Balcones Big Baby

Nose is sweet, sticky, and kind of glorious; iced cinnamon roll, praline, French vanilla, toasted agave, cornbread, and a hint of wood smoke. Ethanol is low low low. Agave presence magnified as time passed. Wow, palate is wild. Caramel drizzled flan, buttered popcorn, agave, butterscotch, Bailey’s liquor, maple, and rock salt. Flavors have richness but there’s a lightness that keeps thing from getting too cloying. That said it’s not a complexity king. Finish is very long with vanilla ice cream, more butterscotch, even more caramel (this time in the form of straight up caramel syrup) black pepper, mint, roasted nut (pecan?) and a lingering oak note after everything else fades. One of the first Balcones products where the wood tastes like oak instead of mesquite. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, but smooth and silky. Slight effervescence on the finish which worked for me. Man if you love caramel, this is your jam. Bold, all over the place, and yet somehow it comes together. The corn/agave combination which makes zero sense on paper, works wonders in practice. Delicious and 100% unique which earns a few extra points in my book. At $90 I can easily justify a rebuy here. I need more hard to find Balcones expressions in my life.

N: Agave tinted vanilla and caramel, cooked vegetables, wet herbs, hint of oak, bit of tequila ethanol. P: Sweet corn, vanilla, caramel, oak, dash of cinnamon, some heat, subtle agave. F: Tequila, fresh veggies, oak, hot cinnamon candy, salted caramel. The tequila hits big on the nose, but soft on the palate, which leans more towards bourbon. That feels right to me. The finish has a good balance between the two. On the whole, this feels a little closer to a gimmick than a killer bottle for me (subjectively), but the craft and quality are there and this certainly deserves to be taken seriously as a whisky. And that's doubly true if you happen to love both bourbon and tequila. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/VSmCvzAQfH. We chat spirits (and other things) in real time while being a great resource to each other for recommendations, finding deals, and generally enjoying the journey together. (If the link is expired (it shouldn't be), please post a comment and I will gladly provide a new one.)

Straight corn whiskey aged 5 years in tequila barrels. On the nose, lime rind, saltwater, caramel corn. The palate brings salted caramel, smoked agave, slightly underripe watermelon, lemon meringue. Caramelized agave finish? I wasn't sure how much I liked this on the first couple pours, but it's really starting to work for me. It's a very different profile with the tequila flavors fairly prominent, but if you're patient with it, as the sweet corn flavors emerge it shows a really interesting balance with the salty vegetal tequila notes. At the price of $60 I think it's a good value for the unique flavors it offers. Also, 5 years in the Texas heat is a lot of age for a Balcones release.

my bottle says aged for at least 5 years so i think that and the tequila cask make this a level up from baby blue. Vanilla to start, then mild baking spice, tannic oak, mild caramel, slight oily, gritty corn sweetness. finish begins to show more tannin, spice but also the agave kicks in. There is a noticable agave syrup/roasted agave note thats able to be picked up along with dashes of that green agave herbality. All these tastings of texas whiskey make it hard to pick a fav!

Tried neat. On the nares it’s sweet with notes of vanilla, white chocolate, agave, maple syrup, funfetti cake with cream cheese frosting, cake batter!, candy corn. On the palate I wanted it to have every note I mentioned to the nares however, not quite. BUT on the palate it’s smooth and earthy with notes of vanilla cake and finishes like a smooth anejo and slightly harsher cristalino. I’m not mad at this pour.. very entertaining. @looneyhead

Sweet nose, candy-like; caramel, candy corn, corn, cotton candy, oak, tequila and white chocolate. Sweet and candy-like on the palate as well; strawberries and cream, caramel, white cake, vanilla, corn and reposado tequila. Lingering finish of tequila, pepper and cake. Very unusual profile. @twostal