For part 14 of the finished whiskies series I am taking a look at a different type finishing with Oak and Eden’s Bourbon and Brew. The folks over there were kind enough to send me a bottle so I won’t be giving a score.

Bourbon and Brew is a 2 year old MGP bourbon that has a French Oak spiral in the bottle to finish it. In this case the spiral was soaked in cold brew coffee from West Oak, an awesome coffee spot in Denton Texas. Cold brew coffee and bourbon are two of my favorite beverages so I was cautiously optimistic despite the young age.

I received the bottle about a month ago but held off on reviewing it to give the spiral time to do whatever it was going to do. I’ve also saved a bit of whiskey from close to when I opened it to blind against it later on to see how much the spiral actually does.

 

Oak and Eden Bourbon and Brew

Age: 2 years

Abv: 90 proof

Neat

Nose: Roasted coffee, corn bread, vanilla and a bit of caramel

Taste: Slightly bitter with black coffee and oak followed by sweet vanilla, allspice and hints of chocolate. Surprisingly thick mouthfeel for the proof

Finish: Medium to long finish that was surprisingly similar to a mocha with coffee, chocolate and vanilla notes

Conclusion

To start off it definitely does what is says on the tin with bourbon and coffee notes clearly present though the bourbon notes are more prevalent than the coffee ones. The youth mostly comes off on the nose while the coffee influence was prevalent throughout. It is a little bitter between the young bourbon and black coffee but not in an off putting way, assuming you like black coffee. If you’re the kind of person to tip a nip of whiskey into a cup of coffee this is basically just the other way around of that!

Overall I liked this though I think starting with an older base spirit would be a nice step up.

 

TL;DR: Nice coffee notes don’t overpower the bourbon, the young base spirit still shows but not as much as I expected

 

You can also follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) or reddit to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

Doc Swinson’s is a distillery out of Washington who is sourcing barrels, batching and occasionally finishing them. The 6th release from their Exploratory Cask Series hit Austin this week and I honestly hadn’t heard much about them before then. I was skeptical at first given the unknown source and high price tag but the 15 year age statement, Kentucky source, proof and lack of chill filtration convinced me to give it a go. Let’s see if it was worth it.

 

Review #229: Doc Swinson’s Exploratory Cask Series Batch 6

Age: 15 years

Abv: 118.2 proof

Price: $130

Neat

Nose: Rich and sweet with brown sugar, roasted nuts, vanilla, tobacco, oak and allspice notes

Taste: Starts off with big vanilla and dry oak notes followed by caramel, warm spices and tobacco. Solid mouthfeel, about what I’d expect for the proof

Finish: Long, warm and dry with oak, vanilla, nuts and baking spice notes

Conclusion

Overall this was like an enhanced version of my favorite batches of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. It was rich and complex while remaining more approachable which made it easier to find the complexity. The nose in particular was excellent.

All that said it’s hard to recommend such an expensive bottle without any caveats. With 14+ year old Knob Creek picks and ECBP out there at half the price, this bottle isn’t going after value. On the other hand it is a step up from those two and holds up well to things like Baker’s 13 or Cream of Kentucky in that same price range.

 

TL;DR: Great whiskey, tough price point, glad I bought a backup, wouldn’t overpay

3 Stars - Excellent whiskey: I would be willing to hunt down a bottle

Part 13 of my finished whiskey series is back to Blood Oath with the newly released Pact 6. This Pact has both the oldest and youngest bourbons they’ve disclosed so far (Pacts 1-3 didn’t have age information) with a 14 year and a 7 year. From their ryed little pun in the description I think all 3 of the components are rye bourbon with no wheater in the blend but who knows?

 

Review # 228 Blood Oath Pact 6

Age: A blend of 7, 8 and 14 year old bourbons

Abv: 98.6 proof

Price: $85

Neat

Nose: Nutty(pecan?), sweet dark fruit, warm spice and vanilla.

Taste: Butterscotch, vanilla cream, pecans, dark fruit and cinnamon. A bit thinner on the mouthfeel than I prefer but not enough to take away from the dram.

