SmokyBeast: bourbon

bourbon

Showing posts with label bourbon. Show all posts

August 20, 2017

SmokyBeast - An Update, A Night of Drinking, and a Review

Hello beasties!

Apologies that I've been a bit quiet on the blog this year. I hope you all have been enjoying Beast Masters Club! Truthfully the new format of podcasting, selling private barrels, and interviewing master distillers has been super fun and so I've been spending a lot more time over there than here on the blog. I hope some of you faithful SmokyBeast fans in the NYC area will come and join us for One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, our upcoming live whiskey battle. I promise it will be a good time if you can make it on September 29th.

But August has come, and I'm up at the cottage in the foothills of the great Berkshire Mountains, so it's time for an old fashioned review. Digging through my samples I found an untapped 2oz of Parker's Heritage Collection #5. So here goes.

Wha Dis?

Most of you who read this blog are familiar with Parker's Heritage Collection. It's an annual release from Heaven Hill named after Master Distiller Parker Beam, that started in 2007. This is the fifth edition, from 2011. The first review I read online said it was "a bargain whiskey starting at $80." Ah 2011. The next link was to purchase the bottle for $775. Well just about all the original PHC that I've tried have been pretty mind-blowing, particularly the #2 (27 year bourbon) and the #4 (cask strength wheater). This one is a 100 proof 10 year bourbon that's been finished six months in Congac barrels. I'm not a huge fan of barrel finishes, but the glass is sitting eighteen inches away and I can already tell it smells incredible, so fingers crossed this will be the exception to the rule.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Oh yeah it's starting out right in the pocket. Cream soda starts the show, followed by a really deep old men's club leather and oak. The next wave, similar to the cream soda, is a big blast of vanilla, and then baking spices: cocoa, nutmeg, cloves. There's some spice towards the end of the nose: mint, black peppercorn, slow cooked chili peppers. The nose is not at all burdened by being cloying, but the cognac does bring out a nice sweet balance against the wood which is lovely.

Palate: Really excellent stuff here. Here's the lesson in cask finishes: Don't put a young whiskey in a super sweet barrel to try and cover up the heat! On the other hand, if you have a really nice mature whiskey like this one, a subtle hand with cask finishing can be superb. The only thing missing here is that it's not very oily, more of a dry palate. However the flavor profile is awesome. Equal parts sweet and wood, I can only describe it as aged cream soda. The vanilla continues to dominate with quite a bit of sweetness, but mingling deliciously with the full flavored spicy and punchy bourbon. 100 proof is just where this should be with just a touch of heat on the throat.

Finish: The worst part of most cask finished bourbons is the finish, when you're left with a mess of bubblegum and grapes in your mouth and can't even enjoy the aftertaste of the whiskey. In this case the cognac dissipates before the lovely char and heat of the bourbon for a great finish. Oak, vanilla, mint, spice, pound cake, brown butter, lots of great taste buds firing approval off across the synapse.

Review

Well it's a gem. Too bad I don't have $775 sitting around, and if I did honestly I wouldn't spend it on this. But I'm super happy to be drinking it for free. Definitely the best barrel finish bourbon I've had to date. Ok, maybe that's not saying much since probably the only other one I've enjoyed was the Angle's Envy Cask Strength. But still this one is friggin awesome. The sweetness balances perfectly with the wood, the 10 year high rye Heaven Hill bourbon is awesome, obviously some top notch barrel picking was going on with this batch. I can't remember who sent me this sample, but THANKS!

Hopefully it won't be too long before my next review.

January 18, 2017

Top 5 Limited Release Whiskies of 2016 - HYPE OR HOT

Hey Beasties,

I hope everyone is having a rocking 2016. If, like us, you were curious about some of the outrageously hard to find (not to mention expensive) allocated limited release bottles of 2016, we have lined up our top 5 and tasted them to see if they are worth the hunt!

Check it out here!
or on iTunes

Hope you enjoy it. Don't be a stranger! Let us know what reviews, podcast, and whiskies are getting you excited this year! Cheers/SB

December 28, 2016

CLEAR THE SHELVES - TOP 5 WHISKEYS THAT WON'T BE AROUND NEXT YEAR

Happy holidays beasties!

Our latest 'cast, CLEAR THE SHELVES is out for your enjoyment!

Sorry that we haven't been as timely with our weekly reviews. We've been putting a huge amount of effort into Beast Masters Club. For those of you who haven't joined yet, BMC is the first combination of a podcast & private barrel club. Every month we do a big live tasting and interview a whiskey big-wig on the podcast and then release a private barrel of their whiskey that can be purchased by the group.

