Traverse City Whiskey Co. Pride Stores Single Barrel Select 10 Year Barrel Proof Straight Bourbon

VITALS:

- $80

- 112.3 Proof

- 10 Years

- Bottle #84/169

- Michigan/Indiana

Sometimes it amazes me what I find at some of the more random stops I make while searching out something new. Our local Pride gas station has a Pride Stores liquor store right next to it, and for a gas station liquor store, it has a great whiskey selection. In fact, they often get barrel picks and even had Greg Metze in for an event. 

One day while doing my usual perusal, I walked by a stack of boxes, and on top was this Traverse City Whiskey pick. I nearly walked right by it, except something about the label caught my eye. In the bottom left-hand corner was a hand-written note indicating that it was a 10 year old bourbon bottled at barrel strength. I second-guessed whether Traverse Cit Whiskey has even been around long enough to have 10 year old barrels, and the label doesn't indicate anywhere that it's sourced from MGP as I would have expected to find.  I've been told that it is, in fact, MGP, but I have not been able to verify that.

But, I was nonetheless excited to be able to get a 10-year barrel proof straight bourbon randomly at my local gas station liquor store, and I couldn't wait to give it a try.  The nose was really strong, and gave off a lot of nutty notes. I was getting pecan and salted peanuts (yes, two types of nuts!).  It also had a graham crackery note, kind of like a pie crust.  At times I also got salted caramel and milk chocolate. It was in many ways like a Snickers candy bar.

The flavor was equally robust, and on my first sip I immediately got a ton of caramel and cinnamon. It was a nice mix of sweet and spice, and the cinnamon seemed to add a bit of earthiness to the mix.  I also got a lot of nougat, again lending to that Snickers experience.  That nougat is what really carried through on the finish, a finish that seemed to last forever. I felt as though I had just had a 3 Muskateers bar after each swallow. The buttery texture really just seemed to coat the mouth in flavor with every sip.

Even the milk chocolate was present on the palate, but it certainly leaned heavier on the nougat and caramel side.  As I made my way to later pours, I noticed some brown sugar and even some Luxardo cherries in the mix, adding to the depth and complexity of the bourbon. It gave it a bit of an old-fashioned type flavor. The final couple pours sweetened up a bit, and I was getting notes of peanut brittle, with that delicious salty sweetness. 

This bourbon was in your face with flavor, was certainly on the sweeter side, but had enough other notes to keep the sweetness from being overwhelming. It was complex and interesting from the first pour to the last. Even with an $80 price tag, I may be going back to pick up another assuming there are still some left.

Grade: A

Larceny The Pride Stores Private Selection Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon

VITALS:
- $22
- 92 Proof
- approx. 7 yrs.
- Barrel Serial No. 6357515
- Kentucky

You know what's a nice surprise?  Getting home from wherever you've been (in this case I had to do a quick run to the office to grab some much needed supplies for working from home) and noticing that there's a new bottle on top of your fridge among the most recently poured bottles. Nobody told me this bottle was coming, nor did I immediately know where it came from.

I came to learn, though, that my father-in-law had bought a bottle himself (he was very pleased with the price point), really loved it, so he went back and grabbed one for me! Hooray for free whiskey! I've now had a few different picks from the Pride Stores, a liquor store in a strip mall next to a Pride gas station. I'm not sure their process for getting picks, whether they're being sent samples or simply provided whatever the distillery chooses. However, what I've had has been fairly solid.

This particular bottle proved to be no different. The nose was sweet and soft, like the smell of honey wheat bread. I also got a bit of sweet corn as well as a hint of molasses or maple syrup. It was certainly grain forward but not doubt had a bit of a sweet aroma.

That soft sweetness also carried over to the flavor. I got a kind of sweet but creamy or fatty note, almost like a honey butter flavor. This went incredibly well with the honey wheat bread note that also carried over from the nose.

I also got a lot of vanilla that for some reason I didn't get on the nose. It kind of underscored every other flavor. It added a sweet note, which  mixed with the other flavors I was getting to develop almost a butterscotch candy flavor. I also got cornbread notes at time, and those too were with that hit of vanilla as well, which was a bit of an odd combination.

Despite the lower proof, this bourbon had a nice, oily mouthfeel, which provided for a long, drawn out finish with butterscotch and caramel flavors seeming to linger for quite a while. In fact, the finish was what I enjoyed the most about this bottle, as it was just as good as any finish I've noticed in far more expensive and far higher proofed bourbons.

This was really a present surprise, particularly given where it came from, the proof, and of course the incredibly affordable price.

Grade: B+

Elijah Craig Small Batch The Pride Private Selection Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon

VITALS:
- $26
- 94 Proof
- Kentucky

I've never had a store pick of Elijah Craig before, but when I got the idea in mind to do an Elijah Craig tasting at work, I figured it would make a great addition to the tasting, and I knew where I could easily and quickly (not to mention cheaply) get my hands on one. It just so happened that it was at a gas station liquor store.  Or, to put it more accurately, at a liquor store adjacent to the gas station after which it's named.

At our tasting, which featured the normal small batch, this store pick, two versions of the barrel strength and the 18-year, this one seemed to fare pretty well. Overall it was well-accepted, and it realistically would probably have taken third place if we were keeping any kind of accurate score.

On the nose it's more or less what I expected from Elijah Craig. I got the traditional caramel and vanilla with only a light cinnamon and peppery spice. The alcohol, as expected, was minimal to non-existent, allowing the aroma to really take hold. It smelled sweet up front and gave a good indication of what was to come.

On the palate, that sweetness certainly carried over. The sweet caramel on the tip of the tongue was the first thing I noticed, and that eventually transformed to more of a burnt sugar flavor. It still had that sugary sweetness, but it also had that char note to tone down that sweetness jut a bit.

It also had a hint of dark fruit, like plum. I feel like when I get those dark fruit notes I always fall back on plum. Perhaps I need to eat more dark fruits to expand my palate a bit, but that's what I get. It wasn't dark cherry, or blackberry, but a more mellow and less berry flavor of plum.

The texture was more on the watery side, which was to be expected. What wasn't expected, however, was the silky feel that came along with. It had the mouthfeel of an aged Scotch, which tend to be lower in proof. It lacked the viscosity, but had a rare smoothness to it that I typically associate with more malt-forward whiskeys. This was a pleasant surprise.

Towards the end of the bottle, the vanilla really came to the forefront, mixing with a brown sugar sweetness that reminded me a bit of coffee cake. As is so often the case, I found those last few pours to be the best of the bunch.

This bottle was certainly better than the standard offering, and whoever is doing the selecting for The Pride did a pretty good job. It didn't blow my mind or anything, but given that it cause just as much as regular small batch, which itself is a great bourbon for the price, this one was really a no-brainer!

Grade: B+