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Saturday, May 30, 2020

Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Straight Bourbon

VITALS:
- $55
- 115.2 Proof
- NAS
- Indiana/Nevada

Smoke Wagon has been getting a lot of love these days, at least in the blogs and Facebook groups that I've been following. And for good reason! So far I've tried their straight bourbon and their Desert Reserve 10 year bourbon, and both were pretty fantastic. The hype must have something to it.

So, I'd expect no less from their Uncut Unfiltered, which is essentially a cask strength, non-chill filtered version. It's got so many key words that make us bourbon dorks excited that I had to bring one home and try it. At first these flew off the shelves--I found this at a small gas station liquor store.  But now I see it sitting around pretty available with just a bit of effort and looking.

On the nose the first thing I noticed were baking spices. I got allspice and cardamom, as well as a slight anise. That anise flavor came across as somewhat of a dark cherry note at times. I also got a woody scent, like nutmeg, as well as more of a cinnamon-type spice, like cloves. In addition to this spice cabinet of flavors, I got something doughy and sweet, like some sort of caramel pastry. This was one of those whiskeys where the nose really had a lot going on, and at one point my wife was yelling at me, "Stop sniffing your whiskey, you weirdo!"

The flavor was absolutely delicious. It was very forward with notes of caramel and sweet cinnamon spice. It also had that same woody note that I got on the nose, a nice nutmeg flavor to counter the sweet caramel and cinnamon flavors. 

Dark cherry notes came through as well, but different from what I got on the nose.  They didn't lean anise, but rather the rich dark cherry that you'd find baked into a pie. 

I also got some fresh orange notes at times that really seemed to brighten up the flavor, particularly in the face of the decent burn and lingering warmth that this bourbon had. Don't get me wrong, though. That burn was not off-putting, but rather was welcome with all the other flavors going on here. 

And it certainly had that dessert-like quality to it. I got a distinct pie crust note, and all the other flavors seemed to mix together to give off a kind of peach pie vibe that was delicious, and matched very well with the consistent cinnamon note that I got throughout. I really enjoyed this bourbon and have been recommending it to anyone that has asked (and anyone that hasn't asked for that matter). This was an incredibly solid pour at a very reasonable price, and Smoke Wagon just continues to impress me.

Grade: A-

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