Tasting Notes

Producing WhiskyCast has given me the opportunity to taste some really amazing whiskies, and I’m pleased to share my tasting notes with you here. You can search my entire database of tasting notes from this page, and I hope you’ll find it useful.

Booker’s Rye

Country: USA

Region: Kentucky

Type: Rye

Bottler: Distiller

ABV: 68.1%

Score: 94 Points

Booker's Rye. Image courtesy Beam Suntory.This one-of-a-kind Rye whiskey comes from a special batch distilled from a unique mashbill created by the late Booker Noe in 2003, shortly before his death the following year, and is bottled at 68.1% ABV…uncut and unfiltered as Booker demanded it.

The nose is – as one might expect – spicy, with clove, cinnamon, hints of leather, molasses, honey, and charred oak in great balance. The taste is intense and powerful, and the only whiskies that can reasonably be compared to it in those terms are Buffalo Trace’s George T. Stagg Bourbons. There’s an excellent balance of intense clove, cinnamon, molasses, brown sugar, leather, and oak notes. Water tames the intensity, but not by much. The finish is long and aromatic with lingering spices and hints of caramel and fudge in the background. Wow! (May, 2016)