Sometimes you must go outside your comfort zone to find the good stuff in whiskey. Trying new expressions, styles, and whiskey brands is a great way to both expand your palate and deepen your overall knowledge. And I’m here to help because I’ve already done all of that.I’ve done the work and can guide you to some really good bottles.
Over just the last three years, I’ve sampled around 5,000 whiskeys — that doesn’t include other spirits, beer, wine, and cocktails. In the process, I’ve become a respected whiskey critic and judge. And even with all of that, I’m still expanding my palate every single day. I’m trying new whiskeys every…single…day. It never ends. (Don’t cry for me, it’s not a bad gig.)
So when my editor asked me to have a fellow whiskey expert friend set up a blind to see if they could “confuse” my palate, I had a bit of a laugh. Why? Because I can usually spot a whiskey from about a mile away based on sight and smell alone. If I couldn’t… well, I wouldn’t deserve this gig. Still, I agreed to the premise.
Since I’m currently visiting Texas for a long weekend of distillery tours (see, it never ends), I had the head of single barrel picks for ReserveBar, Lee Diaz, pour me seven very random-ass whiskeys to see if I could call out what they are. I specifically asked for confusing pours that could trick me like, say, peated malts from different regions, MGP of Indiana bottles, and random single barrels, plus a classic or two thrown in for good measure.
The lineup included the following whiskey bottles:
- Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
- Treaty Oak Single Barrel Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon Aged 5 Years Cask Strength
- New Riff Single Barrel Rye Kentucky Straight Whiskey
- Balcones Peated Texas Single Malt Whisky
- Nulu Straight Bourbon Whiskey Double Oaked Single Barrel Select Topflight Series
- Old Fourth Distillery Experimental Series Double Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Ruby Port
- Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Single Cask Selection Cask Collector’s Edition 2 Pedro Ximénez
Okay, let’s see how close I got to getting “confused” by these whiskeys. And just to be clear, I didn’t see these bottles before they were poured, so this is technically a “double-blind” tasting.
Part 1 — The Random Whiskey Blind Tasting
Taste 1
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Classic notes of vanilla come through next to a dark syrup sweetness, a flourish of fresh mint, and raw leather that veers towards raw steak.
Palate: The palate cuts through the sweeter notes with plenty of spices — like clove and star anise — next to a hint of tart berries underneath it all.
Finish: The end is long, velvety, and delivers on the vanilla and spice that leads to a layer of earthy fall leaves with a hint of musty old brick barrelhouse on the very end.
My Guess:
I’d bet my children’s lives on this being Buffalo Trace Bourbon. First, the pale caramel color of a proofed-down whiskey is a big giveaway. Then the raw leather on the nose and earthy barrel house on the finish is a dead giveaway on the profile.
Taste 2
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose is tannic and a little dirty with a sense of light sweet grains (kind of like a sweetcorn porridge), dark fruit leather, and a touch of maltiness.
Palate: That bitter oak drives the palate with a clear sense of raw cornbread batter next to almost smoked plums and rum raisin.
Finish: The end has a sense of dank and dryness that’s almost bitter with a sense of chocolate and oak.
My Guess:
This is dark AF whiskey, so it’s a Texas whiskey. It’s maybe four or five years old since the grains are sweet and porridge-like and not fresh and wet. It’s not Balcones or Garrison Brothers because it’s not that refined (or good). I don’t know beyond it being a four to five-year-old Texas bourbon.
Taste 3
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Freshly cracked hazelnuts dominate the nose and lead to worn boot leather, old and slightly molded porch wicker, old clove, dark chocolate sauce, and a hint of red peppercorns.
Palate: The palate starts with hazelnut shells before diving into a deep matrix of dried roses, vanilla husks, allspice berries, clove buds, and a chili-chocolate sauce with a flake of salt and dusting of singed peanuts.
Finish: The end is lush thanks to the vanilla and just spicy enough thanks to the chili-chocolate and red peppercorns with plenty of soft hazelnut rounding things out.
My Guess:
This is a really f*cking good Kentucky rye. It’s unique, sweet, and full of profile notes that go beyond “spicy.” Generally, MGP’s 95/5 (rye/malted barley) is that dry grassy peppery rye that everyone knows. Kentucky rye has way more depth with fruity sweetness, nuttiness, and lushness. This is likely a single barrel from a smaller distiller so I’m going with either New Riff or maybe Castle & Key.
Taste 4
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this is clearly a deeply peated whisky with layers of caramel, teriyaki steak, smoked salmon bellies, and salted caramel drizzled over pound cake with a hint of almost burnt drip coffee.
Palate: The palate is lush with a sense of buttered vanilla apple cider with plenty of cinnamon next to brown sugar rock candy, honey-laced black tea, and a hint of winter spice cakes that give way to creamy eggnog full of allspice, nutmeg, and clove.
