1792 Sweet Wheat

Nose: This has a light, sweet scent with bits of honey and citrus. Palate: This has a very rich, velvety and very pleasant mouthfeel and looks very oily in the glass. It starts out with a nice sweetness that has honey and molasses flavors. A second sip brings out cinnamon and raisins. The sweetness fades a bit in the mid palate and then get’s replaced in the finish with mild heat at the back of the throat, and dark chocolate, earthy and grainy flavors. It leaves a mild, bitter aftertaste. It seemed to mellow out a bit the longer it was in the glass and I liked later sips more than the first few. Comments: I like sweet and I like wheat but for some reason this strikes me as not quite hitting the mark. It isn’t bad and is very drinkable, but I felt a bit let down. I like the way it starts (as a very nice sweet sipper) but then I think the bitterness at the end overpowers all the nice stuff that came before it. This is 91.2 proof. I didn’t find a mashbill for this, but as you might expect, the Barton website does say that wheat is the secondary grain instead of rye. Barton also indicates that this is an 8 year old. This is in the mid $30 price range. Although that isn’t a lot to spend, I think that there are other better choices in the “wheated” world (e.g. Bernheim or Weller). This is a “limited edition" product, so finding it is also another issue. I had a hard time getting this bottle a few years ago when this came out and I’m not sure it came out more than once.