This is a labor of love for us, we hope that one day it may be a profitable enterprise, but for the time being this is us trying to share some of the great in-person experiences that we've had in the world of whiskey with you at home. You can buy an awesome private barrel whiskey, and pop it open as you listen in on our discussion with the folks who made it. And if you're in NYC anytime soon you can join us for a tasting.

So please please join the club. It's free and you'll get updates on all our future endeavors, get in on private barrel picks, and be part of something that's very special to Mr. & Mrs. Beast.

In between the big live tastings and private barrels, we're doing some fun podcasts with friends. Check out our latest 'cast with Jake Cahill where we let you in on the best whiskeys of the year that are being discontinued. CLEAR THE SHELVES is your chance to learn the top 5 bottles you should stock up on since they won't be around next year.

Happy holidays everyone!!

October 4, 2016

Tasting Three Four Roses Single Barrels, NASA Liquors and Elliot's Select Limited Release

Dear faithful beasties,

Sorry for the lack of new reviews over the past few weeks! We've been up to our necks getting Beast Masters Club off the ground. (Thanks to those who've signed up so far!!). We had our first event on Friday with Joe Beatrice of Barrell Bourbon and it was awesome. The podcast of our interview will be up in the next couple of days, and our first private barrel pick is already on sale.

Back to the Grind

Anyway, last night we got the chance to catch up on some bottle tasting, and the first thing we wanted to dive into were some of the new Four Roses single barrels. Our friends at NASA Liquors just released two barrels, and they always pick great stuff. Plus, we had a bottle of the 2016 Limited Release Single Barrel, the first one chosen by new Master Distiller Brent Elliot on hand. So why not a three-way? (Is there ever a good answer to that question?)

NASA Liquors Four Roses Private Barrel 36-2D
8-Years, 9-Months Old OBSQ 57.7%

Nose: This one comes at you with a fairly punchy nose, mostly honey, mint, and some citrus (grapefruit?). Coming back in you get a nice dose of leather. There's not a ton going on here with the nose but it's nice and composed.

Palate: Fairly thin mouthfeel with lots more mint coming through on the tongue.

Finish: Pretty hot finish, like pink peppercorns and spirit heat.

Review: This is a nice bourbon. It's super drinkable for over 115 proof! The spice and mint flavors are way out front. It lacks the rich vanilla, molasses, char, cocoa that we'd look for in a top-level Four Roses bourbon, but all-in-all we'd definitely buy more of this if we found it on the shelf.

"Elliott's Select" 2016 Limited Edition Single Barrel
14 Years Old OESK Barrel 47-16 Warehouse QN 53.1%

Nose: There's something strange about the nose on this one. You can tell it's got some age on it, and that's good. The wood is there and it's nicely integrated into the spirit. But there's a weird kind of funk to the nose here that's just not doing it for us. It's kind of meaty, but not the good bbq meaty that we like, more of a chunky meaty. Ok that made no sense. It's hard to explain.

Palate: It's got a CrackerJacks thing going on with caramel, popcorn, and nuts.

Finish: It goes pretty sour and wood heavy on the finish. Not really an enjoyable aftertaste on this guy.

Review: Not a bad whiskey per se, but there's just some weird stuff here. It goes from meaty to sour. There's something nice in between with some richness and wood, but it doesn't carry through to the end. While all of the limited release Four Roses bottles have been pretty good in the last few years, this one isn't a standout.

NASA Liquors Four Roses Private Barrel 1-2M
9-Years, 6-Months Old OBSV Warehouse JE 59.7%

Nose: This one's hitting all the right notes: rich, woody, char, mint, spice, a really nice complex nose going on here.

Palate: Fuller on the mouth than the other two and packing a brilliant punch of good spirit warmth, spice, sweetness, and nuts. Hersey's chocolate with almonds.

Finish: For the highest proof bottle so far, this one finishes up beautifully. It has less heat than the first bottle, and way more richness and length in the finish than the 4RLE.

Review: This is the great thing about private barrels, sometimes you just get a gem. This one is definitely that. Granted, we're big fans of the OBSV recipe with its spicy high-rye mashbill and its creamy and fruity yeast, so some of this may be personal preference. But this one drinks like a dream. At almost 120 proof, with big bold flavors, this is a beast of the highest caliber.

