Finish: Gentle warmth, medium length, a touch more pepper and oak with vanilla, custard, almond paste, and more white chocolate with just a touch of sherry
Thoughts: If you like vanilla or white chocolate with a touch of fruit this will be the drink for you. Blended more for the average persons idea of a fancy whisky rather than a whisky snob, but still a good showing. Cut the price tag in half and it would be a great buy.
Distilled/Owned by: Jim Beam & Undisclosed Canadian Distiller(s) / Beam Suntory
Region: Kentucky & Canada
55.9% ABV
Aged For: NAS (Blend of 8, 13, and 40 Year whisky)
Mashbill: Undisclosed (Blend of Kentucky rye, Canadian rye, and Canadian Corn whisky)
Cask Type: Mix of new charred oak, re-charred barrels, and ex-bourbon casks
Chill Filtered: No
Color Added: No
Color: Golden
Drank: Neat, in a glencairn
Nose: Cinnamon rye spice, butterscotch, eucalyptus, vanilla syrup, lavender, caraway seeds, cracked corn, and caramel, the scent of alcohol lingers moderately in the background
Feel: Medium body
Taste: Cloves, tobacco, black pepper, rye, oak, cinnamon, toffee, butterscotch, herbal notes with perhaps cumin? Apple and VSOP brandy if I really focus on the fruit aspects. Bounces back and forth between sweet and spicy herbal.
Finish: Medium length and warmth. If the palate fought over spicy and sweet, sweet is winning now. Oak, vanilla, caramel, honey, butterscotch, and cream soda, with rye spice having a nice linger in the background.
Thoughts: I actually think Freddie made a decent blend here. The rye spices and sweet buttery flavors of old Canadian corn whisky pair nicely. The palate could have used a bit more body, and with most releases these days its priced $25 to $35 dollars over what it should be, but overall its something I think most fans of rye or bourbon would enjoy.
Taste: Vanilla, oak, sugar, honey, cinnamon, maple
Finish: Maple, butterscotch, cream, honey, pepper, and vanilla
Thoughts: There you go Crown, you can make a good whiskey! It’s on the sweet end, but the much-improved mouthfeel and robustness of higher proof address my beef with a lot of Canadian whiskey. Also the lack of filtration and additives help the flavor immensely.
Taste: Vanilla, oak, caramel, brown sugar, rum like, coconut
Finish: Light warmth and shorter finish, sweet caramel and vanilla, with coconut, rum, and confectionary sugar
Thoughts: There’s nothing offensive about this, its sweet, straightforward and an easy sipper. But this in no way warrants it’s limited release status and the price it is selling for. It’s an alright whiskey that was put in a sexy bottle and selling given the current state of the whiskey market.
