Colonel E.H. Taylor Warehouse Liquors Single Barrel Select Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon

VITALS:

- $80

- 100 Proof

- NAS

- Barrel #035; Wrhs. H

- Kentucky

I've had plenty of store picks before, including E.H. Taylor picks. This one is a first, for me, having nothing to do with the whiskey. I bought this Warehouse Liquors Single Barrel Select back in 2021, and it's just like any other pick. What was a bit odd, however, is that Buffalo shipped all of the bottles for this Single Barrel pick in "Small Batch" tubes.

Of course, Gene at Warehouse Liquors caught this, and, rather than ship new tubes, apparently Buffalo Trace sent additional stickers to be applied to the outside of the Small Batch tubes, giving that necessary reassurance that this was, in fact, a single barrel pick.  In the end, tubes don't matter and the bottle was clearly and properly labeled.  But, it certainly was a fun little quirk with this particular bottling.  I think that's why it sat on my shelf for as long as it did before I finally got around to opening it.  I just liked having that little oddity.

No surprise here, but this was a delicious bourbon!  The nose was full of those traditional, Buffalo Trace Mashbill #1 aromas, including toffee and chocolate. It had a little bit of vanilla and a good cinnamon spice trailing behind everything.  These are consistently in my wheelhouse, and this bottle was no different.

When I took my first sip, the cinnamon spice was the first thing that I noticed up front. It was kind of a mix of baked cinnamon like you get on cinnamon rolls and cinnamon candy like redhots. It was very delicious! Interestingly, right behind that I got a decent oak note, adding a bit of tannic bitterness.  

Luckily, though, that bitterness was fleeting, and it made way for rich dark chocolate notes, as well as rich toffee notes. It wanted to be a sweet bourbon, but the spice, the oak, and the richness of those sweet notes seemed to keep it from going too far. 

There was a dark cherry, kind of a Maraschino cherry lurking behind everything.  That seemed to work incredibly well with the chocolate, providing a sort of cherry cordial quality.  It also had a sort of graham cracker note to it as well, again offering just a touch of sweetness without going too far.

On the finish it seemed that graham cracker note stuck around the longest.  The dark cherry note was there, and a bit of the toffee note as well. But that graham cracker, and even the dark chocolate note, were what really seemed to linger.  The spice that I got up front seemed to fade away fairly quickly after each sip.

The quirky tube is gone now, and, quite frankly, the bourbon in side was gone very quickly once I finally got around to opening it. This one checked a lot of the boxes of what I love about bourbon.  I almost don't want to throw my empties away (but I will because I'm not a hoarder).

Grade: A-

Hazelburn 9 Year Barolo Cask Matured Campbeltown Single Malt Scotch Whisky (2016)

VITALS:

- $132

- 115.8 Proof

- 9 Years

- Campbeltown

I have and will always have a soft spot for Campbeltown Scotches.  I don't know what it is about them.  I do love a good, smoky Scotch, but it seems that Campbeltown, whatever it is they're doing there, seems to find a great balance of peat smoke and salinity.  That's not to mention their (at least Springbank's) use of ex-wine casks seemingly to perfection.

Yet, even where peat is not involved, they still seem to nail it.  That's where the Hazelburn line comes in.  I honestly don't even know where I found this bottle.  If I had to guess, I'd say Warehouse Liquors in Chicago.  This was bottled in 2016, and I can assure you I hadn't been holding onto it that long.  I also can't say that I've had a whisky matured in Barolo wine casks before, so no matter what I knew this was going to be a treat.

The nose was full of a nice, malty backbone, kind of like a sweeter wheat bread. It had notes of salinity and even a little black pepper.  There were also some rich dark fruit notes. I got blackberry and even dark cherry at times.  I also got a bit of baked apple with cinnamon and nutmeg. It certainly smelled rich and lightly sweet.

On the first sip, I got that black pepper note right away on the tip of my tongue. I also got that bready note, as well as a bit of the rich dark fruit. However, it was more of a plum note, having that tangy bite that you get from plums.  There was also a fairly distinct tannic note to it, certainly coming from the wine casks.

As each sip lingered a bit more, some of the sweeter notes came through.  I did get a caramel apple note (kind of surprised by this one), adding some sweetness to the baked apple I was getting on the nose.  But it certainly never leaned too rich, rather relying on the rich, decadent notes from the Barolo casks to drive the bus. 

On the finish, there was a light pepperiness, but it was that baked apple and plum that really stuck around.  The taste that lingered was as though I had just finished a delicious pie, including some of the malt notes to provide a sort of pie crust flavor that stuck around, particularly on the tip of my tongue. It didn't come across as super viscous, but the finish was long and, quite frankly, my favorite part of the whole experience.

Grade: A-