During COVID it wasn’t just Single Malt that had a massive revival at MaltFascination HQ, but I also got into way too expensive Bourbon. Not necessarily that the Bourbon was too expensive, but by the time it was available in The Netherlands it was. Mostly because importing it into Europe is so infrequent, it comes at a premium by default.

I can’t find the invoice in my inbox, but my guess is that I paid about € 160 for this bottle (Currently about $165). I do think I got the only bottle available on this side of the Atlantic, at least according to what I could find.

Yesterday (yes, it was a Monday, as my wife so kindly reminded me of) I finished the bottle. There is virtually no information available on the Whiskybase page, so we just have to go by flavor instead of age, maturation, and so forth.

Sniff:
This is a surprisingly light bourbon. All the flavor components are there, but it doesn’t feel heavy, thick or sweet at all. There is a lot of wood and there’s some heat which I cannot really pin down.

Sip:
The palate starts a bit more gentle, but not less dry. It’s bone dry actually, with quite some chili heat. There’s a lot of oak again, with some vanilla, apple and vanilla syrup.

Swallow:
The finish keeps a little bit of the heat, but not an awful lot. It’s a ridiculously long finish, with just enough of everything. Oak, grain, barley, pepper. Even some almond flour.

Even though it packs quite a punch, it kept feeling rather crisp and fresh. There’s a certain desert heat thing going on or something that is highly suggestive of that, since they’re in Las Vegas and such. I love the complexity of the whisky and whatever its age, I think this is a cracking dram. I might have to keep my eyes open for a follow up to this!

Also, with the flowers in relief on the glass, this is one of the prettiest bottles I’ve seen.

89/100