Review #57: Henry McKenna 10 year Single Barrel Bottled in Bond Barrel #5254

Today is another vacation whiskey review as an excuse to day drink around the family. While I’m home I’ve been introducing my dad to a variety of affordable yet delicious bourbons and realized that I hadn’t reviewed McKenna 10 year Single Barrel Bottled in Bond yet. I am torn between feeling like that name is buzzword bingo style nonsense or that it is checking all my favorite whiskey boxes. If only it was also a store pick :P. Anyways this bottle is from barrel #5254 which was barreled on 4/22/08. Onwards to the review!

Review

Age: 10 years

Abv: 100 proof

Color: Medium to deep gold

Price: $31.99 in Utah

Neat

Nose: Predominantly vanilla and oak notes with a bit of old leather

Taste: Starts with stronger oak notes which give way to sweet butterscotch and warm spice. Excellent, viscous mouthfeel.

Finish: Long and warm with more spice and butterscotch notes.

On a rock

Nose: Clean and sweet with vanilla and caramel notes

Taste: A sweet caramel note takes the lead on ice with subtler but clear oak and baking notes. The mouthfeel was still great.

Finish: Slightly shorter but still long and warm with a balance of caramel and baking spice

Conclusion

This is great bourbon and an amazing value, it’s right there with 1792 Small Batch for me for daily drinkers and is a great introduction to higher proof bourbons for folks looking to move beyond 86 proofers. All that said this whiskey embodies a whiskey that does everything right but lacks something special to put it over into the 9 or 10 range.

8 - an excellent bottle I’ll buy from time to time

Great - A great deal, I’d buy it again

Scale

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