Review: Eagle Rare 17 Year Old (2015 Release)
Category: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Origin: Buffalo Trace Distillery
Bottling: Official
ABV: 45%
Cost: £124.95 from Master of Malt [sold out]
Score: 85/100
What they say:
Eagle Rare Bourbon Whiskey is masterfully crafted and carefully aged for no less than ten years. Every barrel is discriminately selected to offer consistent flavor but with a seemingly individual personality. Eagle Rare is a bourbon that lives up to its name with its lofty, distinctive taste experience.
The nose is complex, with aromas of toffee, hints of orange peel, herbs, honey, leather and oak. The taste is bold, dry and delicate with notes of candied almonds and very rich cocoa. The finish is dry and lingering.
What I say:
The 4th expression in Drew Mayville’s master class was the 2015 edition Eagle Rare, released at 17 years old.
Colour:
Rich copper amber (12/20), slow medium-large droplet tears leave tapered legs
Nose:
Zesty orange peel, marmalade, demerara sugar, soft sugary fudge and toffee, butterscotch, maple syrup, vaniila bean pods and ginger, sweet and dramatic!
Taste:
Dolly mixture and jelly tot sweeties, fruit medley, apple, orange, cherry, melon, pear, zesty orange marmalade – rough-cut, cereal corn and wheat, sweet maple syrup
Finish:
Relatively short but sweet highland toffee, lightly polished oak wood and beeswax
Overall:
A much smoother dram this one, quite fruity and overwhelmingly toffee/sweet, more of an aperitif bourbon perhaps?
