Penny for Your Thoughts - Holiday Parties!
I'm catching up with some reviews from my work holiday party and also a night out at Ricky's on Miami Beach. Although I'm not going to devote a separate bar review to Ricky's since it's not really a whiskey bar, it is a pretty great place -- half-price happy hour until 10 pm on all weekdays. That made it pretty inexpensive to try some scotch there!
Four Roses Small Batch (45% ABV) - When most people think of Four Roses, they probably think of this mainline bourbon. It's right in the middle of the range released by the distillery -- significantly pricier than the basic Yellow Label, but about $10 under the price of the spectacular Single Barrel. For someone looking for a whiskey to sip, I'd recommend dropping the extra bucks to upgrade to the Single Barrel or, in this price range, seeking out Eagle Rare 10 instead. The nose of this bourbon has light, fresh fruit scents: apple, pear, unripe peach, along with a slightly astringency from its youth. This bourbon must be on average around 5-6 years of age, which is a little underdeveloped. The palate is sweet and spicy, but the sweetness doesn't take on the depth of flavor to characterize it as true caramel or butterscotch, it's more of a brown-sugar simple syrup flavor combined with a bold assertion of raw, rye spice. That rye spice dominates the finish as well, along with some peppery oak tannins and mellow, caramel apple flavor. I used this at a recent work party as a cocktail ingredient, and it's best-suited for mixing. At $30-35, it's fairly priced but no great bargain. B-
Hancock's President's Reserve Single Barrel (44.4%) - OK, I'm a little shocked I hadn't heard more about this bourbon before our host at this holiday party poured me a dram. Compared to the Four Roses I'd sipped just an hour or so earlier, this bourbon is dramatically better, with a nose of fudge, true rich, deep caramel that's missing in a younger bourbon, and some baking spices. Those flavors, particularly that rich caramel and vanilla, highlight the palate as well, along with some dry cedar and pecan pie. Hancock's apparently is the same mash bill as Blanton's, Elmer T. Lee, and Rock Hill Farms -- why are those three all incredibly famous, at least among big bourbon fans, while no one talks about this one? It does finish surprisingly quickly, with the bourbon equivalent of an Irish goodbye, but I would still put this bourbon right up there with Elmer T. Lee. It has more rich, sweet dessert flavors than that dram, less fruitiness than Rock Hill Farms, and less spiciness and rye than Blanton's. At $50-60, it's priced within the range of its closest cousins. A very solid bourbon, enjoyed for the first time with first-rate company. B+
Glenrothes Bourbon Cask Reserve (40%) - It's rare nowadays that I get to try a whisky from a distillery I've never experienced before, so this was a treat! Glenrothes's baseline expressions include a few different versions of their single malt aged in different barrels. In this case, I bet you can guess how this scotch was aged. I found this scotch to be a perfectly adequate scotch in the $40-45 range, akin to comparable brands like Aberfeldy 12 or the famed trio of entry-level malts from Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, and Glenmorangie. The nose is malt, apple, and an underlayer of coconut. The palate has the same flavors, along with a slightly astringent, grassy edge, that transforms that apple into some sour or crab apple. The finish leans heavily on the bourbon aging: vanilla, vanilla, vanilla. It's not complicated, it's exactly what you'd expect. There's a virtue to that. B-
Compass Box Spice Tree (46%) - This is the best whisky that I've tried in the last few weeks, by a fair margin. Compass Box's mid-range blends don't always do it for me -- I was not a big fan of Peat Monster, despite revering Islay scotches in general. But this is a bewitching scotch. Its aromas don't adequately herald the complexity that eventually arrives on the palate: I mainly get cherry, honey, and oak in nice balance, but not too much else. Then I take a sip and find myself struggling to identify all of the discrete flavors. There's an unexpectedly fruity entry of apricot and other fresh fruit, including both orchard and citrus varieties, an ale-like maltiness at its center, and then a whorl of spices including fennel, cinnamon, and anise. This scotch fades in a medium-length finish of anise syrup and lingering sweetness. The nose and finish don't entirely live up to the palate, but I'd recommend this to anyone who likes sweet and spicy flavors. B+
Highland Park Dark Origins (46.8%) - Highland Park is perceived in some circles to be a distillery on the decline, or as an example of the harm from resting on one's laurels. The distillery makes (and has made, for a long time) some excellent scotches in its primary, age-stated line. However, the distillery recently has chosen to pursue a strategy of releasing huge numbers of no-age-statement scotches with flashy names and heavy marketing pushes, while claiming that a lack of stock is necessitating the reduction of its core lineup (sayonara, Highland Park 15, we hardly knew thee). Dark Origins is part of this trend, although it also has gone the way of the dodo recently in favor of newer expressions like Valkyrie (see what I mean about the fancy names?). Dark Origins was intended to be reminiscent of Highland Park 12, but with a higher proportion of first-fill sherry casks imparting more depth of flavor to the final product. The end result is a sweeter, peatier version of Highland Park 12 with more rough edges. The nose takes a while to settle down and initially reeks of an earthy, almost sour peat that reminds me of compost or spoiled vegetables. Thankfully, after 10-15 minutes, that unpleasant scent subsides into a much better roast coffee aroma. Dark Origins reveals its sherried components on the palate, with lots of dark fruit flavors, raisins, some orange, and tendrils of smoke. The palate is moderately oily and has a decent mouthfeel to boot. It finishes on that strong coffee note, which I find to be a Highland Park signature, like a slightly peatier version of the 12. At $80 when it was available, this strikes me as half a solid scotch and half a cash grab. B