Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon Whiskey. Bardstown, Kentucky, USA. ABV: 47.00%. Tasted at Bobeche, $0 – courtesy of Joe the manager.
Colour: Burnt gold, like a creme brûlée.
Nose: A bit of oak, bit of sweetness (no doubt from the creme brûlée). Can smell a touch of coconut, not sure if that was because I was primed to look for it based on Joe’s comment about the nose.
Palate: A beautiful warm sweetness and spice. Not overly bourbon-like, very soft & smooth.
Finish: Quite a long finish, seems to gradually dissipate first from the back of the palate towards the front of the tongue. Fades to some soft liquorice flavours.
Comments: Definitely not your typical bourbon. If I’d been blindfolded and not told it was a bourbon, I probably would’ve picked it as a scotch whisky of some description (but with quite an unusual finish). Maybe says more about my unsophisticated palate than the whiskey. Fortunately my grammar is a little more sophisticated in being able to correctly use both “whisky” and “whiskey” in the same paragraph.
Hopefully my palate develops throughout the year so I can describe more than just the appropriate spelling of whisky/whiskey depending on which country it’s from. I can’t imagine grammatical pontification is going to make for a very entertaining whisky (or should that be whiskey?) blog…