**Reviews #6 - #15: Rittenhouse 25, Willett 21 year bourbon #C2D "Wheated Patriot, Vintage 21 year Rye, 2002 Eagle Rare 17, 2010 Thomas H Handy, 2005 William Larue Weller, Four Roses 2009 Limited Edition Single Barrel, Willett 21 year bourbon #1336 "Wheated Warrior", Parkers Heritage 27 year, Willet 8 year bourbon #384
There are nights when one plans to just enjoy one nice pour and follow it up with some cocktails to round out the evening while hanging with close friends. Well, this past Saturday it didn't turn out to be that and morphed into "I have no idea how the f*ck we got to this point" kind of night. I'm definitely happy to knock off some whiskey tastings from my bucket list to try, but my wallet took a beating and I'll need some time to recover. My notes will be a bit more brief than my sit downs at home and reviewed in the order of how the tastings progressed through the night.
Review #6: Rittenhouse 25 year Rye
This is my second time enjoying Rittenhouse 25 year rye and my opinion has not changed. It's ridiculously good to me. I've never had the opportunity to try some of Doug's Willett picks, Rathskeller, Lenell's... etc and the next most hyped aged rye I've tried is the Willett 24/94 and Rittenhouse 21 year. This 25 bests both of those easily in my book. The nose is a combination of rye spice, maple and oak. A perfect balance for me. The taste was similar with none of that old herbal funkiness you get from the Willett 25 year GS ryes and Hirsch 22 year Rye. Again, a brilliant combination of rye whiskey flavor that's not overwhelmed by oak... it's spiced and perfectly integrated together. This is a single barrel product, and the one I tasted is barrel 25 bottle 5. Whiskey is bottled at 100 proof.
Grade: A+
Review #7: Willett 21 year bourbon #C2D "Wheated Patriot"
I read this was hand-selected by the Lock & Key Society and sold through Julio's Liquors in Massachusetts. Distilled on 04/06/93 and bottled on 11/12/2014 this is presumed to be Old Bernheim whiskey. Barrel yield of 98 bottles and bottled at 141.6 proof. The nose is actually quite strong, I didn't enjoy taking deep whiffs of it, but if you nosed it lightly I got some sweet maple and candied sweetness you get from excellent wheated bourbons. The taste was the strong point for me, the typical aged caramel and vanilla are there but notes of plums, raspberries and cinnamon continued to all blend together at the same time. Quite complex. Without water, there was a bit of a peppery finish but some water opened up both the nose and palate. The oak was not overbearing and offered the usual dry tannins associated with hyper aged bourbons.
Grade: A