American Whisky Review #46: Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star

This review was done blind, sample bottle was simply labelled as a “Peel to Reveal”

Distillery: Buffalo Trace

Region: Kentucky

Price: Courtesy of /u/TwiddleDD

ABV: 45.0%

Age: NAS

Color: 1.1, Burnished.

Nose: (according to the wife) Pears and caramel dominate the nose. There’s a little bit of plum wine (매실주/maesil-ju) as well.

Palate: Rather silky mouthfeel. It’s pretty sweet as well with a lot of the plum wine as well as some plum extract. There’s a bit of grain sweetness along with some sugar as well. Nice and delightful.

Finish: Medium in length. Bit more grain as well as some more sugar.

Guess: I’m thinking it’s a young, teenage Highland. This tasted a lot like Glenmorangie for me, fairly straight forward with a bit of fruit and sweetness.

Conclusion: Boy was I off the mark with that Glenmorangie guess; this had nothing that tipped me off to being a bourbon! The color is light enough to be a Scotch, it smells and tastes like a Scotch. It doesn’t even have any of that “bourbon” flavor that is present in just about every bourbon to a certain extend. I’ll have to keep an eye out for more of this as I definitely enjoyed this.

Final Score: 77.

American Whisky Review #46, Bourbon Review #33, Whisky Network Review #271

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.