Coming back with another bourbon I figured I’d take a shot on after I found B3.5 to be rather unique. The name evokes pleasant images, but does seem like a hard one to live up to. Does it?
Rock Town 4, 2015 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society B3.7, Arkansas Bourbon, 58.7% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on June 19, 2015 and matured in a charred new oak barrel for 4 years yielding 195 bottles. Rather than getting a flavor profile that malt and grain whiskies get, this is part of the grey label spirits line named “Halloween night at the rodeo”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn, with water added later on.
Nose: Wood, molasses, root/birch beer. Water does give it a “Halloweeny” sweetness.
Taste: Spicy, sweet and bitter come in. A bit like candy corn, actually. Woody with water.
Finish: Medium-long. Rye bread into root beer. Much spice with water.
I like it similarly to B3.5 but it feels less unique to me, and lacks the musty quality I enjoyed most about it. Despite it being very hard to get to the nose through the ethanol, water did not really improve it. It was easier to nose, but less pleasant on the palate. Kudos on the cask selection for a Halloween release, as it did touch some notes thereabout.
I’m not the biggest bourbon fan in the world – I have a preference for the flavors from malted barley, particularly when it’s peated – but I’ve been known to enjoy it from time to time. Since it’s not my go to, I haven’t had much opportunity to try a lot of it beyond what people share with me or what a bartender poured when they ran out of the Laphroaig I ordered and thought it was a suitable/similar substitute. I’ve probably tried a dozen or two different ones and generally found them too sweet to truly enjoy but never so bad I couldn’t drink it. I was rarely paying much attention to them until an old school kind of bar had some and the bartender gave us a couple taste pours to decide which we wanted a glass of after enjoying our conversation with him about whisky. While I wasn’t foolish enough to think all bourbon literally tastes the same, the variety from those few sample pours surprised me (more than the variety, how much I liked a couple surprised me more). So between that experience and the descriptions given during the preview tasting for this cask I decided to go for it and try a bottle.
Rock Town 5, 2014 Vintage, Scotch Malt Whisky Society B3.5, Arkansas Bourbon, 59.8% ABV
Minutia: Distilled on May 1, 2014 from a mashbill of 82% Arkansas corn, 9% Arkansas wheat, and 9% malted barley, matured in a new American oak charred barrel for 5 years yielding 186 bottles. Rather than getting a flavor profile that malt and grain whiskies get, this is part of the grey label spirits line named “Bacon jam session”. Enjoyed neat in a glencairn.
Nose: Bitter, wood/spice, musty/dunnage, root beer. Water leaves very little in the nose.
Taste: Sweet and then spicy – very. Bitter, woody. Spiciness/heat toned down with water.
Finish: Bitter, rye bread. Quite long finish even after water.
While I’m quite experience with whisky, I wonder whether a relative inexperience with bourbon hinders my ability to precisely pick out flavors. Anyway, whisky style aside, this is one of the more unique whiskies I’ve had. Very little of this is what I imagine when I think “bourbon.” It’s there, but more than others I’ve had isn’t stuck in that bubble, and there’s a general flavor to it that’s not something I’ve come across yet in any whisky. I’m glad I went for a bottle, and it’s further opened me up to other bourbons, though I don’t think I’ll be diving to deep into that world (for a while, anyway).
Score: 81
Musical Evocation: John Frusciante – “The Past Recedes”
