Apart from the fact that this is neither a malt, nor from Scotland, it’s still a pretty interesting twist on things. A pretty well matured Bourbon (at least 13 years old, but matured in a sherry hogshead! That is something normally reserved for single malts and blends, but not for bourbons!

This immediately caught my fancy when it came out in 2015, even though I was slightly apprehensive about the exact thing that made it stand out: the sherry cask maturation. Bourbon tends to be rather sweet, and a lot of sherry matured whiskies are too. Would it double up on the sweetness or would something else be created?

Image from Whiskybase

Sniff:
At first the sweetness of the bourbon hits, and then there’s a little extra layer of a candy like fruitiness. It almost reminds me of Kriek beer, or Rodenbach red ale. After that, it get’s very strangely beef stock like.

Sip:
The palate is gentle. Sweet and savory at the same time. Fruity, again like the red cherry ales. Oak, corn syrup, some autumn leaves, but all with that strange layer of sherry sweetness, with all its weirdness.

Swallow:
The finish is a little bit dry, compared to before. The savoriness is a bit less too. So, dry with both sherry and bourbon, which is something new to my palate. Still, it’s weird, but in a very interesting way.

Interesting is the word that best describes this whiskey. It’s not necessarily something I would care for enough to buy another bottle, even though it could be entirely different. In this case, the sherry and the bourbon don’t really mix. The sweetness is inflated, but not unbearinly so. It’s just that there’s that savory layer which can work in single malt, bourbon AND sherry, but here it just doesn’t.

Today’s soup might indeed be whiskey with H2O croutons…

75/100

Heaven Hill 2001-2015, Sherry Hogshead 15041, 48.9%