, peppery. 5
5.33
Scale reference:
• 5 | Just OK | Can drink it, but wouldn't spend money on it.
• 6 | Good | It's OK for an everyday, inexpensive whiskey.
• 7 | Very Good | I always want it on my shelves
u/VegetableTowel3702
It doesn't always happen to me that at a bottle share I like every single bottle on the table. Well, today it happened. One banger after another.
Some thoughts:
Crittenden's SiB 8Y Bourbon and DO SiB 5Y: my first Crittenden's SiB bourbon was too grassy and earthy for my linking. I thought these two would be similar. They weren't. I loved both.
Crittenden's Stogie batch: breaking a world record in amount of finishes, I thought this bottle would be all over the place, like a really bad cocktail made with no rhyme or reason. Wrong. It was very dialed down and on point. The people who recommended it to me were right. Sorry for having been a doubter.
Crittenden's BiB Rye 4Y: good palate, reminded me of the Wampus, but I found it too thin, albeit very minty on the finish. I preferred the 7Y rye much better (I was the only one though).
Reveries 8 The Den pick: an NDP that I liked. Not easy.
Matrimony by Distillerrie Acadian BiB Wheated: not a single traditional wheated note, and adopted Texan on the profile (leather and plum, baby!)
Golden Hour 20Y old Seagram's - amazing is an understatement. Unique and potent (140p that doesn't pull any punches).
Conviction 7Y SiB CS bourbon - you need this in your life. Trust me (and everyone who tries it)
One last pour of The Morning Glory before letting it rest.
The Morning Glory is a craft bourbon, pot distilled by the estate distillery Spirits of French Lick in Indiana, using quite a unique mash bill: corn, rye, kasha, buckwheat, and malt. This is a single barrel pick from Empire Liquor
As unique as the mash bill is, the profile is very familiar; it reminds me of pot-distilled Texas whiskeys: smokey, sweet, dried fruits, tobacco, dark syrup, and cinnamon sugar. The palate is thick and the finish is long and warm. It drinks hotter than the 115.9p but in a good way; it's not punishing at all.
Great bottle through and through. I'm very happy with this purchase.
In a nutshell, this is one of the best expressions from Garrison Brothers. This is the bottle that you can offer to someone who's never had Garrison Brothers, and they will likely love.
I'm rating this bottle and I ask myself, can this be improved in any possible way? It is almost perfect. At first I thought the nose was actually perfect, then I remembered Still Austin Blue Corn 6Y being even more layered. So there; almost perfect.
When you think of a crushable bottle, this is it.
Overall score 9 / 10
Nose: brown sugar, sweet tobacco, subtle leather, mild musty oak, raisins, boozy plums. It's smooth, it's layered, it's complex, it's not ethanol-y at all, it's intoxicatingly sweet. 9 / 10
Palate: plums, chocolate covered raisins, leather, oak, stone fruit compote, malted chocolate balls, vanilla pudding. Perfect proof, tons of flavor. Could it be a little thicker? Maybe. 9 / 10
Finish: medium long, quite warm for the proof, dark sugar, plum, smokey and sweet. 9 / 10
A quite punchy Sample Sunday. My bottle of UnBendt Wheat Whiskey SFTB, a respectable almost 8Y, 137.75p fruit bomb, side by side with the newest barrel, an 8Y 5M monster clocking in at 154.1p.
The sample of the newest barrel is incredibly smooth, I'd say that it drinks smoother than my bottle, that is almost 20p points lower. It also retains more of the sweet, smokey leather notes of the BiB than the previous barrel, and it amplifies everything to 11.
Phenomenal pour. If you can get to the distillery in Lewisville, grab one of these.
I'm always down for trying craft whiskey over unicorns. This bourbon is made by AI Distilling, a very small outfit in Clinton Missouri. I got a sample thanks to a friend who stopped by.
It tastes a little young, but not overly so. The mouthfeel is surprisingly viscous. Overall, 6 / 10
Nose: corn, vanilla, spices, floral.
6
Palate: creamy, sweet butter, herbal, honey, citrusy, white pepper, orange cream, grainy
6
Finish: medium and a little sour lingering
6
Second go at this bottle after having it opened for a while. It's amazing how much it has changed. When I opened it it had a lot of dusty notes that I loved. After a couple of months of being open, it is a lot more of a traditional rye than I remembered it to be. I like it but it's no longer special.
Neat. Rested 15 minutes.
Nose: orange, floral, herbal, honey apricot, caramel
7
Palate: thick, nutty, dark rye, sweet spearmint, baking spices, orange, herbal
6
Finish: minty, medium long
7
Overall - 6.66
It's Texas Tuesday, and today I had something different. A meet up of two giants. A blend of Still Austin Red Corn and Garrison Brothers Lady Bird.
I never blend at home. I like to enjoy the whiskey as the distiller intended it to be. They know better. They release it with a purpose. But if one of the head distillers at Still Austin did this at home and said it's good, then I have to try it. As it turns out, both blends were very freaking good.
"Red Bird"
60% Red Corn / 40% Lady Bird
105.6p
Nose: surprisingly, leather hit first, but then it got fruitier. As it settled I got dessert notes with spices, like spiced cherry pie. Butterscotch. Sweetened raspberry tea.
On the palate I got tons of fruits, leather, strawberry marmalade, sweet baking spices, cocoa powder.
Overall, very sweet and dessert-like.
8/10
"Lady Red"
60% Lady Bird / 40% Red Corn
108.4p
Nose: wild at first, no typical note stood out. As it sit the scents got sweet and darker, with brown sugar, and the Garrison leather was very mild in the background. Dark fruits. Char.
Palate: smooth, leather, dark chocolate covered cherries, very creamy.
Sweet but leathery and darker than the other one.
