Appearance: A lovely bronze gold with an autumnal orange hue. Hairline tide mark when swirled, good coating on the glass and plenty of water droplets forming.
Nose: On the nose, there’s plenty of warming and Christmas spices. Cinnamon, brown sugar and caramel. The nose on this always reminds me of American pancakes with syrup.
As well as the well-balanced ABV, there’s a sweeter candied cherry element to the nose too, quite desserty and inviting. For a £25 bottle, it’s got a cracking nose! It’s the quintessential everyday sipper.
As the glass matures, the sweeter aromas start to morph towards burnt sugar and darker notes. Now there are more herbal/vegetal notes. Coriander and slight mint, almost nettle-like.
Palate: Right, one thing that I always find incredible for such a modestly priced bourbon is the mouthfeel, it’s actually like caramel. Then spice, quickly followed by waves of caramel and melted butter on pancakes.
There’s a cherryade thang going on too. It’s a very well balanced and tried and tested formula this one. Hard to beat for the money.
After the initial caramel and spice, there’s a build of white pepper and chilli tingle, just to let you know it’s 50+% ABV. After a while, a more blood orange bitterness, chocolate and tobacco’esque note start to appear too. Like smoked blood orange jaffa cakes
Finish: The finish is a continuation of the spicy caramel flavours, with a touch of black pepper and herbal overtone. It’s medium in length. Spicey vanilla ice-cream in a glass #thewhiskeychaps
Overall: It’s pretty awesome and unbeatable for the price. That’s all.
