My dumb review
Not sure why I'm doing this but I am I fact doing this. I'm not a professional taster or reviewer but I drink a lot of whiskey and figured it would share my thoughts on my haul. Went to Total wine and came back with a few bottle and here are four of them. Two on the lower end of the price range and two "mid" range( I guess that depends on your budget. These are a bit spendy for me)
First thing after pouring is noticing the color. Color doesn't mean flavor but it's interesting to note. The Double Oak certainly looks like it's gotten some color in it from the second barrel. EW is the second darkest maybe because of the "extra" age in oak as it claims on the side of the bottle. They don't really say how much extra time that is. Like an extra half hour, 3 years, what? Ever so slightly darker is the Willett. It's very close the the Royal Challenge which probably springs you to wonder why in the world would I mix a non bourbon whisky from India in this shoot out. Because I can. India actually makes from pretty good whisky, it's not bourbon but Amrut and Paul John both makes some very delicious pours. Royal Challenge is not that though. My old neighborhood liquor store used to stock this stuff for cheap so I've gone through a few bottles and just saw it on the shelf at Total wine so it went into the cart for nostalgia.
EW smells exactly like I remember it smelling like. Regrets. Just kidding I like EW. I get Leathery, sweet, vanilla, light Caramel smells. I keep wanting to smell wood but it's not quite there.
RC smells oddly sweet. Like a rum kinda. A cheap rum. I wish I had a solid work for what cheap booze smells like cause I would use it here. Also has an underlying vodka kinda smell to it as well.
Willett doesn't smell like a Goddamn thing. If I close my eyes and focus I can kinda sorta smell the glass and inside of it I can get a slight hint of a suggestion that there may or may not be bourbon inside. The least aromatic bourbon I've come across.
Woodford smells sweet in a good way. Caramel, light coffee, chocolate and butterscotch. This one smells like dessert. Really great smell. I wish I could get a candle that smells like this.
EW weighs in on the wallet at $9.99 from my local TW. I feel like you really get your money's worth from this bottle. Lightly sweet, fairly smooth, inoffensive brief flavor. This doesn't have a whole lot of depth. You didn't pay for depth. You only spent $9.99. It's not bad. It's $9.99 good. You'd be pissed if this was $39.99 though and you would be correct. Buy.
RC threw me for a loop. It's $16.99. It's way smoother than I thought it would be but I don't think that's enough to make up for the flavor. To be frank this doesn't taste like whisky. This tastes like regret. Not kidding this time. I wish I left this out of my cart and left my memories of drinking this shit back in the recesses of what's left of my mind. This isn't as bad as the Thai "whisky" I had in Thailand but it definitely reminds me of it. The real challenge will be finishing this bottle. Oh lawd don't buy.
Willett. Oh thank God, much better. Smooth and woody not super sweet almost savory but not really, very muted and subtle flavors but they are good. A little hot at the end, this bourbon has some character to it. I'm not sure I would pay 41.99 for another bottle of it because the character it does have is so watered down. I'm kind of let down by this. I've always been wanting to try this but I'm a sucker for weird bottle and know you usually don't get good returns on buying bourbon for its bottle. So I've avoided this for a long time and I think I should have continued to avoid this. It's not bad but it's not $41.99 good. I'd rather have four bottles of EW. The bottle I got does have a really nice cork pop noise to it. So that's nice. Don't buy.
Woodford Double Oak. Really wish I bought two of these. Really intense flavors initially hit your palate molasses coffee and then a pleasant aftertaste of vanilla. This is a dessert bourbon. Almost like an aged tropical rum meets whiskey. I mean that in a good way. This is a very distinct and different bourbon from others I've had and for only 1 dollar more than the Willett it's more than worth it in my opinion. I am looking forward to trying this in a Manhattan and old fashioned but mostly I'm wanting to drink more of the delicious nectar. This has a home on my shelf. Buy buy buy!!!
In summation I'm gonna drink the Royal Challenge as a punishment for wasting money on the Willett, Even Williams is my budget friendly buddy, the Willett I will pour for guests so I can look fancy, and the Double Oak I will save for a treat. Like once I've finished the Royal Challenge.