Finish: The tea takes on a powdered green tea vibe with a lot more of that eggnog spice before hitting a smoked green chili vibe at the very end with hints of smoldering cedar bark and smudging sage.
My Guess:
This is peated but very clearly an American peated malt (the vanilla, apple cider, and spices are a dead giveaway). Then that green tea note hits and this is clearly a Balcones malt.
Taste 5
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Peanut brittle and chocolate cream with a hint of Black Forest cake and Honeynut Graham Crackers mingle on the nose.
Palate: Plenty of vanilla, Nutella, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch drive the palate toward hints of winter spice barks and light sweet fruitiness that’s part overripe banana and part dark cherry.
Finish: The finish takes on a bananas foster vibe with plenty of allspice and clove next to more vanilla, caramel, and a touch of oakiness.
My Guess:
This is pretty standard bourbon. It’s probably a Kentucky bottler aiming for a Kentucky vibe with MGP of Indiana whiskey. That could be about a million different brands at this point (I’m only half joking).
Taste 6
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s a light sense of nutshells on the nose with hints of dark chocolate, dark cherry, and dark Graham Cracker with a hint of honey.
Palate: Nutella over cinnamon toast with a dash of dark cherry jam, vanilla sheet cake, and winter spice drive the palate to hints of figs and dates.
Finish: Those spices kick up some heat on the finish with plenty of oaky vanilla and cherry with a touch of white grits cut with butter and brown sugar.
My Guess:
This is extremely close to the last pour. The finish is different though. So I’m going with this being a small-time bottler using MGP juice but finishing it in maybe port of PX sherry barrels. And that could be one of thousands of brands out there across this nation of ours.
Taste 7
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with this deep and fatty smoked pastrami vibe with deep pickled herbs, spices, and botanicals next to a whiff of sea salt air, deep dark dried fruits — dates, figs, prunes — with a sense of spiced mulled wine and Christmas cakes brimming with roasted almonds, candied citrus, and tons of dark spice with a sweet edge.
Palate: The peat kicks up something fierce on the palate with a fresh Ace Bandage vibe that gives way to a sense of seafood chowder on a cold and rainy day before layers of smoked plums and smoldering cinnamon bark lashes the profile with warmth, spice, and sweetness with a dash of tarmac on a hot day sneaking in late.
Finish: The pastrami circles back on the finish with fatty smoked meat vibes countered by plenty of sea salt, smoldering spice barks, and Christmas pies with a lush sense of stewed red fruits and bright pear brandy with a fleeting sense of mulled wine cut with butter on the very end.
My Guess:
First of all, this is the best whiskey on the panel by a country mile. Second, this is clearly an Islay peat monster. It’s too hefty to be a Bowmore, Lagavulin, Kilchoman, Caol Ila, or Bunnhabain. That only leaves Bruichladdich, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. It’s not a Bruichladdich, it’s too subtle for that.
The deep and amazingly funky pickled profile with a sense of Ace Bandages, tarmac, and seaside only points to Laphroaig. And it’s a great Laphroiag with, I’m guessing a PX sherry finish thanks to all that smoked dark fruit and mulled wine vibes. Bandage, sea salt, and asphalt are the foundations of Laphroaig, folks. (Ardbeg tends to be more ashtrays and old rope)
Part 2 — The Random Whiskey Ranking
7. Nulu Straight Bourbon Whiskey Double Oaked Single Barrel Select Topflight Series — Taste 5
ABV: 57.4%
Average Price: $107
The Whiskey:
This Louisville bottler leans on MGP of Indiana whiskey for mostly single-barrel bottlings in Kentucky. In this case, they pulled in MGP’s double oak aged whiskey and let it rest in their barrelhouse in Louisville before bottling.
Bottom Line:
Nailed it! MGP whiskey by a Kentucky bottler was my guess. That aside, this is perfectly fine bourbon. At $100 per bottle, it’s outrageous though. Get two Wild Turkey Rare Breeds for $50.
6. Treaty Oak Single Barrel Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon Aged 5 Years Cask Strength — Taste 2
ABV: 59.85%
Average Price: $60
The Whiskey:
This small craft distillery in Texas has been distilling and bottling locally-made grain-to-glass whiskey, vodka, and gin for almost two decades. The whiskey in this bottle is hewn from local heirloom grains (57% corn, 32% wheat, and 11% malted barley) that are fermented in the Texas Hill Country before distillation and aging. After five years, the whiskey was selected and bottled as a single barrel at cask strength.