Thanks again for the patience over the last month. We've really been putting a ton of work into Beast Masters Club and we hope that you all join and listen as we explore whiskey with some of the brightest minds in the game. But we are also committed to continuing to write the reviews that brought you to this site in the first place. Keep in touch, and let us know what you'd like to read about!

Cheers/SB

August 17, 2016

Bourbon of the Year - Elijah Craig Barrel Proof

Perhaps it's odd to declare a bourbon of the year for 2016 right BEFORE bourbon season starts. But the fact is that we're not going to get any limited release bourbon this year. That game ended last year when retails stores started charging secondary market prices for allocated bourbon. Now all the shops we used to stalk come October are charging $700 for George T. Stagg, $1,400 for Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year, and even Old Forester Birthday Bourbon (which we've bought every year since '06) was unattainable. Sad times.

The good news is that there's a much cheaper bourbon that rivals all these guys in the taste department. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof has been hiding in plain sight all these years. And what a sight it is, just look at that marvelous color!!

Now remember for malt whisky you can't always go by color because they often add caramel coloring (unless your malt specifically says "uncoloured" then assume it's been tampered with). But when a bottle says "Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey" on it, you know that it's the genuine article. The regulations for "Straight Bourbon" specify no added coloring. All that delicious black coffee darkness comes from hot summers in a charred oak barrel. The fact that ECBP is not watered down to your typical 90 proof allows it to retain its incredible darkness. But still, it has to be more than that. Perhaps they use extra char on the barrels for these batches? In any case it's just magical looking isn't it? #nofilters

Ok can we be totally honest here? This stuff hit the stores a few weeks ago, but we had to wait to release this post. What were we waiting for? We'll admit it, we were hitting up all our local spots and clearing the shelves. Sorry. But chances are next year people will catch on and this stuff will be selling for $200/bottle. Right now you can still find it for the original MSRP of around $60. And seriously... Duh.

The latest release, Batch #11, comes in at a testicular circumference-lengthening 69.7% alcohol by volume. Yup, put on your drinking hat and get ready for some one hundred thirty nine point four proof saucy sauce. Just 0.3% more and this stuff would be officially designated "hazmat". (Yes, for whiskey nerds out there batch #6 did cross the hazmat barrier and it was awesome). We were also able to find Batch #10 on the shelves which was a paltry 128.8 proof. P-shaw.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Holy thick dripping vanilla, char, leather, tobacco, baking spices, molasses, dark chocolate, bbq. It's all there. What an incredible nose.

Palate: It's alive, man. This is not a beginner's whiskey, but if you are in the game like we are it's just everything you want it to be. Chewy-thick mouthfeel, massive spirit warmth and intensity, incredible sweetness and richness, and very well integrated between all these elements. I'd drink this stuff all night.

Finish: Just a sublime warm finish. Not as long as a peaty malt, but plenty long for a bourbon. Resting mostly in the vanilla and tree bark department with a rising chest warmth from the insanely high percentage of alcohol you just ingested.

Review

Well there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that this is an incredible whiskey, absolutely everything we look for in a bourbon drinker's bourbon - cask strength, super full flavored, smooth at outrageous proof - it's got it all. The bad news is that as soon as we drop this post, you'll never see this bottle for $60 again. Not tooting our own horn here, but it's been known to happen. So gobble these up and let the hunger games begin.

Cheers/SB

April 19, 2016

A Wheater Tasting at Wheated Brooklyn

People ask us all the time where to go for bourbon in NYC. The truth is, it's tough. Anyone with a decent selection gets swamped with investment bankers until they either run out or take a hint and raise their prices through the roof. Luckily a new solution has presented itself in the form of a slightly off-the-beaten-path whiskey & pizza joint near Prospect Park. Meet Wheated.

The Bar at Wheated

"Lesson learned," says owner David Sheridan, "don't name your bar after a very specific spirit that's about to become nearly impossible to supply!" He's talking of course about the explosion in popularity of wheated bourbon that's been taking place over the last few years inspired by Pappy Van Winkle.

The solution? Buy your own barrel of wheated bourbon from a local craft distiller and make it your house brand. David purchased his cask of McKenzie Single Barrel Bourbon from Finger Lakes Distilling in upstate New York.

David Sheridan - Proprietor

You'd be happy too... It's a 4.5 year old high-corn wheated mashbill bourbon that only produced 129 bottles at cask strength.

The McKenzie is really nice, very fresh with a familiar rich wheat nose (not unlike a young Van Winkle) that's popping with mint and florals, vanilla, honey, and a nice drop of saddle leather. It definitely tastes older than it is and sits in a really smooth place for almost 110 proof.

