This is a deep, rich bourbon. The aroma is dark with molasses, Demerara syrup, and a bold fruitiness alternating between bright, fresh berries and fortified wine. As things open up, some crunchy toffee and pipe tobacco arrive.
If any tells you bourbon is too one dimensional, all vanilla and butterscotch, hand them this bottle. It’s a veritable fruit salad of flavor and aroma, kicking off with a rich, buttery nose of caramel-covered red apple, soft baking spice, and cocktail cherry.
It’s a whisky as impressive for its variety of flavors as for how those flavors develop. Even if I had Bill Gates’s bank account, I wouldn’t want to drink something like this all the time or casually when I did. I want to think that’s by design.
Share with Elijah Craig fans, golfing buddies, and Scottie Scheffler, who could probably use a pour or four right about now.
The aroma is warm, with savory notes of saddle leather, oak, dark caramel, and brown butter. The palate shows a bit more sweetness than the nose, but things still skew more toward the wood and spice corners of the flavor wheel.
When Heaven Hill added Bernheim Wheat Whiskey to its barrel-proof portfolio early last year, it filled a big market hole. Wheat whiskeys at any proof are rare, but this barrel-proof offering is the only one from a major brand like it.
The nose on this latest release is expressive and elegant, burly initially with damp oak and cigar box notes that quickly sweeten to cream soda, buttery cinnamon apples, and Little Debbie Oatmeal Pies.
The price point is nearly disqualifying. And I thought about it for quite a while. But it is an enjoyable older bourbon, and if you can manage to score a half ounce at whatever bar these end up at, it’s worth a try, if only to see what Dickel thinks deserves this price tag.
I might recommend making this your only pour of the night or at least your first. It’s a bourbon unlike most anything else on the shelves and requires, dare I say, deserves, some devoted attention.
Remus Gatsby Reserve leads with aromas of caramel, candied dark fruit and saddle leather, with slight brown sugar and very sweet candied notes.
