Background

Joseph Magnus, it’s been a while! Last time I reviewed offerings from them was about a year and a half ago, and it covered Cigar Blend Batches 32 and 80. One of the things I continue to admire about Joseph Magnus, particularly Cigar Blend, is Master Blender Nancy Fraley’s willingness to provide exceptional amounts of insight into her process. In fact, she was kind enough to weigh in on my last review!

We’re going to start this review with Joseph Magnus’ flagship offering, which is a bourbon finished in Oloroso sherry, Pedro Ximénez sherry, and cognac casks. We’ll then move into Cigar Blend batch #204, which is one of the newer batches available. With each round of Cigar Blend batches, Nancy and team release key details and notes on the corresponding run. Today’s review is covering batch #204, ‘Figgy Pudding’, which is derived from a “coupe mere” or mother blend of 18 bourbon barrels. Those barrels which went into six, 300-liter Armagnac casks. This mother blend is composed of 9-year-old MGP Bourbon from both 36% and 21% Rye Bourbon mashbills, 16-year-old Barton’s Bourbon, and 20-year-old MGP 36% Rye Bourbon.

Background

All aboard the hype train, choo choo! Last I looked, Found North: Peregrine had something like 8 straight 10/10 reviews on r/bourbon. My peers have written about it better than I ever will, and I suspect many will skip down to see if the streak of 10/10s continues (spoiler alert: great bottle but for me it’s not and that’s ok!) so I won’t bother with the SLIGHTEST bit of useful background. Read the fantastic u/Prettayyprettaygood‘s review if you want actual information.

Instead, I will tell you how growing up in my elementary school days I was fucking obsessed with the series Animorphs. I read them so much my 3rd grade teacher told my dad he was worried I was reading them too much. My dad, in a moment I still greatly respect, told my teacher to kick rocks because his kid was reading constantly so as long as I wasnt actually trying to leap off buildings like a bird who the fuck cared. That was my first exposure to Peregrine Falcons, as Jake, the Animorphs stoic leader, could morph into one. I’ll admit, I tumbled into a DEEP Animorphs wiki hole while writing this, I forgot it gets quite dark towards the end actually. Jake commits alien genocide and a bunch of them die. So yeah, Animorphs, thanks for teaching me how much Peregrine Falcons rule.

Background

I’ll start by saying I owe Basil Hayden’s bourbon. This was my gateway bourbon, and I have no trouble admitting. Thinking myself a sophisticated young twenty-something, I bought the classy looking Basil Hayden bourbon. I would then sip the robust 80 proof bourbon on ice, probably call it smooth, and consider myself having an elevated experience over my usual alcohol diet of Labatt Blue Lights (it was Upstate New York).

But then I started to branch out, try new things. Tastier things, higher proof things (important to again reiterate that higher proof does not automatically = tastier), and Basil Hayden got left behind along with all of its newer line additions. Basil Hayden’s Toast had this weird moment in the sun, but I looked at its 80 proof and turned my nose up. Who can keep up with every new line extension? Why spend time on this watered down entry line I snobbishly thought. Well, it’s time to return to my roots with Basil Hayden Red Wine Cask Finish, let’s get into it!

Background

Ladies and Gentleman! Today’s main event are two whiskeys that need little introduction, both from heavy-hitter distilleries. In the green corner, hailing from Buffalo Trace distillery with an undisclosed wheated mashbill and weighing in at 90 proof… Weller Special Reserve!

And in the beige corner, 68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% malted barley mash and 92 proof, all the way from Heaven Hill distillery in Bardstown Kentucky… Larceny Bourbon! Today’s fight will be three rounds: Nose, Palate and Finish, with the winner taking home the title of Cheap* Wheat Champ.

Yes, I know people go wild for Weller Special Reserve and that makes it hard to actually FIND cheap. But it’s supposed to be, and maybe (definitely) people are silly for paying ridiculous prices for it. We’ll find out!

Background

I want to take you back to 2020. Covid is raging, stimmy checks and pent up spending is burning giant holes in the collective pockets of any hobby with a secondary market, and all people keep telling me is that I have to try Smoke Wagon bourbon. So I worked my way through the Straight Bourbon, Small Batch, Uncut Unfiltered, enjoyed them all, and then honestly stopped thinking about Smoke Wagon for a while. The hype seemed to slightly outpace the whiskey, with Halloween or Fourth of July edition bottles having a really frothy market I didn’t totally understand.

