Background

Back once again with another delivery from Jim Beam’s Barreled and Box program. This particular parcel is a Little Book double header, featuring Chapter 7 (In Retrospect) and the Barreled and Boxed exclusive Excerpt: Curious Endeavors. As standard with Little Book, each of these releases is crafted by Freddie Noe to be unique from previous Little Book releases.

“Previous Little Book releases” is actually the perfect place to start when it comes to Chapter 7, as Freddie Noe took 6 different “liquid streams” (seriously their language, not mine) from previous releases and blended them with a 7th stream (please god no more streams) to make this unique blend (river?). You might, reasonably I’ll add, be wondering what’s the deal with all of this stream talk. Well each Little Book release was a unique blend, and Freddie essentially took one COMPONENT of each blend to include here. For example, Chapter 6 contained malt whiskey finished in smoked applewood barrels, and that’s included in this Chapter. The full list of streams (sorry, I couldn't resist) included in Chapter 7:

• 18yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 10yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

• 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

• 4yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 4yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

As for the Curious Endeavors Excerpt, Freddie Noe notes this a particularly unusual blend using 5 rare stocks they have in house. It’s meant as a hat tip to Shinji Fukuyo, Chief Blender at Suntory, who taught Freddie the concept of “Kodawari” - the relentless pursuit of perfection despite knowing perfection is impossible. Contained in this blend we have:

• 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 10yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Japanese Casks

• 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Scotch Casks

• 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

• 6yrs Brown Rice Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 5yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Wine Casks

Ok, we now have built a waterfall of information out of all of these various liquid streams. Let’s review!

Background

Going to get right into it because both of these selections have pretty fantastic stories. Let’s start with La Pareja Perfecta (the perfect pair), which was picked by W. Curtis Draper, a historic DC cigar shop, in collaboration with Gran Habano Cigars for W. Curtis Draper’s annual “Little Puff” charity event. Together, they picked this port finished bourbon with George A. Rico, a master cigar blender with over 27 years of experience. The bourbon was finished in the port barrel for about 4.5 of its 7.5 total years aging, which is an exceptionally long amount of time and more typical of what you’d see with a Scotch than a Bourbon. George Rico worked closely with the Laws pick team to ensure that the blend of the cigar perfectly matched the flavor profile of the whiskey barrel pick. The blend of the cigar consists of a Nicaraguan Shade-Grown wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, and filler from Nicaragua and Peru.

As for “It Goes to 11”, this selection by Cinder BBQ was distilled in Year 1 of Laws operations by Al Laws himself. It was then aged for 11 years before Cinder and Al tasted and decided it was the perfect time for it to be bottled. Due to the double digit time spent aging, the yield was under 100 bottles. A good chunk of that yield went to the inaugural cohort of Cinder’s Whiskey Club, with only a few bottles being sold out of Cinder's bottle shop.

Background

It feels like ages since I first encountered Frank August and Single Barrel 005… but really it was a mere six months ago. This hobby moves too damn fast. Since then, Frank August has released Case Study: 02 and a fresh set of fifteen single barrels, which makes it a perfect time to revisit the brand.

First up we have Case Study: 02, where the Pedro Ximenez (PX) casks involved in crafting this whiskey had quite the journey before being utilized by Frank August. First filled in 1992, they were filled with brandy for 17 years. This brandy was dumped, and then the barrels were refilled with brandy from 1948 and for an additional 13 years, making these barrels 30 years old by the time Frank August filled them with bourbon. Worth noting, they also filled them wet, meaning immediately after dumping the brandy. The bourbon was then finished for an undisclosed amount of time in the PX cask until it met a taste profile the folks at Frank August enjoyed.

As for the latest batch of single barrels, it’s a much simpler story. This is the second wave released by Frank August, fifteen new ones to join the original set of five. All of them are 6.1 years old and with proofs varying from 114.6 to 125.4, and the particular barrel for review here is 0019. Without further ado, let’s see how these two stack up!

Background

Not going to be much in the way of an intro on this one, because I have absolutely no clue what these are! Recently, @simon_says_sip offered me two choices from our sample swap, blind or labeled. Never wanting to waste an opportunity to embarrass myself, I told him to go ahead and send them blind for this review. My plan is to try to guess the distillery, type, age, proof, and a simple yes/no on whether or not it’s finished. Below I’ve put my tasting notes and my guess on each. Simon has then provided the answer and his thoughts immediately following each review.

Background

Last month, I had the good fortune of reviewing the 2020 edition of the, now discounted, Belle Meade Honey Cask. That was an absolutely breathtaking whiskey, one of the few 10/10s I have given out, thanks to the way it marries the honey cask finish with the depth and richness of the old MGP stocks used in its creation. What made this Belle Meade so exciting was its departure from my first go around with honey cask finishes, where you desperately searched for notes that weren’t just honey, honey, and more honey.

And now we arrive at the Nelson Bros. iteration, which supplanted the Belle Meade line after Nelson’s Green Brier axed the Belle Meade brand. As honey cask expert and reviewer extraordinaire The Bourbon Culture points out, this transition also allowed for a semi-sneaky switch in sourcing. As posited in that write-up, it appears Nelson’s Green Brier is at least blending some much younger Bardstown Bourbon Company juice into the mix. This is seemingly confirmed by the fact that this bottle notes it’s a Blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskeys, whereas the 2020 Belle Meade Honey Cask bottle just says Straight Bourbon Whiskey. So how does this new, mystery sourced bottling compare to the divine 2020 Belle Meade Cask Strength? Time to find out!

Background

It’s been over the year since I’ve checked in on the Stagg line, and that store pick did not really land for me. Most of my Stagg (formerly Jr) experiences prior to that pick have been absolutely knock out offerings, I enjoyed Batches 14 through 17 with startling consistency. But these being not exactly the easiest bottles to obtain, my run-ins with Stagg (Jr) and reviews have come in fits and starts. I’ve been itching to compare another store pick to one of the main batches.

So here we have two offerings, one Batch 22A and the other a 2022 store pick from Liquor Barn. By the way, apparently Stagg batches kind of jumped the shark. The internet tells me Batch 22B was released before batch 22A, and then we dropped a numbered order and just went by year. I can't wait for some bourbon historian in 2053, assuming we’re all not roving a climate change induced wasteland fighting for gasoline, to try and figure out what happened to batches 20 and 21 only to find out they never existed. Anyways, two Stagg offerings, both released in the same year. Both shall enter, one will emerge victorious…

Background

It’s your resident Peerless shill here back for another review! One of the best things about Whiskey Row in Louisville is that the proximity of everything means you can just pop into distilleries and see what's up. You never know what bottle releases or distillery-only tastings you might find, and so stopping by Peerless on the way to our recent Old Forester pick was a no brainer.

And credit to Peerless, they did not disappoint! Not only do they consistently have new distillery only single barrels, they recently launched a new “express tasting” option. Perfect for an awkward amount of time between more formal tours and tastings, you can now swing by for a 15-20 minute tasting where you’ll pick two pours from a lineup of current offerings (was six when we were there). Before this review gets to be a longer read then the tasting itself, let’s get into the notes!

Background

Much like Eminem with Dre, it’s time for the Batman to my Robin to return for another joint review. Jonathan Glover is back (back again) and this time we’re tackling last weekend’s Jack Rose Wild Turkey tasting. Same deal as last time, we are going to get right into the notes since it’s double trouble on each pour. Gobble, gobble!

Background

It’s time to check in on the latest and greatest from Seelbach’s Private Reserve series! Back in April, I took a look at Batch 004, which is a 9 year Amburana finished bourbon. The short summary is I really enjoyed it, even though I’ve been pretty mixed and/or out on the deluge of Amburana finishes that are so hot right now.

Seelbach’s churns out some pretty radical experiments under this line. Batch 003, for instance, was finished in Triple Sec & Pinot Meunier Champagne barrels, and this batch is no exception. To start, they sourced four year bourbon from Bardstown… which we can guesstimate came from Heaven Hill based on the location and the mashbill (78/10/12). Those barrels traveled down to Florida where they spent an extra six months aging in the fourth circle of hell. Ten barrels were then blended together, and from that blend two toasted French Oak barrels and two ex-bourbon maple syrup barrels are filled (with the rest of the blend being saved for a future project). After 3 months of finishing they put together the final blend, which ended up being a 60/40 ratio of bourbon French Oak to maple syrup. Ok, clearly Seelbach's worked hard on this so let's reward that effort with some notes!

Background

Thanks to my Colorado based brother in law, this will be my first time tasting and reviewing anything from Stranahan’s. Before we dive into notes from this offering, let’s start with some background info:

• Stranahan’s American Single Malt whiskey is 100% grain to glass made exclusively in Colorado. They use 100% Rocky Mountain barley and Rocky Mountain spring water during distillation.

• Their flagship single malt whiskey enters the barrel at 110 proof. It is then aged a minimum of four years in #3 char, American Oak barrels.

• For this release, they take that flagship whiskey and tack on 3 extra years of aging in used, Bushmills Irish Single Malt barrels.

I’ll be honest, I feel an odd guilt and/or FOMO at jumping straight into this offering without trying the flagship American Single Malt first, but whatever trying things is fun and I’m excited to see how this experiment ends up.

Background

The last time I took a look at honey cask finishes, I bemoaned my inability to try the Holy Grail of them - Belle Meade Honey Cask. Now to be clear, I made my peace with that likely never happening. It’s an absurdly difficult bottle to obtain, carrying a steep ~$1k secondary price. It’s also not exactly sitting on many bar shelves waiting to be ordered by the pour, and since Belle Meade Honey Cask is now Nelson Bros Honey Cask, I figured that was that. So when an opportunity to review a sample of this 2020 release presented itself, I jumped on it.

Now before we get to the notes, some quick details on how Belle Meade put this together. First, they send their empty MGP sourced bourbon barrels to TruBee Honey Farm in Tennessee. They then use those barrels to produce barrel-aged honey. TruBee sends them back, where Belle Meade fills them back up with some delicious, double digit aged MGP juice for finishing an extra 6-8 months. Let’s taste through this end result!

Background

Coming to you live, and by live I mean two weeks late, from the Jack Rose High West Tasting! Honestly, it's pretty tough to beat the cost of this one. $25 to taste through five whiskeys, not a bad way to spend a random Tuesday evening! We even got to take home a High West Glencairn, so big thanks to the Jack Rose team for putting this on. Will keep it short and sweet in the intro since all five whiskeys are reviewed below!

Background

Heaven Hill Select Stock, the elusive distillery only release from Heaven Hill. Typically available through their You Do Bourbon experience, this is Heaven Hill’s primary way of getting experimental releases to the market. Which is ironic given these two releases are arguably two of the less experimental options released! Here we have:

• A 14 year old bourbon, aged in tapered stave barrels. What’s a tapered stave barrel? Well, if you can find a picture of it let me know but for once, extensive Googling has failed me. The staves are apparently tapered down to end up with a barrel that’s slightly more diamond shaped and has about half the capacity as a normal barrel. Credit to redditor u/Old_Riff_502 for the prior review that laid a bunch of this out!

• A 14 year old wheat whiskey. You know that Bernheim Barrel Proof Wheat Whiskey that Heaven Hill launched as its own product line this year? Instead of 7-9 years aging, this release cranks it up to 14 years.

How will these compare? Let’s dig into each and find out!

Background

u/mothlight64 and I are activating our Wonder Twin powers in the form of a joint review of the most recent Jack Rose Willett tasting! Fun fact: we did not share notes before writing this. We merely set up a shared Google doc and dumped our notes in, so it was fun to see the overlap and differences. Not going to waste any more time on the intro since below you’ll find BOTH of our notes for each of the six whiskeys in the tasting.

Background

“For more than 65 years, aging our whisky for a decade-plus wasn’t something we did. It’s not that we didn’t believe in it; we simply hadn’t found a way to do it that didn’t compromise on our taste vision – until now.” - Rob Samuels. Naturally this begs the question, how did Maker’s arrive at a process they felt did not comprise their taste vision? Here's some background on how this new release came to be:

• First, the whiskey ages approximately six years in traditional bourbon warehouses.

• From there, the barrels are moved into the distillery’s whisky cellar for an additional five to six years.

• The 11 and 12 year barrels are then blended, 13% and 87%, respectively, into this year's release.

It’s worth noting that, while this is the blend for 2023, Maker’s makes sure to call out that the maturation process won’t change moving forward, but the blend of aged whiskey might. It's interesting to take a moment and parse this choice, as it allows them to take an approach similar to Four Roses Limited Edition, where the blend changes annually and gives enthusiasts a chance to compare and contrast vintages. Maker's could have simply gone with "Maker's X Year" and put the age front and center, but instead they put the focus on the craft while noting the age. We will have to wait another twelve months to start to see how this shakes out, but it leaves the door nicely open for variance. Now, onto the review!

Background

Oh Arby’s, you beef and cheddar purveying svengalis you! I’ve had my share of unfortunate road trip bowel movements after being drawn in by your advertisements. A not too long ago drive to Florida comes immediately to mind, but give it another year or two of being bombarded by your meat sweaty commercials and I’ll be ready to get hurt again.

In the interim, I find myself staring down this sample of Arby’s Smoked Bourbon. I’ll be honest, I’m a sucker for a good gimmick. My friends and I got good and drunk off an entire suite of (mostly terrible) celebrity whiskeys. So when a buddy offered to pour me some Arby’s bourbon to review, of course I leaped at the opportunity. If you want to know anything actually important about this whiskey, I suggest you read Bourbon Culture’s excellent review breaking down the sourcing and process that went into crafting this salacious smoky sipper. Otherwise, bust out your curly fries, saddle up your horsey sauce, and let’s get into the notes!

Background

Almost a year ago exactly, curiosity killed my wallet (but blessed my palate) and I was finally able to review two entries of WhistlePig’s famed Boss Hog series, VII and VIII. One of the goals of that review was to see how the whiskey stacked up against WhistlePig’s five promises for its Boss Hog series:

• Single barrel

• Bottled at proof

• Distinctly unique from anything they’ve done before

• “Powerfully complex”

• “It will be stupendous” 

As noted in my last review, three of those are pretty tangible. This is a single barrel (31), bottled at proof (103.4), and checks notes WhistlePig hasn't put out a Greek Fig Nectar & Tentura finished rye before (more on those finishes in a second). The last two, however, are totally subjective so let’s dig into them!

Simply looking at the process for Boss Hog IX, it’s hard to say they didn't at least swing for the fences. Let’s start with something of an elephant in the room- the fact that this is dubbed a “well aged rye.” Naturally you might think “how well aged?” Great question, hypothetical reader! For the first time in the series, WhistlePig won't tell you. The writing was on the wall here with Boss Hog VIII, where they dropped the age from the bottle but disclosed it on a hidden page you could only get to once you registered your bottle. They take that “well aged rye” and slumber (their word not mine, but god I love how decadent their copywriters are) it in casks that previously held Greek Fig Nectar and tentura they made themselves. If it’s your first time seeing the word "tentura”, don’t worry, it’s mine too so I’ve Googled it for us: “a traditional liqueur from Patras, Greece. It's made by infusing brandy or rum with herbs and spices, such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and citrus fruit.” Ok that’s the process, let’s now judge the end result…

Background

Jim Beam week from me! Earlier this week covered some excellent, extra old releases from Beam, and this review tackles a big wine and sherry month straight from the Jim Beam Barreled and Boxed program! First up, we have Legent Yamazaki Cask Finish Blend, and man is this one a PROCESS. To hear the back of the box tell it:

• Fred Noe sends bourbon to Japan (the “forested hills of the Yamazaki Distillery”, to be exact).

• Shinji Fukuyo finishes some of the bourbon in French oak wine casks, some in Spanish oak sherry casks. This is similar to the original Legent, which used the same finishes and blended it with a third part straight bourbon.

• Fred and Shinji select ex-Yamazaki sherry casks and use them to finish a third portion of bourbon.

• All three finished bourbons are blended together with a FOURTH part straight bourbon, leading to the bottle we have here.

Ok obviously a fair bit of wine influence involved in the crafting of Legent Yamazaki, and the same can be said about the third Distillers’ Share release. This is a blend of bourbon finished in red wine and Oloroso sherry casks. Unlike Legent though, this is just a straight forward, four year old blend of the two finished bourbons. With that, let’s get into the notes!

Background

Welcome to an unofficial Jim Beam week from me! I had planned to review these two for a while now, and then serendipitously my next Jim Beam Barreled and Boxed delivery just arrived as well. Later this week I’ll continue my running review series covering each of those shipments. But for now, let’s jump right into some background on these two whiskeys: Jim Beam Lineage and Hardin’s Creek: Clermont.

Lineage started out as exclusive to Travel Retail, but at some point they started offering it at the distillery gift shop as well. Fortunately, on a recent trip through KY it was available, so here we are! Ironically, I can't even find this release on either the main Jim Beam website or the James B. Beam Distilling website (aka the one clearly marketed to whiskey nerds). I’ll take a brief moment to do my “old man yells at clouds” bit and implore some of these big producers to do a stupid and obvious thing- make stuff easier to find on your website! Anyways, it’s a 15 year collaboration between Fred and Freddie Noe- hence the name Lineage- clocking in at 111 proof. It’s consistently striking to me how much high age statement whiskey Jim Beam must have available, and this is obviously no exception.

Which brings us too… Hardin’s Creek: Clermont. It’s kind of impossible to write about this Clermont release without delving into what Beam has planned for the Hardin’s Creek line this year, all of which can be found on… god damn it a third website! They have another site specific to the Hardin's Creek line. If this review is starting to feel all over the place, it’s because it is, but no more or less so than Beam Suntory’s website organization! While I may be annoyed with Beam on that front, I’m anything but with the direction they are taking the Hardin’s Creek line. This year will see three, separate, 17 year releases under the Hardin’s Creek label: Clermont, Frankfurt, and Boston. Each represents a different Jim Beam campus, with a goal of exploring the terroir created by the various microclimates between them. This one, of course, comes from the Clermont campus. A minor note that I appreciate, this Hardin’s Creek release takes the busy label first displayed with Jacob’s Well and makes it more of a feature than a bug. It is adorned with facts about the region, such as the average humidity, wind speed, latitude, longitude and more. Ok, enough website complaining and release facts, onto the reviews!

Background

Getting to know Westland better has been high on my 2023 to do list. With the legal definition of American Single Malt imminent and a trip to Seattle already booked, the timing aligned perfectly for a tour and tasting! Touring Westland, what immediately jumps out is how deliberate and distinct every step of their process is. Various cask experiments and different malt types can be seen front and center throughout the distillery, and the output are whiskeys with very distinct flavors. The desire to shape American Single Malt and instill a Pacific Northwest footprint on it (almost literally- there is a bootprint on their still) is everywhere. It's exciting to see in person, and it’s also front and center on their website.

You’ll start the tour walking through six different malt types, then through the vast majority of their production process- I think the only thing we did not see is barrels being filled or dumped/bottled. Throughout the tour you’ll hear tons about their Washington state and Pacific Northwest sourcing methods, everything from the peat to the local tap (not reverse osmosis) water. Solum, notes on it below, even uses local peated malt. Post tour, we rolled into tasting through four* delicious whiskeys, notes on which are below!