Bottom Line:
The dark look of this one gave it away as a Texas whiskey immediately. I wouldn’t have bullseye’d it being Treaty Oak simply because it wasn’t that distinct. Overall, this was a pretty bold whiskey with a lot of oak and feels like it’d be a fine sipper over a lot of ice.
5. Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey — Taste 1
ABV: 45%
Average Price: $25
The Whiskey:
This is the whiskey that heralded a new era of bourbon in 1999. Famed Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee came out of retirement to create this bourbon to celebrate the renaming of the George T. Stagg distillery to Buffalo Trace when Sazerac bought the joint. The rest, as they say, is history — especially since this has become a touchstone bourbon for the brand.
Bottom Line:
This was so clearly Buffalo Trace Bourbon from the jump that there’s not much more to say. Use this for your favorite whiskey-forward cocktails.
4. Old Fourth Distillery Experimental Series Double Cask Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Ruby Port — Taste 6
ABV: 56%
Average Price: $124
The Whiskey:
This Georgia bottler uses MGP of Indiana whiskey. They transported the barrels down to Georgia where this whiskey was re-casked into Ruby Port casks for an additional 1 year and 10 months of aging before batching and bottling 100% as-is.
Bottom Line:
Again, this was fine. I certainly called it as a specially finished MGP. I wouldn’t have guessed it was bottled in Georgia. But that’s almost incidental to what’s actually in the bottle.
Overall, this was nice. But that price tag is, again, outrageous. You can almost get three bottles of Michter’s Small Batch Bourbon for that price.
3. New Riff Single Barrel Rye Kentucky Straight Whiskey — Taste 3
ABV: 53.75%
Average Price: $55
The Whiskey:
This whiskey from New Riff is a unique take on the style. The juice in the bottle is 100% American rye made with 95% classic rye and 5% malted rye. That mash is fermented and distilled before resting for several years in new oak. Once a single barrel hits the perfect spot, it’s bottled as-is one barrel at a time.
Bottom Line:
The 100% rye mash bill with a malted rye aspect gives this a mighty grass, herbal, and funky vibe that’s unique to any other rye out there. It’s also delicious. There are really only three or four distilleries doing that in Kentucky and only really two doing that this well. In this case, it was New Riff but Castle & Key’s rye is right there too.
In the end, this is a great sipper to have on hand to expand your rye whiskey knowledge and palate.
2. Balcones Peated Texas Single Malt Whisky — Taste 4
ABV: 59%
Average Price: $85
The Whiskey:
This peated Texas Single Malt Whisky is made with classic peated Scottish malts. The distillery imports very high-grade and heavily peated malts into Texas from Islay. They then ferment the mash and distill the whisky in Waco, Texas, before letting the whisky rest in their hot warehouses for a few years. The barrels are then batched to highlight the best of Scottish peated malt with the Texas distilleries signature profile.
Bottom Line:
No one is doing whisky like this in America besides Balcones. No one is really doing peated malt in America as well as Balcones either. So this was a super easy whisky to spot from a million miles away. Overall, this is a delicious example of how good American peated malt whisky can be. Pour this over one big rock, sip it slowly, and you’ll be in for a delicious treat.
1. Laphroaig Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky Single Cask Selection Cask Collector’s Edition 2 Pedro Ximénez — Taste 7
ABV: 60.4%
Average Price: $249
The Whiskey:
This brand-new edition of Laphroaig is part of the exclusive Cask Collectors series. In this case, a single cask of funky Laphroaig rested in Pedro Ximénez sherry hogshead casks (slightly larger than an average barrel). That whisky was bottled 100% as-is without proofing to highlight the beauty of the single cask of whisky.
Bottom Line:
First and foremost, this is a phenomenal pour of whisky. It’s a damn near perfect peated sipper as a neat pour and really shines over a single large cube. All of that aside, Laphroaig is so distinct as a brand that this was easy AF to nail in a double-blind tasting. Hell, I was even able to nail it as a PX sherry cask.
Part 3 — Final Thoughts on the Random Whiskeys
Luckily, nothing confused me on this panel. As mentioned above, that would have been super embarrassing. My editor swears he can confuse me but… we shall see.
What to keep in mind when building a palate and whiskey education is to find the nuance that makes a certain whiskey what it is. Every style, brand, and expression has something that makes it individual (to a degree). You have to build a catalog of those flavors, nuances, and textures to really know whiskey in a deep sense. Then you have to continually expand that catalog pretty much every single day of your life (I haven’t had a weekend off from tasting whiskey in, like… years).
When it comes to which of these whiskeys you should add to your collection, focus on the top three in the ranking. Yes, the Laphroaig is expensive but it’s a single bottling of a miracle cask. That’s worth the money. And since the Balcones and New Riff are local, the prices are fair for the beautiful whiskeys in those bottles.
