Sub-titled ‘To Commemorate The Greatest Whisky Festival Yet To Come’, because the bottles were already ordered when the bubonic plague ravaged the world and shut everything down. A friend of mine, RvB, got a set of bottles and shared them so we could all get a sample of this and another one that still is somewhere on my shefl.

Balcones, from Texas, things work differently than they do in Scotland, so a three year old whisky tastes a lot older, but also in a different way. Time is still time, even though maturation is considered to be faster in different climates. Saying that I don’t mean this is a bad thing, this shorter maturation. It’s just a different style of whisky that’s the result.

Anyway, tasting notes!

Sniff:
A lot of heat on the nose. A bit of a rum like funkiness, bitter oaky notes, hot peppers. There’s quite a bit happening here.

Sip:
The palate continues down the same line, although there’s a bit of copper here too. The bit is real, but it takes a while to get over the initial shock of my taste buds. Barley, oak, lots of dryness but with a thick texture. A tidbit of rum funkiness in the background.

Swallow:
The finish has a lot of bite initially, and even though it dials down a bit after that, it stays hot. It’s that Balcones flavor of copper, barley and tumbleweeds.

With this clocking in at over 65% ABV, it’s not surprising that it’s rather hot on the palate. A drop of water helps, but it’s not something I generally do. Especially because I see whisky as a thing to have when winding down. When winding down and finding a whisky (too) hot, I would have to get up and get a drop of water. So, what I’m trying to say is that I drink my booze without dropping water in it, and when doing this it’s hot.

Definitely not a bad whisky at all. Far from it. At the original price it is quite awesome, but with this currently going for € 130, it’s a bit too steep.

86/100