Kategoriarkiv: Kentucky

Benchmark, Buffalo Trace, Kentucky, USA

McAfee’s Benchmark Old No. 8

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ABV: 40 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 1
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is sweet and fruity. At first there’s hard fruit candy with a vanilla coating. There is a rye spicyness sitting close to, but not in the middle of the fruitiness. After a few seconds the oakiness comes through around the edges and with some imagination there’s cinnamon too. It seems very concentrated and a bit one-dimensional and it lacks both spread and depth. It’s a nice enough standard bourbon nose.

Mouth: It starts out with a big fruitiness and a harsh spirit note. It’s quite sharp and prickly. After a second or two the vanilla and oak start to come through together with the rye notes. It’s still very narrow. There is a bitterness in the backgrund which isn’t helping it along.

Finish: The finish starts out with a big sweet corn and vanilla burst and the hard fruit candy has disappeared. It stays very sweet for quite some time before the oakiness takes over. It’s a dry oakiness and it’s somewhat astringent. When it subsides there an unpleasant metallic note is left lingering in the mouth. This is a mediocre but easy to sip, bourbon.

Additional information
This straight bourbon is a budget alternative made by Buffalo Trace Distillery. It’s made from a (low) rye mash bill.

Evan Williams, Kentucky

Evan Williams Bottle-in-Bond

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ABV: 50 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 1
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 5/5

Tasting notes
Sample added to queue. Tasting notes pending.

See the queue here.

Additional information
This straight bourbon is made by Heaven Hill. There’s no age statement, but bottle-in-bond means that it must be aged at least 4 years. The mashbill consists of 78 % corn, 12 % malted barley and 10 % rye.

John Lee, Kentucky

John Lee Straight Bourbon

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ABV: 40 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: This is mild and sweet. At first it’s very ”grainy” and the distillate is very pronounced. When the flavours start to come through it’s vanilla, toffee and dusty corn together with honey and a thin fruity note. There’s not much to be found. It’s very flat and muted.

Mouth: It starts out very watery and it takes a few seconds before any flavour come through. Grain sweetness and vanilla create a baseline with a tiny dusty corn note and a tiny hint of cherries above. A small spicyness build up over time and a small hint of anise lies on top. A honey note is in there as well.

Finish: A mild minty cloud flies by and soon the grainy sweetness returns. Once again honey and vanilla appear but the whole thing is still very thin. The oak do make an appearance in the finish, but it lacks character. The tiny cherry note is somewhat noticable in the late finish. This is a poorly made bourbon that is powerless and uninteresting.

Additional information
This seems to be sourced from Kentucky by a french company, Bardinet SAS. There’s no more information on what’s in the bottle except that it’s straight bourbon, which means that it’s aged at least 2 years in new american oak and contains at least 51 % corn.

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Kentucky, Rackhouse

Rackhouse Kentucky Style Kentucky Straight Bourbon

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ABV: 40 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 1
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 2/5

Tasting notes
Nose: It’s mellow and a bit thin on approach. The vanilla stands out the most but there’s also a prominent chalky note. The fruitiness with mainly cherries resides in the background. There’s a hint of acetone and some rye spice on top. There is no oakiness present on the nose.

Mouth: It starts out a bit watery, with just a tiny amount of spicyness building up. It’s still vanilla heavy and the cherries and some dusty corn notes are in the backseat. It’s not overly sweet and there’s just a touch of brown sugar intertwined with the vanilla. There’s some liquorice root and anis seeds coming through but the oak is still missing.

Finish: A pop of the fruitiness soon gets replaced with vanilla, brown sugar sweetness and liquorice root. It doesn’t last to long before everything but the liquorice disappears. This finally leaves room for some oakiness. It’s not unpleasant but all the flavours are muted through everything creating a somewhat dull experience. The oak note is kind of clingy in the end.

Additional information
This is a whisky without much information to back it up. It’s a sourced straight bourbon, but nothing is disclosed on which distillery it gets the spirit from. It’s ”produced” by Bartizan BV, a company in the Netherlands.

Bulleit, Kentucky

Bulleit Bourbon

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ABV: 45 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 1
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 4/5

Tasting notes
Nose: It’s rounded and quite calm. There’s dusty corn, chalk, cherries and a hint of ripe banana and raisins. It’s got vanilla and brown sugar sweetness and the oak is very much present from the start. There’s also a touch of salted peanuts coming through on top of everything else.

Mouth: It’s spicy on the toungue from the start. The dusty corn switches to fruit candies and rye. There’s still a bit of dust in there though. The vanilla and the brown sugar is taking a backseat to the other flavours. The oak is very fresh and slightly bitter and there’s an astringency building up after a few sips.

Finish: It’s still spicy. The fruitiness and sweetness die quickly and leave a fresh oak note all by itself. After a while the ripe banana peeks through. Other than that there’s not much else in the finish except the spicy rye notes. There’s a tiny hint of walnuts in the tail.

Additional information
This bourbon is aged for about 6 years. The mashbill contains 68 % corn, 28 % rye and 4 % barley. It’s made at the Four Roses Distillery. Newer versions will have a distillate from a different source.

Kentucky, Willett

Willett Pot Still Reserve Small Batch Bourbon

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ABV: 47 %
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Type: Straight Bourbon
Bottles in collection: 0
Emptied bottles: 0
Impression: 4/5

Tasting notes
No tasting notes were recorded during the tasting.

Additional information
Even though Willet now produced its on bourbon this small batch release is sourced from other Kentucky distilleries. The mash bill consists of 72 % corn, 13 % rye and 15 % malted barley.

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