We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special bulletin… A mystery tasting. A friend via SFWBSS group have mixed up their own version of a fancy bourbon/rye blend out of the following components and would like folks to evaluate his efforts. So I’ve got 6 samples… One of the blend, one is a mystery misdirection sample, and 4 are the components of the blend. My mission, which I have chosen to accept, is to review the samples and provide my own ratings. The sample bottles are numbered so I’ll be reviewing and guessing what they may be blindly, I’ll write the answers at the bottom once my review is finished and I will find out the results from the source. The samples, in no order are:
- George T. Stagg 2020, proof 130
- Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel, proof: 120-130
- Old Rip Van Winkle (Pappy 10) proof: 107
- Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13, proof 95.6
- The Blend of the 4 above, proof (given) ~116
- ??? Sample
Without trying to be apologetic, the samples aren’t that large and I’ll be trying to save a bit after the answers are revealed, so if I guess wildly wrong… Well, I’m blaming it on small sample size :).
Sample 1 (tasted first)
N: First thing that comes to mind with nose… is rye. Somewhat malty notes, with good chunk of eucalyptus and sandalwood.
P: Well balanced, not too sweet, surprisingly punchy on the alcohol without much to hide behind in there, yet not overwhelming on alcohol burn. Solid amount of wood spice and vanilla. Somewhat thin body.
A: More herbal eucalyptus notes, still not all that sweet, almost savoury-woody. Lasts for a very long time with wood notes lingering.
O: Little too woody without much body and sweetness to balance out those woody notes. Still quite delicious, especially in the aftertaste department, it’s not quite as sweet as I’d ideally wanted it to be. A note that this is different wood notes from say Old Ezra 7 but more of an aged wood furniture feeling rather than charcoal on the palate. While flavorful, the low proof (compared to others) is a suspect and likely the answer to what it may be
Score: B+ ; Guess: Van Winkle Rye 13
Sample 2 (tasted last)
N: Amazing nose… To me at least. Orchard fruits, with plums dominating. Wood and spices. Not too high on the alcohol though it is certainly felt. Tobacco and leather emerge after some time.
P: A bit of everything on the palate. Rye, eucalyptus, more plums, sugar, leather, burnt caramel. Almost borders on a mess, but a delicious mess it is. Layers and layers of flavor mostly work together, yet… perhaps too many flavors end up fighting with each other for dominance with no clear winner.
A: Amazing aftertaste that lasts and lasts with flavors galore… By far the best and longest-lasting of all tasted today. Oddly, reminds me of a better-balanced GTS ‘20 on the aftertaste which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Overall: By process of exclusion, this should be the final blend… But is it? I think it is… Assuming it is the blend… The amazing nose and phenomenal aftertaste are sadly let down by a somewhat unfocused palate that tries to do a little bit of everything and ends up being a master of none. For a blend of BT products this surprisingly does not taste like something out of BT stills. Purely on the palate, it’s likely a B+ material but the nose and the aftertaste push this into A-… I want to bottle that nose and especially the aftertaste, please, O.M.G!
Score A- ; Guess: The ‘Mister Steve’ Blend
Sample 3
N: Cologne. So much strong french classic cologne. Sandalwood and some cola. High alcohol. I can keep my nose in this one for quite a while… Until it’s singed by the alcohol.
P: Eucalyptus, cola, lots of wood, rye spices galore. Almost tannic and slightly overwhelming on the wood part. Really high proof.
A: The proof fades, leaving buckets of primary and secondary flavors. The aftertaste drop off is sudden and unfortunate.
Overall: Clearly a BT product this heavily reminds me of Stagg Jr 14 I have. I dislike being ‘certain’ in blind tasting, but I’m fairly sure that this is GTS ‘20. Reviewed here: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry201221-143911. I’ll be repeating the score. The minus on the grade is fairly large with this one as the flavor profile is delicious but not my favorite which makes it not quite the first thing I’d pick up to drink.
Score: A- ; Guess: George T. Stagg 2020
Sample 4
N: Spicy, woody. Cherry. Strong on the alcohol, but not overwhelming.
P: More stuff from the nose. Fantastically balanced. Very cherry and lots of wood. Suggestive of BT flavor profile.
A: Sweet, woody deliciousness. A fantastic aftertaste that gently fades after a while.
Overall: I like it. I like it a lot. It’s what I think good bourbon should taste like. One of the better exemplars of American whiskey I’ve had.
Score: A ; Guess: Old Rip Van Winkle
Sample 5
N: Woody with bit of everything on the nose. Reminds me somewhat of SAOS/MGP Plumpjack Pick smell.
P: Oh this is 100% MGP palate. Spicy, sweet, fresh. Woody. Great stuff.
A: Same as palate above, gently fading for a while.
Overall: I’ve reviewed Plumpjack SAOS here: https://www.aerin.or … y:entry200729-002755 and it’s arguably closest to it overall. With abundance of other SAOS bottles out there and perhaps knowing the tongue-in-cheek character of the provider of the samples; it could be SFWBSS SAOS pick or any number of others. IMHO… The provider of the samples should have stuck with BT theme to confuse the heck out of the guinea pigs tasters rather than provide an obvious giveaway… Nonetheless, I’m grateful for a delicious sample.