What better time, then, to check back in on Smoke Wagon than with two single barrel rye picks! The first is an r/bourbon pick, a 6 year MGP barrel with a 51% rye/45% corn/4% malted barley mashbill. In comparison is a 5 year single barrel direct from Smoke Wagon that utilizes a 51% rye/49% malted barley mashbill. As is standard with Smoke Wagon, these barrels are then transported to Nevada for extra aging in the Nevada desert heat. Time to pour these up and see how they compare!

Background

A man walks into a bar-turned sandwich and bottle shop, and says “ouch”... because his wallet is about to be significantly lighter than when he entered. Dad jokes aside, it’s awesome to see such a creative development from the Jack Rose and Imperial teams in this space. Moving their covid derived, impromptu bottle shop from a single shelf in Jack Rose to a pop up sandwich and bottle shop is a really enticing expansion from a group that seems to do everything thoughtfully.

Ok, why did I start my Willett review waxing poetic about the new Premier Drams space? Because I happened to snag these two bottles as part of a Holiday Sales Special at Premier Drams, and these bottles made an appearance at Premier Drams (the event, not the space) back in 2018! I have heard from the Jack Rose team that Willett is no longer making wheated bourbon picks available as part of their single barrel releases, potentially due to their rumored switch over to using their wheated mashbill in Willett Pot Still. The rye, interestingly enough, is also sourced. My perception (and I have no actual stats on this so apologies) is that MGP sourced Willett rye was fairly common, but this one is notably Kentucky sourced which should make for a fun variation. Fortunately, a friend had the excellent idea to turn these two bottles into a bottle split, so the aforementioned pain in my wallet was considerably reduced while still being able to taste, review, and enjoy these whiskeys!

Background

I did not want to write this review. Honestly, I kind of still don’t. Binder’s Stash whole vibe is just not really for me. I should be clear that I have nothing particularly specific against Bill Binder. I just see a website that immediately notes “Bill Binder has created a name and brand for himself…”, I see the pictures of an influencer wearing a hat with a logo created from his own profile, and my brain just sort of shuts off. Not knocking the hustle, get that money, I’m just going to try not to engage in the influencer economy if I can.

I first heard about Binder’s Stash whiskey from a friend, who notes it is 14 year MGP, and it’s $750 a bottle. Oh, it also has Binder’s profile stamped on the bottle. Brain powering back down now. Again it’s not a repulsive reflex, I just don’t have approaching secondary price for George T Stagg money lying around to throw at a rich guy’s bottle project. In April I updated my Store Pick Rules to Live By and while this isn’t explicitly a store pick it shares some DNA with one given it’s coming from an established distillery with which I have some familiarity. I don’t have firsthand knowledge of Binder’s credentials, nor does spending $750 blind seem like strong common sense- that’s two strikes against my rules. Yet, another friend comes to the rescue and offers to address one specific concern: try before you buy. Alright, I’ll bite. Let’s see what the fuss is all about…

Background

“I don’t actually like this very much, but people come over and think the bottle is cool, so they drink it.” - My father-in-law, unintentionally summarizing the essence of Willett Pot Still. Anyway, it's the holiday season, and once again, I find myself raiding my in-laws cabinets for whiskey that has been open for comically long periods. I kid you not; my mother-in-law STILL has that same bottle of Bulleit open from two years ago.

So, here we are with Willett Pot Still, a somewhat notorious offering from a legendary distillery. The prevailing rumor suggests that Willett Pot Still now exclusively employs Willett’s wheated mashbill, potentially explaining the absence of new wheated mashbill single barrels from Willett (something Jack Rose has noted at past tastings). The last time I tried Willett Pot Still was during a virtual whiskey club tasting amidst the COVID lockdown. A shout-out to the DMV’s Neighborhood Restaurant Group and their excellent spirits director, Nick Farrell, for keeping me sane during lockdown. It has now been over three years since I last tasted this, so it's time I stop resisting its alluring bottle design.