Finish: Long finish with leather, cinnamon, pecan and vanilla notes.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this year’s Blood Oath and found it to be a step up from last year. It’s a dessert bourbon for sure with a lot of decadent sweet notes. The cognac influence was there but did not overwhelm the bourbon at all and just added a nice dark fruit note for me. I didn’t really get much in the way of woody oak notes, just some spice and cinnamon. The nose and finish were both excellent and my only real complaint is the mouthfeel which is going to be hard to do anything about as long as they insist on the 98.6 blood temperature proof.

I’ll definitely be grabbing a backup bottle.

 

TL;DR: Right up there with Pact 3 for my favorite of the Blood Oaths

9 - a favorite I always try to keep on my shelf

Fair - Worth the money, happy with my purchase

 

Scale

You can also follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) or reddit to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

For a brief period in the late 90s and early 00s Weller was bottled with distillate from United Distillers when they were operating the Bernheim distillery. I was lucky enough to get a sample of a 2002 bottling of Old Weller Antique from that window. I’m not expert in whiskey or whiskey history from before I was of drinking age(or close to it) but I was excited to try this none the less. Apparently there is some debate as to whether or not this qualifies as a dusty but who care? Let’s see how it tastes

 

Review #227 2002 Old Weller Antique

Age: 7 years

Abv: 107 proof

Price: $??

Neat

Nose: Sweet and potent with rich butterscotch and vanilla notes and subtler oak and wheat bread.

Taste: A rush of sweet cherry and butterscotch with rich oak and tobacco notes. The mouthfeel is very thick and syrupy.

Finish: Medium to long finish with fading sweetness and slightly dry lingering oak.

Conclusion

Well that was tasty. Definitely a different profile than the modern Buffalo Trace stuff but not as far off as I might have thought. Overall a great dram and be happy to drink it but this is another old bottle that has failed to convince me that the old stuff was really that much better. I’ve had modern OWA picks I prefer to this though I do think this is better than regular OWA today.

 

TL;DR: Great whiskey, not worth hunting down compared to modern Weller picks imo

8 - an excellent bottle I’d like to have at home

 

Scale

You can also read this and my other reviews at atxbourbon.com or follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

After going back to Scotland last year and tasting a variety of cask strength and single cask scotches my love for scotch was reinvigorated. Unfortunately most of those great scotches aren’t readily available back here in the states and my time in bourbon world has left me with little desire to drink 80-86 proof, chill filtered whiskey so when I had the chance to grab a well aged, single cask, cask strength, GlenDronach bottling at a price that didn’t completely scare me away I had to take it.

At the time I had no idea what the GlenDronach Appreciation Society was and I still don’t really know much about them other than they picked this cask, they post on Instagram a fair amount and they made this YouTube video(I personally didn’t get any date paste or fig chutney notes on this dram).

 

Review #226 GlenDronach Single Cask “The Belter” GAS Selection

Age: 27 years

Abv: 109 proof

Cask Type: PX Sherry Puncheon

Price: £208

Neat

Nose: Rich and dark with grape, cherry and honey alongside an oak note and something else rich and earthy, tobacco maybe?

Taste: Very complex with wine like dark fruit notes, warm spice, honey, more of the earthy note from the nose and a bit of oak and leather toward the end. The mouthfeel is thick and almost sticky.

Finish: Long dry finish with more dark fruit, warm spice and oak notes.

Conclusion

For a 27 year old scotch the oak was surprisingly tame, though present, throughout the dram. The rich fruit and earthy notes were great and fit my preferences nicely. This is right up there with the r/scotch Wardhead single cask on my favorite scotches but is very much on the other end of my tastes.

While I won’t be buying another bottle of this specific cask, when this gets low I’ll definitely seek out another similar offering from GlenDronach.

 

TL;DR: Very good, very pricey but no regrets

4 Stars - Extraordinary whiskey: An all time favorite

 

Scale

You can also read this and my other reviews at atxbourbon.com or follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

For part 12 of the finished whiskies series we are back to High West rye whiskey but taking a step down from the Rendezvous Rye barrel selects to look at the more readily available Double Rye! barrel selects.

This particular bottle was from 2018, finished in gin barrels for 7 months and was a selection from the distributor for “High West Fans of Texas!” so that’s fun. This caught my eye since gin is my preferred clear spirit though I primarily drink it in cocktails. I’ve only had barrel aged gin a handful of times but I was curious to see how it would mingle with the rye whiskey notes.