Score A- ; Guess: SAOS 5 year old MGP pick
Sample 6
N: Woody, cola, cologne again. Strongly suggesting BT product. Not too potent on alcohol burn yet still flexing its muscle. Solid amounts of… rye spice on the nose.
P: Very strong on alcohol. Yet, this still reminds me of Blanton’s if it was dialed to 11. Sweet vanilla fire basically… Some wood appears with time and balances it out decently well. Sweet vanilla BT fire suggest mash bill #2
A: Delicious and very classically BT aftertaste once alcohol fades a bit. This is palate-singeing initially, suggesting ~130 proof without much body to support it before it calms down.
Overall: I had to cut it with a few drops of water to make it not as fiery and it went full on delicious on me. Still, the balance is slightly off and I liked sample 4 more which is similar profile but waaay better balanced.
Score: B+ ; Guess: Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel
—
Nothing above this line will be changed, except to correct typos or grammar.
—
I was asked for tie-breaker ranking based on the blind results so…
In order of drinking preference: 4 > 3 > 2 > 5 > 1 > 6 though the differences in like/dislike are minor.
Answers vs Guesses:
- 2020 Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye — Guessed Correctly
- 2019 Bourye, 92 proof — Guessed Incorrectly
- Mister Steve Blend — Guessed Incorrectly
- 2020 Old Rip Van Winkle (Pappy 10) — Guessed Correctly
- Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel — Guessed Incorrectly (WHAT?!)
- 2020 George T. Stagg — Guessed Incorrectly
Re-tasting after knowing what each sample is…
1: 2020 VWFR Rye
Notes are consistent… Tasty and surprisingly active on the palate despite the proof. Too woody and not that interesting for a bottle but totally get a taste to check box it off…
Re-score: B+
2: 2019 Bourye, 92 proof
Does smell like a rye mixed with bourbon, which is why I thought it was the mystery blend. With the rye component not too sweet this could have been it. Other that it doesn’t taste like a BT product. Palate is a mess of flavors, not terrible by any means, but without direction it ends up unfocused. Man, that aftertaste is so good though. I think the giveaway here is the lower proof. Oh well. Still, I don’t mind drinking it.
Re-score: B+
3: Mister Steve
I’ll be frank… This is what GTS should taste like IMHO. Except it doesn’t… At least 2020 GTS doesn’t, but I not tried others. Perhaps 2019 with lower proof. The proof should have been a giveaway when compared to 130 proof monsters but I gave too much credit to my own resistance to high proofers and quality of the booze. Fantastic nose which is non-surprising due to rye and wheater. The palate is spicy mess sadly with what almost feels like MGP spice. Which in retrospect is coming from Blanton’s. It does taste higher proof than it is. Still really good and I prefer it to the #6 (GTS) while doing a side-by-side comparison.
Re-Score: A-
4: 2020 ORVW
Woody deliciousness on the nose but quite… subtle and almost gentle. Clearly a lower proof than the monsters… This is a fantastic pour. Cohesive, tasty and just overall great; this is the whole package.
Re-Score: A
5: Blanton’s SFTB
Very cherry on the nose. Totally not what I got out of it on initial pass. The palate is still a hot mess reminiscent of SAOS bottlings. The aftertaste redeems itself after the palate. I still like it, but it really is closer to MGP than to BT product. I’ve been told that this is one of the spicier Blanton barrels they had and that ’single cask disclaimer’ applies here, which makes sense…
Score: B+
6: 2020 GTS
Spun sugar and more sugar. For the interests of science dropped the proof on this a little bit with water. Nose is much less interesting that the #3 blend (of course due to rye influence). Concentrated woody, spicy dark caramels. Too woody and a little bit tannic for my tastes… I touched on this before… Don’t buy whole bottle… It’s good but it’s also too much. At the secondary pricing you’ll be disappointed. Nose the most outstanding quality here, with the rest is not being too exceptional.
Re-Score: B+
Re-shuffled preference order… Doesn’t count for overall ratings.
4 > 3 > 1 > 5 > 2 > 6
Reposting some of the text from the benefactor:
I put together 6 sets which each had 6 blind samples. Included was my Mister Steve blend and each of the individual components: Van Winkle Family Reserve 13yr Rye, George T Stagg, Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel, Old Rip Van Winkle 10yr. I also added in a unknown mystery blind to help throw people off when trying to ID or guess them. The outlier blind was the 2019 Bourye which I chose to add another lower proof whiskey to match the VWFR rye and also to get more rye in the mix.
I asked everyone who got the set to give me a ranking. Notes or scores weren’t required, but many included those. My goal was to find out what others thought of the blend stacked up against some tough competition, and ultimately learn if the blend was better than the individual components.
After getting everyone’s rankings back, I averaged the ranks across everyone and it was:
1. ORVW
2. Mister Steve
3. Blantons SFTB
4. Bourye
5. GTS
6. VWFR Rye
Very surprised to see this, but a few notes here. Mister Steve was mostly 2nd or 3rd. It never won, but never did poorly. ORVW was consistently a top finisher and was a clear cut number 1. VWFR Rye made One Person’s number 1 but everyone else had it ranked 4th or 5th. GTS was very surprising coming in so low, it was middle of the pack for some and dead last for several. The 2019 Bourye was a great pour, but I expected it to get killed here up against this competition. Very cool seeing it hold its own.
—
Scoring Breakdown: https://www.aerin.or … age=scores_breakdown