Background

Are you familiar with Good Times? No? Well honestly, and I mean this sincerely, congratulations. I encourage you to close out this review and continue on being unfamiliar with Good Times. It’s a better life. It means you probably have avoided Facebook groups hawking their litany of picks, or whiskey bros showing off a Chocolate Caramel Coconut Fudge Sundae flavored (intentional word use- Good Times will claim finished, I will not) bottle with a pornographic sticker or marketed by some secondary group as an “Infinity Stone” pick.

If you’ve stuck with me so far, welcome to the pyramid scheme of the whiskey realm. The scheme goes something like: Groups or individuals buy flavored (that Good Times will call finished) picks, slap some stickers on them, foist them on novice collectors, novice collectors receive increased blood sugar. A quick list of the three funniest flavor picks I’ve personally seen:

• Mexican Neopolitan Raspberry Cask Finish Rye: Claims to use Raspberry Brandy, Mexican Vanilla, Bourbon Cacao barrels.

• Caramel Chocolate Coconut Cask Finish Bourbon: Claims to use Bourbon Caramel, Chocolate, and Coconut Brandy barrels.

• Vanilla Coconut Pineapple Cask Finish Bourbon: Claims to use Bourbon Vanilla, Coconut Rum, and Pineapple Brandy barrels.

Good Times- the whiskey for people who don’t want to taste whiskey! As you can see, these are deeply unserious people, so this will be a deeply unserious (but real! I actually drank this whiskey!) review. Without further ado:

Background

It’s been a big year for Jim Beam’s Hardin Creek line! They released a full experiment on terroir with their “Kentucky Series”, a trio of 17 year whiskeys from three different Jim Beam campuses. They also brought back last year’s Jacob’s Well label for a second batch, this time extending the age statement from 15 years to 17. Or, more specifically and in Beam parlance, 184 months to 211 months. No one from Jim Beam is going to read this… but on the off chance they do come on branding team just put years on the label. Some people (ok me) can’t do basic math, and might have to bust out their phone calculator (yup, still me) and type in 211/12 (I’m a liberal arts major I don’t know what you want from me).

Anyways, I reviewed the first iteration of Jacob’s Well last year and absolutely loved it. I quickly killed the bottle, sharing it excitedly with as many people as I could find, and haven’t revisited it since. Seems like as good a time as any to re-review it side by side with batch two and compare them. Before we get into the notes, thank you, Jim Beam, for seemingly abandoning the $80, two year releases and instead just dropping wild 17 year bottlings. Ok, let’s review!

Background

To say I’ve started to dread the Jack Rose tastings where they release their own Willett picks is probably a bit of an exaggeration. The picks are always delicious, the Jack Rose staff incredible, the tasting price reasonable, etc. But how to approach this with some tact- damn if it doesn’t bring out a set of enthusiasts with whom I have some differences of opinion on how to approach this hobby. Last year I was semi-bowled over by a crush of people rushing to the checkout counter post tasting to buy bottles. As I mingled towards the back of the line someone decided he had the perfect captive audience to show me his collection of closed Willett bottles. It was his first time at a tasting.

Nothing so egregious this year, but across two tastings so far this year (and a third coming up tonight) you could set your watch by seeing these bottles go up on secondary at a crisp $1200+ price point the moment the tasting let out. Anyways, my old-man-yells-at-cloud-moment about Willett insanity aside, let’s get to the tasting. There were 6 whiskeys in this tasting, but I’m only going to cover the two new ones. For those curious, the other four pours and (where applicable) my past review of each is below, and then we’ll roll right into the new reviews:

• Willett 8 Year Wheated

• Willett Family Estate Rye: Jack Rose “Eau de Vie” Pick

• Willett Family Estate Rye: Jack Rose “Voyage of the Beagle” Pick

• Willett Family Estate Bourbon: Bourbon Bonanza #4786

Background

Back once again with another delivery from Jim Beam’s Barreled and Box program. This particular parcel is a Little Book double header, featuring Chapter 7 (In Retrospect) and the Barreled and Boxed exclusive Excerpt: Curious Endeavors. As standard with Little Book, each of these releases is crafted by Freddie Noe to be unique from previous Little Book releases.

