Balcones Mirador Texas Single Malt

Batch: MIR22-1; Date: looks like 1.19.22 - the 22 is clear, good enough. N: Floral honey, vanilla, tropical fruit, light wood notes, apple, cranberry, and some of that classic Balcones pecan pie, maybe with a touch of sweet potato this time. P: Sweet, honey, floral notes, tropical fruit, some hot wood notes, a little bitterness, thin at the mid-palate, some red wine notes, touch of citrus, definitely a little bit of sweet potato pie. F: Slightly bitter, floral and fruity, some hot oak notes, hint of cinnamon. This is really a different profile for Balcones single malt - you expect some power, lots of sweetness, lots of malt, and some unique pecan pie notes. This leans more fruity and it's not the best I've had from Balcones. It's almost like a lighter Speyside or Highland scotch, except bottled at 53%. I don't think that ABV does this bottle favors. It adds some harshness that doesn't play well with the more delicate notes. Wonder how this would work at 46-47%. Might be interesting. It is also quite expensive for what it is. Hard to think about picking up another one, although I hear there's some significant batch variation. Good buzz for a batch might bring me back, but hard to imagine grabbing another of these at a markup over the regular Balcones single malt. ____________ Please come join an unofficial Distiller community on Discord (now one whole year old!): https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. 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 and usually quickly provide a new one.)

Nose is pungent and features ripe melon, apricot marmalade, bubblegum, peach, honey, vanilla, chocolate malt, rubber, and pear. Minimal ethanol presence, which is great. This is quite the departure for Balcones. Palate matches the nose almost precisely, with added flavors of cereal grains, and caramel drizzled flan. Flavors are rich and robust to the point of being mouth fatiguing so my review sized pour was definitely a little too much, but that’s a flaw I can live with. Finish is a delightful blend of caramel, butterscotch, vanilla, pineapple upside down cake, and chocolate. Very “ice cream sundae”. These notes coming out of the fruitiness of the nose and palate are both surprising and welcome. Finish is insanely long with the sweet notes eventually taking a turn into a spicy bloom with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of cherry wood. Mouthfeel is thick and chewy. A fruit forward Balcones? Magical! This is one of the best whiskeys in their portfolio along with being a total sleeper. My only real critique is that it’s not in any way subtle or refined and is probably best in smaller doses. “Isn’t that a good thing?” some would ask and to that I say; do you want to eat a piece of chocolate cake or the whole cake? That said, I can’t deny that this is quite delicious. At $79, I have no problem placing this in rebuy status.

OK blind Texas whisky, we’ll see if I can even review this here. Thanks to Matt – Whisky Crusader. Nose – apple cinnamon roll? It’s orchard fruit, it’s sweet, so sweet. Then there’s a nice spice. Very much an apple pie or cinnamon roll or some kind of nice smelling fruity dessert. Very lacking in oak or char or really anything. Ok it's opened up some and it's more honey sweet and more mellow with some vanilla. Less fruity sweet. Taste – what in the hell is this. Sweet and so familiar with a wine cask finish for sure. It’s apple pie and odd baking spices, some bitter notes, some herbal for sure, and perhaps some kind of jam or jelly, and I just want to say the jelly is kinda yellow orange….I don’t know the fruit but that’s the color. Well hot damn, now to score this. I know ZERO about this whisky. I assume it’s a single malt. I’m going with 3.25 stars guys. This is shockingly good. No clue on the price but I’d buy this up to 100 bucks and I might go more. One note this is 56.2 so it might be a special cask? No clue.

I am a huge fan of Balcones ,especially their single malts. The standard single malt is very good. The peated is absolutely fabulous and the Lineage is most likely my top vfm favorite period. Thus I am surprised this didnt completely work for me. It does have the trademark apricot/peachy notes and pot stilled character with some complexity. I just find it too hot. Now I love barrel proof whiskey so its not that I have issues with proof. Here the alcohol is always there reminding you its hot plus adding a touch of bitter astringency. Its detracting from the wonderful Balcones flavors that shine elsewhere. I mean the peated is higher proof but has none of these drawbacks. The lineage shares a lot of the tasting notes but is rounder and fuller at less than half the price. It isnt a total washout there is enough here to warrant a decent score but the price is untenable for repurchase imo. Maybe I got a bad bottle but that just sounds like a bullshit excuse we use when disappointed......80/100.......its good but I expected a 4 star+ whiskey

The last of the 4 Texas Whiskeys I tasted this weekend and wow - this one doesn't disappoint. It's amazing what this distillery can accomplish in such a short amount of time. This time the subtlety of this spirit sticks out. Where I normally look for the big and bold character out of Texas whiskeys - this is the opposite and amazing for it. The light fruits balance by a small amount of phenol is fantastic. Along the same lines as Glenfarclas. WELL DONE BALCONES! There is a reason why this distillery is one of the leaders in the craft distilling movement.

Bottle open date = 11/2/2020 Today's tasting date = 3/21/2021 Now open for apr. 5 months. Sorry to say this is my least favorite Balconies so far. While it has some likeable flavor profile I get a lot of alcohol burn even watered down to 92. I had high hopes with this one as I heard and see some high reviews but also see some polarising terrible reviews. This is a bit odd but in my case I will not be buying again. I think I have to attribute the poor review to poor casks used. Not terrible but not memorable for my palate at this time.