Old Dominick Bottled in Bond Straight Tennessee Whiskey

VITALS:

- $45

- 100 Proof

- 4 Years

- Batch No. 4

- Tennessee

It's kind of funny how I came into this bottle.  I don't know if I'd have ever gotten around to getting a bottle of Old Dominick myself. I've certainly seen it on shelves, but I knew very little about it, and so I frequently passed it over without a second thought.

But, for my birthday last year, my youngest wanted to get me a bottle of whiskey (of course with my money). So, I brought him to the liquor store and directed him to the bourbon aisle, where he proceeded to pick up bottles off the shelf at random and ask, "Have you had this one?"  After going through that process a few times, with my answer being "yes" each time, much to his dismay, he landed on Old Dominick. "As a matter of fact, no, I have not had that one!" And so it went in our basket, and he couldn't be out of that store fast enough. The lack of thought or consideration going into the pick aside, I was excited to try something new, something I might have never otherwise tried.

The nose gave off this great aroma of burnt sugar. It had a nice toasty note, along with a sweet, vanilla note, almost like a toasted marshmallow.  It also had a peanut note to it, that along with the burnt sugar created a sort of peanut brittle note that was absolutely delicious smelling. It did smell sweet, however, which made me a bit cautious.

As to flavor, however, it was not at all as sweet as the nose made it seem like it would be. I did get a sugary note, but it was more of a traditional, somewhat subdued brown sugar note. And, rather than the peanut brittle note, behind that was a lightly sweet cracker note, kind of like a graham cracker. 

On the back end I got that peanut note. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but that is the note that I really noticed on the finish, sticking around after everything else faded away. I also got some spice on the back end, like a light black pepper spice.

All in all, while the nose had me fearing that this would have a very sweet profile, that fear was unfounded. Unfortunately, though, it ended up that a bit of sweetness was what this was lacking. I didn't need all the sugar, but some of those marshmallow notes or peanut brittle notes might have really helped, as on its own this whiskey fell a bit flat.

Ultimately, I did find myself going back to this bottle when I made Old Fashioned's.  Not only is the proof right, but the flavor really lent well to the cocktail. That is not a knock on that that it'd be "good in cocktails," but rather praise that it does make for an enjoyable Old Fashioned.

Grade: B