Smells of caramel, toffee, and white pepper. The taste is lightly sweet and spicy with flavors caramel, butterscotch, toffee, and honey. The finish is long with a mild burn, featuring notes of white pepper, oak, and leather. Overall, it’s a very intense whisky, sweeter than I expected up front, perhaps due to the winter wheat used, but the finish is a bold, spicy smack in the face of oak and rye. Should be interesting to see how this one holds up in cocktails.
A Rye & Cola is smooth and assertively oaky, with notes of citrus and spice underneath.
A Whisky Sour is bold and spicy with sweet whisky grains and lemonade up front and a tart, oaky finish with notes of white pepper. A decent spirit forward drink, but one that definitely works better with a mellower whisky and/or bourbon.
A Scofflaw is smooth and layered with grenadine, lemon, and sweeter notes from the vermouth up front contrasted against rye, vermouth botanicals, and oak in the finish. Remarkably well balanced, definitely worth a try.
A High Ryeser (a Manhattan riff) is complex and aromatic with sweet cherry and plum up front and a bitter, oaky, and lightly peppery finish. Very enjoyable.
An Old Fashioned is smooth and fruity up front with a mild alcoholic bite in the peppery finish. I actually find that this whisky stands out more than mellower ones such as the Crown Reserve or Jameson.