“Previous Little Book releases” is actually the perfect place to start when it comes to Chapter 7, as Freddie Noe took 6 different “liquid streams” (seriously their language, not mine) from previous releases and blended them with a 7th stream (please god no more streams) to make this unique blend (river?). You might, reasonably I’ll add, be wondering what’s the deal with all of this stream talk. Well each Little Book release was a unique blend, and Freddie essentially took one COMPONENT of each blend to include here. For example, Chapter 6 contained malt whiskey finished in smoked applewood barrels, and that’s included in this Chapter. The full list of streams (sorry, I couldn't resist) included in Chapter 7:

• 18yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 10yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

• 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

• 4yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 4yrs Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

As for the Curious Endeavors Excerpt, Freddie Noe notes this a particularly unusual blend using 5 rare stocks they have in house. It’s meant as a hat tip to Shinji Fukuyo, Chief Blender at Suntory, who taught Freddie the concept of “Kodawari” - the relentless pursuit of perfection despite knowing perfection is impossible. Contained in this blend we have:

• 17yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 10yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Japanese Casks

• 9yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Scotch Casks

• 5yrs Straight Malt Whiskey finished in Applewood Smoked Barrels

• 6yrs Brown Rice Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

• 5yrs Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Wine Casks

Ok, we now have built a waterfall of information out of all of these various liquid streams. Let’s review!

Background

Going to get right into it because both of these selections have pretty fantastic stories. Let’s start with La Pareja Perfecta (the perfect pair), which was picked by W. Curtis Draper, a historic DC cigar shop, in collaboration with Gran Habano Cigars for W. Curtis Draper’s annual “Little Puff” charity event. Together, they picked this port finished bourbon with George A. Rico, a master cigar blender with over 27 years of experience. The bourbon was finished in the port barrel for about 4.5 of its 7.5 total years aging, which is an exceptionally long amount of time and more typical of what you’d see with a Scotch than a Bourbon. George Rico worked closely with the Laws pick team to ensure that the blend of the cigar perfectly matched the flavor profile of the whiskey barrel pick. The blend of the cigar consists of a Nicaraguan Shade-Grown wrapper, a Nicaraguan binder, and filler from Nicaragua and Peru.

As for “It Goes to 11”, this selection by Cinder BBQ was distilled in Year 1 of Laws operations by Al Laws himself. It was then aged for 11 years before Cinder and Al tasted and decided it was the perfect time for it to be bottled. Due to the double digit time spent aging, the yield was under 100 bottles. A good chunk of that yield went to the inaugural cohort of Cinder’s Whiskey Club, with only a few bottles being sold out of Cinder's bottle shop.

Background

It feels like ages since I first encountered Frank August and Single Barrel 005… but really it was a mere six months ago. This hobby moves too damn fast. Since then, Frank August has released Case Study: 02 and a fresh set of fifteen single barrels, which makes it a perfect time to revisit the brand.

First up we have Case Study: 02, where the Pedro Ximenez (PX) casks involved in crafting this whiskey had quite the journey before being utilized by Frank August. First filled in 1992, they were filled with brandy for 17 years. This brandy was dumped, and then the barrels were refilled with brandy from 1948 and for an additional 13 years, making these barrels 30 years old by the time Frank August filled them with bourbon. Worth noting, they also filled them wet, meaning immediately after dumping the brandy. The bourbon was then finished for an undisclosed amount of time in the PX cask until it met a taste profile the folks at Frank August enjoyed.

As for the latest batch of single barrels, it’s a much simpler story. This is the second wave released by Frank August, fifteen new ones to join the original set of five. All of them are 6.1 years old and with proofs varying from 114.6 to 125.4, and the particular barrel for review here is 0019. Without further ado, let’s see how these two stack up!

Background

Not going to be much in the way of an intro on this one, because I have absolutely no clue what these are! Recently, @simon_says_sip offered me two choices from our sample swap, blind or labeled. Never wanting to waste an opportunity to embarrass myself, I told him to go ahead and send them blind for this review. My plan is to try to guess the distillery, type, age, proof, and a simple yes/no on whether or not it’s finished. Below I’ve put my tasting notes and my guess on each. Simon has then provided the answer and his thoughts immediately following each review.