The other nice part about this bottle is that it's sitting on a table full of brother and sister wheaters. It turns out Wheated is a good place to go if you like drinking wheated bourbon.

We taste through this lovely mix of craft wheaters and some all time favorites.

Dry Fly was a big surprise. Looking at the bottle you'd think "ok we're in for another super young marketing experiment gone awry." But not at all! Dry Fly is a serious farm to bottle operation with a real eye for quality and craftsmanship. The product was deceptively rich and lovely for a three year bourbon. They use a higher percentage of malt (20%) than you'd usually find in a bourbon. It was very drinkable, and captured some of that spice and molasses that you look for in an older wheated bourbon. A very nice surprise. (Maybe a bottle redesign would help this brand??)

After our last experience with the Jim Beam Signature Spanish Brandy Whiskey, we almost passed on this one without tasting it. That would have been a big mistake! We were pleasantly surprised. The "Red Wheat" Beam bottle was lovely with a combination of smoothness with rich notes, sweets, and earthiness. SOOO much better than the brandy, they're not even in the same league.

This Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project #168 was one of the best in this lineup that we've tasted. Another cracking wheater, it had a very dry and sophisticated palate going on with subtle spice, grass/hay, and vanilla.

For reference sake, David threw in a couple of old standards: Weller 12 Year and Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year. These were superior bourbons to the craft brands, yet we both marveled at how well both the McKenzie and the Dry Fly held up. Considering folks are paying $300 a bottle for the Van Winkle, and the Weller is getting extremely hard to come by, it's great to see new wheaters coming out. If these two continue to put aside some stock for aging, we bet that in a few years they'll be right on par, if not better, than the older mass produced stuff. Still, both Weller 12 and ORVW are delicious whiskies and a righteous addition to any wheater party.

It's time for dinner. If we keep drinking at this pace on empty stomachs we're going to end up singing Commodores' numbers with our pants down (don't ask). Luckily David's crew makes the meanest meatball calzone in recent memory, served with homemade Sriracha sauce. Pair that with a smoked meat and hot pepper pizza and we're in heaven.

"Won't all that spicy food blow your palate?" you may be asking? Well luckily the next whiskey on our list is a real barn-burner (no pun intended).

We've been resisting the Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon because it's $200/bottle. Generally speaking, we need another $200 craft bourbon like we need a hole in the head. But lo and behold it's pretty fuggin awesome. The most comparable thing would be the Balcones Texas Single Barrel that we got to taste recently (aka the bottle that does not exist). It's like a huge George T Stagg of craft corn/wheat whiskey. Just exploding with richness and flavor. Are we going to run out and spend $200 on it? It's still a big ask, but we were surprised by how good it was for sure.

Finally, since we'd never tasted it, David brought out one more treat to finish the night. The Kavalan Soloist. Now here's a whiskey that's gotten so much fanfare we figured it had to be something special. And maybe it was just because we'd been drinking so much nice mellow wheated whiskey all night, but this stuff was so cloyingly sweet it was almost hard to get down. Sort of like a Speyside malt whisky with so much sherry influence it totally overwhelms the whisky. It must be a first fill sherry cask (really it tastes like they actually added sherry to the malt). This one was a big miss, but still a cool way to end the night. David carries an impressive menu of single malts in addition to the American whiskey list. We may have to go back and sample through more of those...

Anyway Wheated is a winner. A very warm environment, good family style place for an early dinner, and one of the best whiskey lists in NYC. Cheers to David for showing us a great time and if you're in the area, tell 'em the beast sent you!

April 5, 2016

Willett C22D - The Legend of the Wheated Willett

You're A Wizard, Harry

Things that have proved magical in the past:

Really old bourbon
Wheated bourbon
Willett Family Estate bourbon
"Angel barrels" (barrels with very low yields)

Planetary Alignment

The last time all eight planets and the sun were in a straight line was in 561 BC. The next time it's going to happen will be in the year 2,854. Unless we're all downloaded into the matrix by then eating popcorn in cyberspace, I guess I'll have to plan on missing it.

Luckily all our magical bourbon planets did happen to align, and in my own lifetime to boot. Yay! In life you have to take the wins where you can get them. This one comes in the form of a twenty-two year wheated bourbon barrel from Willett Family Estate that only produced ninety-six bottles.

Bing, bang, boom, whoa. Planetary alignment!

Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Bourbon C22D
22 Years, 137.4 Proof (Bottle 70/96)

The whole Willett sourcing scheme is still shrouded in mystery, but the general consensus is that these "C-Barrels" are all wheated bourbon. Every one that I've tried definitely tastes like a wheater, but no one knows 100% for sure. If they tell you they do know for sure and their name isn't Drew Kulsveen then they're lying.

These super old wheaters are only available at the Willett gift shop in Bardstown as well as a very very small distribution in retail stores like NYC's Astor Wines. Around the beginning of last year they were priced in the $250-$325 range. Now the retail prices have climbed up to over $500. Granted that's pretty nuts for a bottle of whiskey (after taxes you're paying $45 a glass!), but in the context of other 20+ year wheated bourbons (Pappy Van Winkle, William Larue Weller) it's not that crazy. But regardless of your feelings on paying $500 for a bottle of liquor, your chances of doing so are pretty low and if you try to pick one up at auction or on the secondary market, expect to pay between $750 and $1k. (and you said "yikes" before!!)

You can see just how dark and chocolaty looking this bourbon is in the glass. That seems to be the trend both with older bourbons and with angel barrels. There's so much influence from the charred oak that the color is almost like opaque root beer. This tends to coincide with massive flavor, both in sweetness from the sugars that are released by charring oak, and in richness from the "cooking down" of the spirit in the cask. With this cask only yielding ninety-six bottles, you have to figure that the original two hundred and forty bottles that fit in the fifty gallon cask have been reduced by about sixty percent!

Tasting Notes

Nose: Man oh man. Tying to put this nose into words is a failed attempt at synesthesia. It's very sweet, salty, and punchy. Uber vanilla, tobacco, leather, bbq sauce, wood for hours, huge chocolate and molasses, baking bread, nutmeg, pine needles, mint, fresh pasta. It's starting to sound silly, I know. I could go on and on. It's so complex there's just a million things going on here. And it's so STRONG! Seriously just a nasal conniption. Super amazingly great.

Palate: I'm one of those anti-water people for almost all my favorite whiskies. For this one, I do recommend a tiny little bit (three eyedropper drops per ounce). Unless you've already been drinking all night and it don't matter! But seriously it's almost one hundred and forty proof, so if this is my first drink of the night I do prefer it with a tiny little bit of agua. The flavor opens up really nicely on the palate with water too. It's so tight and punchy. Wood definitely dominates and I love it, and you get all kinds of caramel, honey, spices, char, cocoa, vanilla, and hot chili peppers.

Finish: Red licorice, brown butter coating your throat, pops of cayenne, chocolate covered pretzels. It's a huge fiery finish, and this is a long finish for a bourbon.

Review

This is definitely no whiskey for beginners, but if you've been drinking cask strength stuff a while it's an absolute dream. You can pour half an ounce and sip on it for half an hour since every little drop packs so much flavor. Should you run out and spend a grand on it? That's your call, but if you see one of these Willett "C"-barrels in a bar you should definitely think about spending a little extra to try it. This one's a real winner and we'll enjoy it to the last drop. After all, who knows if the planets will ever align this perfectly again?

Cheers/SB

March 14, 2016

Willett 11-Year Gift Shop

Going on the assumption that too much Willett can never be enough, here's a quick review of another single barrel bourbon we had sitting around SBHQ.

Yes, sadly you may have noticed this is the last dram of this great bottle. Cask strength 122.7 proof eleven year bourbons tend to find their way out of the bottle pretty quickly at our place and this one went in the blink of any eye.

Nose: A lot of citrus and roast nuts on this one. Candied orange slices, the bags of honeyed pecan nuts that get sold on the streets in the winter months. A whole bunch of saddle leather. Ending in a nice wrapper of oak.

Palate: Mmm really sweet on the palate. Tons of honey / molasses. Then a big wave of heat, both big spirit boldness and also hot spicy chile peppers and pink peppercorns.

Finish: Nice long finish for a bourbon. Big chest warmth, very nice balance of sweet and wood. It's hot, but very well balanced at over 120 proof.

Review

So where are we? Big citrus / leather bomb in the nose, very sweet and spicy palate, and ending up in warmth, wood, and char. This one pretty much has it all! A very, very, dangerously drinkable full-flavored bourbon that really hits the spot in the cold weather months.

Cheers/SB

February 4, 2016

Vegas Baby!

Some fun facts: The Venetian hotel contains over 1.8 million square feet of stone and marble. Classy. The sheer scale of the place is astounding. You hike what seems like miles of ersatz piazzas and canal-lined malls complete with accordion players and gondoliers. Each restaurant you enter is the largest indoor space you've ever seen. And of course somehow every destination requires navigation through the hotel's two casinos.

