Barrell Dovetail Bourbon

Dovetail, poetic carpentry allusion aside, is a blend of two sourced bourbons: A 10 year-old Indiana (I assume that means MGP) bourbon finished in Dunn Vineyards Cabernet wine barrels (French Oak), and an 11 year-old Tennessee whiskey (could be Dickel, could be Nelson’s Green Brier, could be some small craft distillery…) finished in both blackstrap molasses rum casks and LBV aka Late Bottled Vintage aka sweeter port pipes. The result is bottled at cask strength of…

Jim Beam Double Oak

Double Oak’s approach to the industry meme of “do something different to the base whiskey so we can charge more for it” is about as simple as you can get, and yet is oddly rare in the bourbon business. They took Jim Beam, having aged it like all bourbons in new charred American white oak barrels, and they…

Mortlach (12 year) ‘Wee Witchie’

The “Wee Witchie” is the name of Mortlach’s small experimental pot still, and “some” of its output was included in the batch for this bottling. “Some” is one of the worst words in the English language, so we don’t know if we’re talking about a literal teaspoon, or if 30% of the vatting comes from The Wee Witchie, so it’s kind of an irrelevant piece of information…

Musings on Sauternes

…so in an attempt to better understand the flavors that arise when whisky is aged in Sauternes casks, I sought a bottle of actual Sauternes. I’m drinking a Château Guiraud 2010 (375ml bottle) which was something like $40, and I’m drinking it chilled. I’m noticing the aroma – particularly – has distinct notes of golden raisins (duh), rich honey, fresh apricots, dried apricots, and a not-quite-yeasty fungal aroma that’s…

Kirkland Islay Single Malt (2022)

Getting the easy stuff out of the way: This is a single malt scotch whisky, from a single distillery on the island of Islay in Scotland. It is heavily peated like other Islay stalwarts (Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Caol Ila, etc.) and should not be considered unless you know you’re ready for a face-full of smoke and weird brine flavors in your whisky. It is bottled at the impressive strength of…