Roughstock Distillery Tasting Notes

Roughstock Montana Spring Wheat Whiskey 45%

Is made using locally grown white spring wheat. Double-distilled, it is finished for a few months in heavily toasted French oak.

Tasted: Jan 2018

Dark and wheaty aromas with hints of what feels-like oats and corn notes. Quite earthy and egdy with oily and slightly feinty spirit notes.

The palate is very oily and a little feinty with wheat and corn notes. Very subtly oaked and a bit simple with lingering cereal, violets and heavy oils. Personally I think it could have done with more than just a few months in oak!

 

Buffalo Trace Tasting Notes

W L Weller 7 year old 45%

Tasted: Oct 2009

Wonderfully bold and soft aromas of liquorice coated wheat and vanilla oak, supplemented with herbal spices and hints of violets and demerara. Relatively straightforward but it has a lovely depth. The palate opens with bitter oak followed by hard violet and liquorice encrusted wheat and spices. It settles down on the middle to display a touch of demerara, but the bitter oak theme continues. Quite a dry finish with charred oak and smoke and a pure sugar crystal after taste. Quite pleasant but could have done with a tad more sweetness to balance out the bitter oak.

W L Weller 12 year old 45%

Tasted: Nov 2008

An extremely intense nose. First up it’s the sweet vanilla oak, balanced by the sharp rye grains and lashings of bitter chocolate and coffee. Next in the olfactory rollercoaster ride are the wonderfully velvety soft wheat notes, which mingle delightfully with the vanilla, honey and clotted cream aromas. All finished off with an earthy notes.

The palate is soft and subtler than the nose. There’s more of a gentle kiss of soft wheat and vanilla oak followed by the piquant rye grains, which give it a lovely ‘bite’ on the middle. Good, faintly floral length with hints of coffee, marzipan and an earthy nuance. Obviously not quiet as complex as the William Larue cask strength bottling, but it’s wonderfully drinkable!

WL Weller 12 year old 45%

Dist: 1999 Btl: 2011

Re-Tasted: July 2013

I love this nose. It’s intense, dark and oily with lanolin, leather and toasted, dark wheat flakes along with edgy, oily spices and hints of sweet corn, spelt(?) like notes, liquorice, bitter dark chocolate and some subservient, sweet vanilla oak.

The palate is oily and leathery to begin with, followed by toasted wheat flakes and corn. The sweet, oily wheat builds along with the earthy spices. Very full and mouth coating with a slightly grainy, bitter coffee/ chocolate finish. All the while the oak sits plainly in the background. Very impressive

WL Weller 12 year old 45%

Re-Tasted: Apr 2014

Dark and wheaty aromas accented by hints of sweet, nutty oak, corn and just a smidge of spice. Quite earthy with hints of liquorice and orange conserve.

Smooth and wheaty on the palate with treacle, bitter spice and a touch of corn to add a smidge of sweetness. Really intense and spicy on the middle with the oak coming through adding a touch of vanilla and a light violet note appearing, but the finish is pure bitter 90% cocoa chocolate and woody spice.

William Larue Weller Wheat 12 year old 45% (121.9 proof)

Tasted: Aug 2008

An extremely intense nose. First up it’s the sweet vanilla oak, balanced superbly by the sharp rye grains and lashings of bitter chocolate and coffee. Next in the olfactory rollercoaster ride are the wonderfully velvety soft wheat notes, which mingle delightfully with the vanilla, honey and clotted cream aromas. All topped by an earthy note. The palate is soft and subtler than the nose. There’s more of a gentle kiss of soft wheat and vanilla oak followed by the piquant rye grains, which give it a lovely ‘bite’ on the middle. Good, faintly floral length with hints of coffee, marzipan and earthy nuance. Obviously not quiet as complex as the cask strength offering, but it’s wonderfully drinkable!

William Laurue Weller Wheat 15 year old (2005 Bottling) 60.9%

A blend of Kentucky Corn, North Dakota Wheat and North Dakota Malted Barley.

The initial nose impact is full of cotton candy and black walnuts. It develops into a luscious dried fruit sweetness that is in perfect harmony with soft vanilla, powdered sugar and cinnamon spices. On the palate it boom’s with an explosion of Bourbon flavours, oak and a beguiling smoky sweetness. It’s an uncompromisingly hearty dram, but the finish is fresh and invigorating.