Background

Last month, I had the good fortune of reviewing the 2020 edition of the, now discounted, Belle Meade Honey Cask. That was an absolutely breathtaking whiskey, one of the few 10/10s I have given out, thanks to the way it marries the honey cask finish with the depth and richness of the old MGP stocks used in its creation. What made this Belle Meade so exciting was its departure from my first go around with honey cask finishes, where you desperately searched for notes that weren’t just honey, honey, and more honey.

And now we arrive at the Nelson Bros. iteration, which supplanted the Belle Meade line after Nelson’s Green Brier axed the Belle Meade brand. As honey cask expert and reviewer extraordinaire The Bourbon Culture points out, this transition also allowed for a semi-sneaky switch in sourcing. As posited in that write-up, it appears Nelson’s Green Brier is at least blending some much younger Bardstown Bourbon Company juice into the mix. This is seemingly confirmed by the fact that this bottle notes it’s a Blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskeys, whereas the 2020 Belle Meade Honey Cask bottle just says Straight Bourbon Whiskey. So how does this new, mystery sourced bottling compare to the divine 2020 Belle Meade Cask Strength? Time to find out!

Background

It’s been over the year since I’ve checked in on the Stagg line, and that store pick did not really land for me. Most of my Stagg (formerly Jr) experiences prior to that pick have been absolutely knock out offerings, I enjoyed Batches 14 through 17 with startling consistency. But these being not exactly the easiest bottles to obtain, my run-ins with Stagg (Jr) and reviews have come in fits and starts. I’ve been itching to compare another store pick to one of the main batches.

So here we have two offerings, one Batch 22A and the other a 2022 store pick from Liquor Barn. By the way, apparently Stagg batches kind of jumped the shark. The internet tells me Batch 22B was released before batch 22A, and then we dropped a numbered order and just went by year. I can't wait for some bourbon historian in 2053, assuming we’re all not roving a climate change induced wasteland fighting for gasoline, to try and figure out what happened to batches 20 and 21 only to find out they never existed. Anyways, two Stagg offerings, both released in the same year. Both shall enter, one will emerge victorious…

Background

It’s your resident Peerless shill here back for another review! One of the best things about Whiskey Row in Louisville is that the proximity of everything means you can just pop into distilleries and see what's up. You never know what bottle releases or distillery-only tastings you might find, and so stopping by Peerless on the way to our recent Old Forester pick was a no brainer.

And credit to Peerless, they did not disappoint! Not only do they consistently have new distillery only single barrels, they recently launched a new “express tasting” option. Perfect for an awkward amount of time between more formal tours and tastings, you can now swing by for a 15-20 minute tasting where you’ll pick two pours from a lineup of current offerings (was six when we were there). Before this review gets to be a longer read then the tasting itself, let’s get into the notes!

Background

Much like Eminem with Dre, it’s time for the Batman to my Robin to return for another joint review. Jonathan Glover is back (back again) and this time we’re tackling last weekend’s Jack Rose Wild Turkey tasting. Same deal as last time, we are going to get right into the notes since it’s double trouble on each pour. Gobble, gobble!

Background

It’s time to check in on the latest and greatest from Seelbach’s Private Reserve series! Back in April, I took a look at Batch 004, which is a 9 year Amburana finished bourbon. The short summary is I really enjoyed it, even though I’ve been pretty mixed and/or out on the deluge of Amburana finishes that are so hot right now.

Seelbach’s churns out some pretty radical experiments under this line. Batch 003, for instance, was finished in Triple Sec & Pinot Meunier Champagne barrels, and this batch is no exception. To start, they sourced four year bourbon from Bardstown… which we can guesstimate came from Heaven Hill based on the location and the mashbill (78/10/12). Those barrels traveled down to Florida where they spent an extra six months aging in the fourth circle of hell. Ten barrels were then blended together, and from that blend two toasted French Oak barrels and two ex-bourbon maple syrup barrels are filled (with the rest of the blend being saved for a future project). After 3 months of finishing they put together the final blend, which ended up being a 60/40 ratio of bourbon French Oak to maple syrup. Ok, clearly Seelbach's worked hard on this so let's reward that effort with some notes!