"Should I play a round of blackjack on my way to the bathroom?" you find yourself asking. Wait what?? Would you ever consider throwing away a hundred bucks on your way to take a leak in New York? Hell no. There's something about this place that shreds all logic and rational thinking in your brain and replaces it with a Britney Spears / Cirque Du Soleil mashup.

I Need a Drink

There is only one thing you can do in Vegas that is inherently logical: drink. And luckily they seem to have no shortage of top quality whiskey bars. We started Monday night at Emeril Lagasse's Delmonico Steakhouse. Then Tuesday moved on to Wolfgang Puck's Cut. Both claim to have the best whiskey list in Sin City. Neither disappointed.

First up this wax-top Willett 7-year, barrel 4141. Super rich and wonderful, this one was all molasses and brown butter, baking spices, and pipe tobacco. I'm guessing it had been open in the bottle for a while since it was completely opened up and tasting amazing for such a young expression.

Delmonico's does half-pours, so we paired one ounce of the 7-year Willett with an ounce of her older sister the blue wax top 10-year barrel 373. This one was great too, drier than the 7 and crispier. A treat, but not quite as mind-blowing as the 7.

Moving on to Cut, we tried another 1 ounce pair tasting. This time a Willet 10-Year barrel #799, alongside a gold-wax 21 year.

The 10-year was very big. Sweet, tons of rye goodness, vanilla and spice.

Have to be honest here, I think I still preferred the 7-year to the 21. Is that possible? I guess it's true that age is just a state of mind. The 7-year, followed by the 21, followed by the 799 10-year and then the 373 10-year is how I'd have to rank these. I wouldn't kick any of them out of bed though.

Ok time for a nightcap.

My drinking buddy Jason is giddily gripping my arm and pointing at a bottle on the shelf. "They have it again. How is that even possible???" Incredulous, we feel obligated to each order an ounce of the Lagavulin 21 year sherry cask. It's every bit as good as we remember. Without a doubt it holds a place in my top three malts of all time.

So long Vegas. Thanks for the memories. Cheers/SB

January 25, 2016

Parker's Heritage Collection - First Release!!!

Good News!

First of all some good news. While it's pretty difficult to track down some of the crazy bottles of 1950's Old Forester and Port Ellen Old Malt Cask we tasted this month, finding today's review is simple. It's right here. And it's only four thousand dollars.

Ok that was mean. Sorry...

Parker's Heritage

Parker's Heritage (named for Parker Beam) is in its ninth release this year. We've been lucky enough to taste several of them:

#8 - Wheat Whiskey - was a really bold and hot but delicious take on Bernheim's wheat whiskey. This one is still pretty attainable and definitely worth a try. Just give it a hour to open up, and maybe a few drops of water for good measure
#7 - Promise of Hope - While this one lost out to Angel's Envy Cask Strength in our big Fantasy Bourbon tournament, it was still one of the best whiskies of 2013. Too bad they didn't go cask strength on this bad boy...
#6 - Blend of Mashbills - This was our favorite in the battle of #6, 7, and 8. The huge cask strength mix of wheat and rye recipes really grows on you.
#4 - Wheated Bourbon - Now we're into some serious gems. The 10-year wheated bourbon is all kinds of money.
#2 - 27 Year Bourbon - Short answer: top 3 bourbon of all time.

And now, at long last, we get to review the big PHC #1!

Parker's Heritage Collection First Release
11-Year Cask Strength Straight Bourbon

So this inaugural release was almost unprecedented in 2007 when it came out. One of the first limited edition, small batch (really!), cask strength 122.6 proof whiskies blew a lot of people's socks off, and was a big part of the reason that limited edition bourbons became the insane craze that it is today.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Wow that's freakin' insane. Big brown butter, vanilla, maduro cigars, cutting into the skin of a big fresh juicy orange, molasses molasses molasses, cinnamon & nutmeg, it's just all here. Incredible big bourbon nose! Rock & roll. Let's take a sip.

Palate: Oh man, smooth and sweet. Just a perfect bourbon explosion. More of the same above with a wonderful balance of char, sweets, and spice. It hits you right in the pocket of that men's club leather chairs, fine cigar tobacco, orange bitters, wow.

Finish: Really bold and long finish for a bourbon rising from your chest up across your soft palate with bbq smoke, baking spices, and honey.

Review

How did we not try this one before? A true classic.

Cheers/SB

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