William Larue Weller (2012 Bottling) 61.7%

Tasted: Dec 2012

Nose: Thick slabs of molassed peppery rye and powerful alcohol fumes greet the nose but it’s not one-dimensional as liquid coffee, lightly sugared raisinated fruit, violety/ petally marc and a light balsamic note appear. Water tames the alcohol allowing some light corn oils to wrap around some lightly sweetened orange marmalade and spicy rye. Deftly oaked with a lightly buttered French-ish character.

Palate: Quite soft to begin with some bitter chocolate coated dried fruit. Some lightly roasted coffee and spicy rye are stopped in their tracks by the rampant alcohol. Water makes the palate so luscious and harmonious. A serious mouthful of concentrated Armagnac-esque dried fruit with some light, peppery rye spices. Lightly oiled with a touch of Demerara coated rose petal marc.

Finish: Intense, bitter, alcoholic and spicy. Water lengthens and allows the lightly sweet oak to shine, and those spices! Yum! Seriously chocolatey!

Conclusion: Neat it’s a spicy monster and eye wateringly alcoholic. Diluted its sublime.

Bainbridge Distillery Tasting Notes

Bainbridge Battle Point 43%

Score: 8.4

Best Wheat Whiskey

Nose: Very creamy and corn fat with perfumed violets, sweet coffee, toffee and hints of earth and wheat/ bran flakes. Very buttery and toffee’d with time. (3.4)

Palate: Soft, toffee caramel, milk chocolate and….Ahh, here comes the rye! It builds with a lovely, herbal, youthful, woody, bitter intensity. (3.5)

Finish: Medium length. Quite sweet, toffee’d and creamy which balances the dry woodiness rather well. Pure butter-cream after-taste. (1.5)

Conclusion: It felt like it was going to be all sweet and toffee’d, but then the rye arrived to save the day!

Heaven Hill Tasting Notes

Burnheim Original Small Batch Wheat Whiskey 45%

Tasted: Aug 2010

A rich, sweet and smoky nose with that cotton candy/ candy floss wheat character, some chocolate orange and sweet coconut. Big, bold vanillins leading into burnt caramel. The rye grains add a late nip.

On the palate the oak sets out it’s stall with a definite toasty character along with candy floss and grippy rye building to a mouth watering mentholated finish with a pretty almost coastal finish,. Pleasant but lacks the complexity of say William Weller.

Bernheim Original Straight Wheat Whiskey 45%

Tasted: Mar 2012

Plenty of high toned grainy wheat with hints of burnt toffee’d corn. Big and weighty, this is a real slab of a nose, which is as far removed from subtly as it gets! Plus there’s no shortage of sweet oak vanillins.

The palate is soft and supple, opening with the burnt toffee’d corn and gentle (ish) spices. Again quite wheaty with just a hint of rye to balance. Dries towards the finish as the oak begins to bitter but some oild try to counter. Long with the rye now showing through adding crispness and making the finish feel a touch austere.

Bernheim Original Straight Wheat Whiskey 45%

Re-Tasted: Feb 2013

Nose: A big, sweet, syrupy corn nose with lots of oiled banana and a touch of burnt caramel.

Palate: A touch flabby and sweet, but with a pleasant depth of slightly burnt toffee corn, earth and light spices.

Finish: Good length, quite soft.

Conclusion: Soft, easy going, but a bit too heavy on the burnt toffee’d notes.

Bernheim Original Wheat Whisky 45%

Re-Tasted: Apr 2016

The nose is lightly balsamic and oily with a touch of dark wheat flakes, toasty oak and toasted caramel corn underneath. With time some sweeter corn notes and sweet vanilla emerge.

The palate is a little crisper and drier with wheat flakes, toasty oak and hints of oily corn. Plenty of sweet oak comes through on the middle with moist fruit and hints of violets. Long and returning crisp with a slight green nut saltiness and lingering vanilla.

Bernheim Original Straight Wheat Whiskey 7 year old 45%

51% Winter Wheat, 39% corn, 10% Malted Barley

Re- Tasted: Aug 2017

The nose is surprisingly clean with crushed, dark wheat flakes and hints of corn and spice. Pleasantly lacking the often found burnt caramel note. With time hints of charred wood, citrus and almost sherry-like spices.

The palate is soft and wheaty with a touch of cinnamon spice and soft vanilla. Hints of earth and edgier spices come through on the middle. Long and wheaty with lingering earthy, dark spice, tannin and a late subtle treacle note. The best balanced bottling of Bernheim I’ve tasted.