Fistful of Bourbon Blended Straight Bourbon

VITALS:

- $35

- 90 Proof

- Min. 2 years

- Kentucky

This is a bottle that I grabbed out of pure curiosity. I've seen it posted here and there in social media, but it's not as though it carried any sort of demand, nor were people hyping it or anything like that. But when you see a bottle like this with a label like this, you remember it. I never went actively looking for the bottle, and I had never seen it on the shelves at my usual haunts. I figured perhaps it just got limited to no distribution in Illinois.

But, when making a trip to Warehouse Liquors in Chicago, something I don't get to do nearly as often as I used to since I've been primarily working from home, I looked down on the bottom shelf and saw the fun, whimsical label, checked the very reasonable price, and figured what the hell, I'll give it a go.

This is a blended bourbon from William Grant & Sons, a company I've only known for their Scotch and Irish whisky brands. That being said, they're certainly a known entity.  Right on the front of the bottle they state that this is a blend of five straight bourbons (each with a unique characteristic according to the back label), with a minimum age of two years. Interestingly, it does not tell us where the whiskey was distilled, only that it was "produced" by William Grant & Sons in New York. 

On the nose I got a soft candy corn aroma, certainly sweet but not in that traditional caramel/toffee manner. It also came across as somewhat grainy, but softer and not so offensive, more like oats than corn. It also gave off notes of pie crust and even had a light cinnamon spice to it. But in the end, it was a soft and sweet nose, which certainly invited me to take a sip.

As to flavor, where I didn't get the corn on the nose, I certainly got it on the palate. The first note that I wrote down was canned corn. I got a distinct corn flavor, and specifically canned corn, as weird as that may seem. It's a familiar flavor, and once I noticed it I couldn't not notice it.

I did get other flavors as well, though. I got an apple sauce note, along with just a touch of cinnamon, just enough to provide the lightest bit of sweet spice. As I made my way into later pours, however, this spice seemed to transform a bit, and it became more of a vegetal spice. I was getting kind of a chili pepper spice from it, but more like fresh chili peppers. There was also a sort of chocolate flavor that accompanied it, which reminded me a bit (just a bit) of Mexican chocolate.

On the final few pours, it came across a bit nutty, like walnut, and the spiciness seemed to have died off a bit. At least the chili pepper spice, while not necessarily great, was interesting. For that reason I wished it had stuck around. Nonetheless, while in the end this struck me as just an okay bourbon, it was fun to try and the price was right. It had some interesting notes that may appeal to others where it did not appeal to me, so for the price it's probably worth at least a try.

Grade: C+