 

Review #225: High West Double Rye! Barrel Select Gin Finish

Age: NAS

Abv: 102.8 proof

Price: $50

Neat

Nose: Gin botanicals, more gin botanicals and some faint rye spice.

Taste: Bright and rich with herbs, gin, warm spice and faint oak and vanilla notes. Very nice mouthfeel.

Finish: Long and warm with spice, botanical and vanilla notes.

Conclusion

Well that was something different. I liked it but if you don’t like gin this is definitely not for you. The gin overwhelmed the whiskey on the nose but became less prominent as it went. I tend to find that these High West Double Ryes have a lot of herbal notes anyway so maybe some of that was from the whiskey. Negronis and Boulevardiers are some of my favorite cocktails and this unique gin/whiskey hybrid makes a killer spirit base for one of those.

 

TL;DR: Really interesting, lots of gin influence, great in a Boulevardier

7 - a great whiskey I’d order at a bar

Fair - Worth the money, happy with my purchase

 

Scale

You can also follow me on Instagram(@atxbourbon) or reddit to keep up with these reviews and my other whiskey-centric adventures.

I recently got a sample of Heaven Hill’s latest Elijah Craig Barrel Proof batch A120 and meant to blind it against my favorite recent batch B519 but realized that I had killed that bottle a while back without saving a sample or reviewing it. So I dug around and found an old B517(another batch I really enjoyed) and used that instead. The blind tasting video is on Instagram here. After that I sat down to write more detailed tasting notes.

 

Review #223 Elijah Craig Barrel Proof A120

Age: 12 years

Abv: 136.6 proof

Price: $60

Neat

Nose: Nose hair singeing heat with clear ethanol then subtler caramel and oak notes.

Taste: Hot with rye spice, cinnamon, caramel and oak notes.

Finish: Medium length hot finish with some cinnamon notes.

0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this

Review #223 Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B517

Age: 12 years

Abv: 124.2 proof

Price: $60

Neat

Nose: Slightly harsh with a bit of ethanol but with nicer vanilla and oak notes too.

Taste: Bold with rich oak, nuts, caramel and spices. Great mouthfeel.

Finish: Long and warm with baking spices, vanilla and subtler oak notes.

2 Stars - Very good whiskey: I would want to have a bottle

Conclusion

The A120 was just too hot for me to really enjoy neat and while it was good on a rock the tasting notes would have been even more generic than these were. This review also made me realize I’ve also gotten to the point where I am not impressed if something is good on the rock anymore, especially if it is more than ~$30 since something WT101 is delicious on ice and I can buy that whenever I want and for something higher proof, age stated and nuttier then Knob Creek Single Barrel fits the bill without any of the hassle of getting an ECBP while saving a few bucks too.

C919 and A120 have cemented ECBP as a try before you buy for me and thankfully finding it at a bar around here or getting a sample is pretty easy. I’ll continue to love the more drinkable batches and let the heat monsters stay on the shelf for someone else who will appreciate them.

TL;DR: B517 > A120. A120 was too hot neat; it was quite good on a rock though.

For part 11 of the finished whiskey series we’re coming to Texas for some sourced whiskey aged and finished in Texas. Treaty Oak is a distillery in Dripping Springs with a great venue, delicious BBQ and a solid cocktail bar. They also produce whiskey and gin as well as sourcing. Their Red Handed series is their sourced whiskey and this particular release is sourced from Heaven Hill and a distillery in Virginia, in my opinion it’s most likely Bowman Brothers, and aged for some time then finished in a Madeira barrel here in Texas. On one of my visits to the distillery I had a bit too much to drink and came home with a handful of bottles. So let’s see what some Texas heat and a Madeira finish can do.

 

Review 222: Treaty Oak Bourbon Whiskey Madeira Finish

Age: NAS - 2 years for the regular Red Handed Bourbon according to their website

Abv: 95 proof

Neat

Nose: Strong oak notes with sweet dark fruit, young corn grain and faint spices.

