Devils River Small Batch Bourbon

Tasting from a 50ml sample. This may take the cake for the most ghostly whiskey I've found yet. No age statement, sure, that's unfortunately standard practice now, but no idea where it's even from, either? But wait, we do know that this "Texas" bourbon is from somewhere in KY, sure, that makes sense. At this point, why even put a label on it at all? Kentucky should just start putting these young whiskeys in clear, plain glass bottles with a handwritten statement that says, "Guess, *******" and truly, people will still buy it. This is pretty light in color, which I expected. However, it even looks watery, but hopefully this is a factor of being so young. The scent does have a good handful of typical, standard bourbon (vanilla, rye spice, mild oak, etc), with a good balance, but again, very light overall. Every time I go back to the glass to refresh the scent, I get a very quick hint of something wet, earthy, and very shockingly unpleasant, but it fades into the above notes quickly, so I hope this doesn't stick around. The initial taste isn't really much, because the body is so light that most of the flavors take time to warm up. The first and only flavor I get initially is weak corn whiskey, with a slight hint of the earthy wetness from the smell. This is both boring and unpleasant, until the finish develops with some air, and some good rye spice starts kicking things up. At first, I thought this is where the good flavors would start appearing, but instead, the wet corn mash doesn't actually go away, and combined with the rye, just makes the previous taste seem spicy and harsh. As I try to move my gums about to see if anything else changes, the only new note I discover is a metallic tang, which I usually get from very low quality whiskeys or spirits from low quality stills. This finish continues, and unfortunately is only reset by a new taste, which only seems like a hostage situation to me. Okay yeah, this wasn't going to surprise me if it was bad, but the fact that it's bad AND chooses to hide behind so much smoke and mirror behavior is just shame on the whiskey community, and should cause any self-respecting dedicated consumer to want to shy away from the craft; I know that feeling.

I love this! The nose is exceptional. I didn't expect it to be so sweet and caramel-y with it being a Texas whiskey. Very smooth nose. I was initially a little let down by the taste because it felt like it didn't hold up to the nose. The palate is pretty strong, with some sweet notes. When you add a drop or two of water, the taste is a lot better in my opinion, I can imagine that this is really good on the rocks. It's not smooth, but it doesn't need to be, it gives you a very warm feeling and it coats the tongue nicely. I can imagine that I will like the rye even more than the bourbon. I almost feel like it kind of tastes more like a rye than a quintessential bourbon taste, and I'm totally fine with that. I bet it's a great old fashioned. Definitely want to buy a bottle of their rye.

A very young smelling whiskey with beautiful hints of caramel and toasted cereal, almost like a Honey Nut Cheerio. A weird hint of flour also raises in the nose. That same flour-y note comes out in the taste and finish. I may be the only person who's ever ate straight flour and enjoyed it, so this may be a very personal note. It's almost like a cake batter taste. I think I might be going insane. A little water made that flour note stronger but added a bit of oak. I really don't mind it at all, but I might be the only person who enjoys the taste of raw flour.

The nose is actually quite nice. Sweet butter, apple, a bit floral, and pepper. The flavor here is much to be desired. Sure, I didn't have high expectations going in, and there is little positive to come away with. Quite a bit of leather, some tobacco and oak. There's some slight green apple in the background. Some dark licorice and spearmint as well. The finish is a bit bitter and off-putting. I bought this in a taster, so I'm not exactly sure about the cost of a standard bottle. I knew it wasn't much going in. