Description

Tasting Notes

Smell: The first scent we notice is a quick almost lavender-like floral aroma.  The spiciness that we smell next hints at it being a high-rye content Bourbon with scents of pepper and cinnamon showing through.  Vanilla is also present, as are lesser scents of chocolate and caramel.  It finishes with a sweet corn alcohol scent that indicates it is somewhere in the 90-100 proof range, however, is well blended and does not overpower the other scents.  We can tell this is a well-aged Bourbon somewhere in the 4 to 7 year range.

There is an immediate corn sweetness present on the tip of the tongue, but only momentarily as the flavors begin to move towards the back of the mouth.  There are quick tastes of salt and rose petals that we pick up midway back on the tongue, before the peppery spiciness is felt at the back of the tongue.  From there, there is a very dense mouth feel that makes it difficult to discern individual flavors as it begins to move back toward the front of the palate.  Subtle tastes of chocolate and orange are present.  It finishes with a long lingering smoky flavor of charred oak.

Summary 

This Bourbon is very smooth and fairly complex with a bold, dense mouth feel.  It checks all of our boxes as it moves around the tongue from sweet to spicy and back again, before finishing with a signature oak flavor.  None of this comes as a surprise given that it is a 63% corn, 29% rye, 8% malted barley mash that is distilled and aged for 5 years or more.