Bourbon Jedi

There is no emotion, there is Bourbon.

Category: Tasting Notes (Page 1 of 4)

Elijah Craig – Barrel Proof

March 19, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Elijah Craig - Barrel Proof with glencairn glass
Elijah Craig – Barrel Proof

Time for one of my faves and one of the few rare bourbons I can still find.

Bourbon: Elijah Craig – Barrel Proof
Batch B520; 63.6%

Color: Redwood

Nose: Vanilla, ethanol, oak, red hot candy, pepper

Taste: Oak, leather, potpourri, herbs, pepper, tobacco

Finish: This bourbon comes on strong and doesn’t let up. From the jump the it starts burning from the tip of the tongue and then throughout the mouth. Once the burning dies down your mouth is left feeling a bit worn out.

Verdict: B

This is definitely a bourbon that benefits from adding water. The burn goes from all-encompassing to acceptable and it opens up the bourbon to the point where I could catch some sweet and fruity notes.

Smoke Wagon: Uncut Unfiltered

March 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments
Battle Born Bourbon

Babies, pandemics, and quarantines really kill productivity. Now that things are inching towards normalcy so am I; the time for bourbon tasting has returned. I’ll admit I’m a bit out of practice but I’ve heard tasting bourbon is like riding a bike.

Today’s bourbon hails from my home state of Nevada.

Bourbon: Smoke Wagon: Uncut Unfiltered
Batch 35; 57.68%

Color: Redwood

Nose: Vanilla, ethanol, oak, red hot candy, pepper

Taste: Oak, leather, potpourri, herbs, pepper, tobacco

Finish: This bourbon comes on strong and doesn’t let up. From the jump the it starts burning from the tip of the tongue and then throughout the mouth. Once the burning dies down your mouth is left feeling a bit worn out.

Verdict: B

This is definitely a bourbon that benefits from adding water. The burn goes from all-encompassing to acceptable and it opens up the bourbon to the point where I could catch some sweet and fruity notes.

Buck Bourbon

June 14, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Didn’t really know much about this bourbon when I picked it up but it was affordable so I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s from Frank-Lin Distilleries and is sourced from Kentucky but other than that there’s not much else I could find out about it.

Bourbon: Buck Bourbon
8 years; 45%

Color: Like a breakfast tea

Nose: Right off the bat there’s a strong note of alcohol which quickly dissipates followed closely by brown sugar, herbs, spices, and some hints of citrus.

Taste: Dry oak, leather, sage, grass with a short, quick pepper burn at the end.

Finish: It’s light without much of a burn and plenty of leather and oak lingering on the palate.

Verdict: B-
For a bottle with a bucking bronco on it the taste profile of this bourbon is on point. The earthiness and the leather fit right in with it’s stylings as a cowboy whiskey. It’s 8 years old and goes for $25-30.

In this day an age when the great value buys like Henry McKenna and Buffalo Trace are increasingly hard to find or being placed in lotteries; I am always on the lookout for a good budget whiskey. While this bourbon isn’t on the same level as the others mentioned above, at this price point it’s a keeper.

Barrell Whiskey: Infinite Barrel

April 19, 2019 / / 0 Comments
Barrell Bourbon with glencairn glass

While I’ve never seen this bottle on a shelf before I have heard good things. Today was my lucky day and I’m eager to try it out. According to Barrell this expression has added a mix of Tennessee whiskey, 100% Polish malted rye, Tennessee rye, Indiana whiskey, and Irish whiskey since the March 15 bottle. Color me intrigued.

Bourbon: Barrell Whiskey: Infinite Bottle Project Cask Strength
April 19, 2018; Bottle #657; 58.75

Color: Yellow-orange close to honey.
Nose: Plums, cloves, herbs, and corn starch.
Taste: Oak, smoke, char, leather with hints of vanilla and citrus at the beginning.

Verdict: Initially there’s seemingly not a whole lot going on with this whiskey. It almost feels so balanced that it’s muddled with no really flavor. However, after a few seconds it kicks in and that is where this whiskey really shines. There’s a nice strong oak followed with a smoky char and a hint of leather with a medium burn on the front half of the tongue that feels just right. Even though it seems kind of plain I really enjoyed this one and at the price point it’s really worth it.

B+


Old Fitzgerald BiB 11 years

August 13, 2018 / / 1 Comment
Bottle of Old Fitzgerald with glencairn glass.

I didn’t think I was going to be lucky enough to find a bottle of this, but I was really hoping I would in large part because I love beautiful bottles and doubly so when the bourbon is good. 

This bottle was designed to evoke a 1950s style decanter and they pulled that off with ease. Not saying if the bourbon is bad it’s worth it for the decanter but it’d be close. I’d heard some good things but I wanted to see for myself how this bourbon.

Continue reading

Smooth Ambler: Old Scout

March 9, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Bottle of Smooth Ambler Old Scout with glencairn glass

Being a sucker for store selects I picked up with bottle of Old Scout recently. Smooth Ambler is a neat distillery from nearby West Virginia and their whiskies are generally bold, and fun. Try some Contradiction sometime if you can find it. Old Scout 7years is my favorite expression of theirs, which unfortunately I don’t see at all anymore.

This version of Old Scout is a whiskey instead of a bourbon due to some of the whiskey being aged in new oak barrels and in “rejuvenated re-charred bourbon casks.” Here is a nice primer on rejuvenation of bourbon casks.

The whiskies were distilled in Indiana and Tennessee and if I had to guess I’d say that the Tennessee whiskey is sourced from George Dickel but that’d just be a guess.

Continue reading

« Older posts

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 139 other subscribers

© 2023 Bourbon Jedi

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