Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey - 10 Year Old

Nose: It has a light nose with a decent amount of spice. And…..rubber tire. (Hmmm...). I also got some hints of minty chewing gum. Palate: There is an initial blast of spice and then it goes right into the finish. The finish is peppery and tingles on the tongue. There’s a bit of heat to it, but it isn’t unbearable and it doesn’t outlast the tongue tingle. The mouthfeel is watery. It leaves a little bit of an aftertaste in the back of the throat that is difficult to describe but it kinda feels like I swallowed a piece of wood and it got stuck in my throat. Comments: The “regular” version of Bulleit has been pretty consistently rated as a top bourbon in blind taste testings. They came out with their 10 year old in 2013 (man, has it been that long??). It is 91.2 proof. The mash bill is 68% corn, 28% rye and 4% malted barley. Bulleit was originally sourced from Four Roses but that may have changed. In addition, Internet sources say that Bulleit was scheduled to open their own distillery in 2016, but the Bulleit website makes no mention of this. You might be able to find this is in the (upper) $40 range. Total Wine advertises it at $53. This isn’t bad, but honestly, I’m not a big fan of this. It is very rye spice heavy, which isn’t awful, but that heavy pepper on the finish just kills it. And I generally like a little pepper flavor….emphasis on little. Both are so overpowering to me that I didn’t pick up any other subtle or nuanced flavors at all. Just spice and pepper. Usually, I like to think that 8-12 years is the “sweet spot” for bourbon, but in this case, I think the regular Bulleit is better and given the choice, I’d buy that….especially because of the price difference.