Taste: Rich dark fruit, corn, heavy oak and a touch of salt. The oak becomes slightly bitter toward the end. The mouthfeel is a little on the thin side.

Finish: Long hot finish with baking spice and cinnamon backed by oak and something sweet I couldn’t place.

0 Stars - Poor to Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this over other readily available options

Conclusion

Well that was a wild ride. I enjoyed the dark fruit notes from the Madeira and the heavy oak notes from the time aging in Texas but it was clear that the base spirit was very young and the whiskey finishes really hot. I do think the idea of sourcing and then aging for a bit here in Texas, like what Smoke Wagon is doing in Nevada, is a solid concept and a wine finish can definitely help a younger spirit but 2 years is just too young and these tricks couldn’t overcome that. Throwing in the missing ‘straight’ designation from the label and I’m definitely not going to be looking for another one.

 

TL;DR: The Madeira influence is nice but the base spirit is too young.

Single Cask Nation recently had a raffle for their new Tennessee bourbon and someone in a local group won. They could buy two bottles but only wanted one so they pawned the second one off on me to save on shipping. Single Cask Nation claimed that their Dickel pick was not the usual Dickel flavor profile but I was pretty skeptical of that claim so let’s see how this tastes!

I blind tasted this against George Dickel Bottled in Bond, a Barrell pick and an SAOS Dickel pick on Instagram and then sat down to write up the tasting notes.

 

Single Cask Nation Pap’pi Nansens

Age: 12 years

Abv: 103.1 proof

Price: $100 shipped

Neat

Nose: Chocolate and Dickel mineral/vitamin notes dominate the nose.

Taste: More chocolate and minerality from the nose joined by vanilla, rich oak and faint spice notes. Decent mouthfeel.

Finish: Medium length finish with more oak, vanilla and Dickel.

0 Stars - Fine: I would not specifically choose to drink this over other readily available options

Conclusion

Well that was underwhelming. Honestly I thought it was pretty on par with Dickel BiB and at 3 times the price that’s going to be a no from me. I think the Barrell and SAOS picks were noticeably better and they are cheaper! I’ll enjoy the rest of this bottle but it’s further evidence that there aren’t these magical unicorn Dickel barrels that command a premium price.

 

TL;DR: Mmm Dickel

When I went to Kentucky for the r/bourbon New Riff pick last fall I also did a mad dash around various distilleries and snagged a few goodies along the way including a bottle of Elijah Craig 18. There was some sort of running event going on in the Bardstown area that day and it either finished or had a checkpoint or something at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center so the parking lot was full of sweaty fit people but I persevered, made my way through the dank crowd and went inside anyway. I was rewarded with a lonesome bottle of Elijah Craig 18 in a glass case behind the counter so I sheepishly asked if it was for sale and it was! They also had William Heaven Hill 12 and Elijah Craig Barrel proof but the WHH was ludicrously expensive even by my standards and I don’t have trouble getting ECBP at home so I happily went with the 18 year.

 

Elijah Craig 18

Age: 18 years

Abv: 90 proof

Price: $150

Bottled On: 6/13/19

Barrel Number: 4636

Neat

Nose: Rich and balanced with sweet vanilla, oak and allspice notes.

Taste: Less sweet than the nose with that classic nutty Heaven Hill note backed by more oak, spice and vanilla. Surprisingly good mouthfeel for the proof.

Finish: Long lingering finish with vanilla, oak, a different type of spice and one of my favorite notes: leather.

Conclusion

This was a great pour especially when I am in the mood for something easier to drink but still very flavorful. I really enjoy how well balanced this is between the oak, spice and sweetness and the finish is outstanding. That said it doesn’t make sense to me to release a rare, expensive single barrel at such a low proof though especially when William Heaven Hill and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof tend to be quite high proof. When I compare this to another pricey Heaven Hill special release, Old Fitzgerald BiB, it doesn’t hold up. I’ve enjoyed every pour and I’m glad I got this bottle but it’s not something I love and I definitely won’t be looking to replace it based on the cost and scarcity.

It’s expensive, hard to find, lower proof and a single barrel so a bit of a gamble. What’s not to love?

TL;DR: Expensive for what it is, also inexplicably low proof

1 Star - Good whiskey: I would choose to drink this over readily available whiskies