Part 7 of the finished whiskey series is back to Blood Oath with my favorite Pact. Pact 3 is a blend of two rye bourbons, one finished in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from Swanson Vineyard in Napa Valley. When I lived in California I developed a taste for their red wine so adding a few of those notes to bourbon sounds pretty appealing to me.
Blood Oath Pact 3
Age: NAS
Abv: 98.6 proof
Price: $99
Neat
Nose: Rich and sweet with red wine, nutty, vanilla and oak notes,
Taste: Oak, caramel, red fruit, vanilla, faint nuttiness. Solid mouthfeel.
Finish: Long, warm and sweet with more caramel, red fruit and oak notes.
Conclusion
I’ll start by saying I’m glad I have a 3rd bottle of this since I killed the second one writing this review. This is definitely the high water mark for Blood Oath for me though the Pact 5 was getting close. I really enjoyed the red wine notes that the finish added to the nuttiness of the Heaven Hill profile. The mouthfeel was solid for the proof, the finish was great. I do wish this was higher proof but I can’t blame them for their little body temperature gimmick.
The price on these is a bit high but it’s the same as High West’s A Midwinter Night’s Dram and is also an NAS, sourced, 98.6 proof, finished whiskey so I guess it makes sense. I don’t feel bad about buying MWND each year and the same applies here. I think Pact 3 is on par with the my favorite recent batch of MWND, Act 6.
At this point it’s probably not worth tracking down another bottle of the dwindling supply of this release but I’ll definitely be on the look out for Pact 6 which should hit in the next couple months.
TL;DR: Great whiskey, the red wine and nutty notes pair brilliantly
9 - a favorite I always try to keep on my shelf
Fair - Worth the money, happy with my purchase
Scale
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