3006 is a newish bottler that showed up some years ago. I read something about then but then forgot about the brand again, until recently. RvB shared these two American Whiskeys, one finished in a PX octave, and another in a Palo Cortado octave.

Finishing American whiskey in sherry casks seems to be quite hip at the moment, but to me it’s a very hit-and-miss thing to do, with it often becomes a too sweet jumble of flavors.

Luckily, these were quite affordable and therefore not too big a drain to try a sample of.

American Whiskey, 1st batch, Pedro Ximenez Octave Finish, 49.4%

Sniff:
The sherry adds some dry notes to the sweet bourbon. Baking spices and sharp corn aromas. It smells very potent. Some charcoal and lots of new American oak.

Sip:
The palate starts strangely farmy, after which a lot of peppercorns come crashing through. Very fiery and hot, with the dryness of the sherry only adding to it. Some syrupy sweetness too, with cherries from a jar, clove.

Swallow:
The finish has a bit of an afterburner. Syrupy sweet with some dryness from baking spices.

The thickness is very weird. The flavors don’t really work together either. The nose and the palate don’t line up in any way. I tried the sample again a little while later (I had 10cl after all) and then the sweetness was all encompassing, except on the nose.

I’m not sure what happened here, but it doesn’t make any sense. The flavors don’t work well together at all, and there’s a huge discrepancy between the nose and the palate.

65/100

American Whiskey, 2nd batch, Palo Cortado Octave Finish, 53.7%

Sniff:
Lots of sherry notes on the nose, with fresh tropical fruit. The sweetness is amped up by the whiskey. Nectarine, tangerine, valencia oranges. Some oak after a few seconds, which keeps increasing. There are some wood spices, with some cherry cola too.

Sip:
Quite sharp with more heat than I expected. Not very woody, but quite a lot of chili heat. The fruit is still here, lots of stone fruit, with nectarines, cherries. It’s slightly syrupy, with some sappy oak. The sweet citrus fruit is quite pronounced too.

Swallow:
The finish is slightly dry, with lots of fruit again. It’s quite mellow, with some oak, some sap. Not overly long. Some green bananas, all of a sudden.

Contrary to the PX one, this one works very well initially. The sherry doesn’t add too much sweetness, but it does add a lot of fruit. The combination of stone fruit and sweet citrus works, but as I said, initially.

I poured a sizeable glass so it did last me a while. The interesting (read: worrying) part is that while I was initially rather enthusiastic about the fruit flavors the sherry added to the whiskey, it somehow started to completely disintegrate after half an hour or so.

It became overly sweet again, with a building gap between the nose and the palate, much like the PX cask. It’s not as bad as that one, though.

70/100

As you might have guessed, these are not very good whiskeys. And that’s putting it positively. Of course, if you like weird whiskeys and sweetness, this might be for you. The reviews on Whiskybase aren’t too bad, but I’ll be steering clear of the next batches.