8/10
Too bad you can't play with Red Corn very much.
Texas Whiskey week, Day 7 - Maverick Four Grain bourbon.
Last day of the Texas Whiskey support week started by Kitsap Whiskey Society. Tough decision which one to go for, but it had to be Maverick.
This distillery has been putting out one banger after another. I've been obsessed with their rye for quite some time, then I tried this Four Grain and I was hooked. I had the chance to try their Bottled-in-bond and Cask strength bourbons at the Texas Whiskey Fest and they also blew me away. Next up, stock up on as many expressions as possible
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This bourbon is made of 51% corn, 20% rye, 19% wheat, and 10% malted barley, and aged at least 6 years.
Nose: soft tobacco, smoked prunes, chocolate raisins.
Palate: very soft and delicate, dusty, prunes and sweet cherries, peppery and fruity in the mid and back palate. Apricots.
Long and warm finish, with dark fruits lingering.
Great bottle that carries a dusty note similar to their rye. I can't wait to get more form them.
Yesterday was Day 6 of the Texas Whiskey support week started by the Kitsap Whiskey Society.
I had the pleasure of visiting Ironroot Republic in Denison and tried many different expressions, some well known, some less known, all outstanding. Also learned about some things coming down the pipe.
The Likarish family is amazingly hospitable. They welcome you to the distillery like you welcome your family into your home for dinner.
Great family crafting great whiskey with the utmost attention to detail.
If you are anywhere near the distillery, do yourself a favor and stop by.
Day 3 of the Texas Whiskey support week started by Kitsap Whiskey, and a fresh crack.
1845 is another North Texas jewel. A grain-to-glass distillery that does things right. Their core line up consists of a rye-based straight bourbon, a wheated bourbon and a four-grain bourbon, each released at 100 proof and Cask Strength.
Today I cracked a special release of their Straight Bourbon, a 6 year-old Single Barrel at cask strength. This bottle was released for their annual celebration of San Jacinto Day, and it is their oldest and highest proof yet, at 125p. It takes all the goodness of their Reverence straight bourbon and ups it a notch. Or two. Swipe for more details.
First impressions.
Nose: leather, syrupy dark fruits, smoked sticky toffee pudding
Palate: creamy, sweet, dark fruits, oak, spicy
Peppery, sweet and warm finish.
Day 2 of Texas Whiskey support week started by Kitsap Whiskey Society.
At the end of this project there's an Ironroot pick, so what better choice for today than Ironroot Promethean. I suspect that the pick may be a barrel of the equally fantastic Harbinger but this whiskey is very likely the one that introduced me to Texas whiskey, the one that showed me that there was so much more than the Kentucky legacy distilleries.
This family owned distillery is one of the jewels of North Texas.
Grain-to-glass, three years old, 100p.
Dark fruits, pipe tobacco, dried fruits, boozy chocolate, caramel, sweet baking spices, with a creamy mouth feel and a sweet finish.
This was last night. I ended Memorial Day with a pour of this beast.
#kitsapwhiskey wants to start a Texas whiskey support week, and why would I complain. So here's my first contribution.
This bottle is a pick from @sipnstyleofficial, in Plano, TX. Sitting at 132.1p, this bottle leans more on the leather and dark chocolate than on oak and prunes, with a little more pepper than you'd normally find on a Garrison bottle.
A great and distinctive pick.
fRYEday with Balcones Rye Cask Strength, two picks.
The palate opener was the BiB rye, one of my favorite ryes, and Balcones expressions. I get musty wine and pipe tobacco on the nose, the palate follows, adding subtle oak and leather. Plum jam on the finish. Anything but a a typical rye note.
Now for the heavyweights,
Cask Strength, Champagne pick. 135.8p
Nose: dark fruits, chocolate, leather.
Palate: very sweet, dessert wine, chocolate covered cherries, cinnamon plum pudding.
Cask Strength, Hi Times pick 128.8p
Nose: caramel, chocolate, then oak, plum jam.
Palate: also very sweet, peppery plum jam, chocolate cherries.
They both drink much smoother than the proof, especially the Champagne pick. I love both, but I get more complexity and depth on the Champagne pick.
A must have on my shelves, but they are not easy to come around.
Some thoughts:
The Charter Oak is a big NO. Very watery.
The Woodinville 9Y bourbon was amazing.
I already knew that I like the Shiner and the Old Dom.
The Dettling is one that I will like to see how it opens up. On fresh crack it seems right up my alley (chocolate, leather, some burnt caramel...)
The EHTBP is delicious, by far my favorite BT bourbon.
I just got this bottle and couldn't wait to open it. My favorite whiskey out of Kentucky picked by a store that never misses. Enough said.
Great neck pour. Tons of caramel, cherries in the background, barrel char, and baking spices. It's got a thick mouth feel and long finish. On fresh crack it's pretty hot even being sub 130.
Very promising.
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Last BTAC sample to blind. For this one I looked for another wheated bourbon with a similar proof.
TL;DR - I liked the William Larue Weller, and that is already a surprise for me, but it's a bottle that I'd pay not more than $65 for. This batch of Larceny is wild. It smells and tastes like seeded whole wheat bread, more than any other whiskey that I've ever had. It's so unique, and not off putting by any means, that if I see another one I may buy a backup. I may have to revisit it though.
WLW
Nose: ethanol, peach, cookies, caramel 7.5
Palate: fruits, baking spices, smooth and sweet. White pepper. 6 5
Finish: peppery, juicy, long. 7.5
Overall 7.16
Larceny BP C924
Nose: whole wheat bread, nutmeg, apricot, oak 7.5
Palate: more bread, apricot, some char, berries, smooth. 7.5
Finish: long and peppery 7.5
Overall 8, bumped because of originality.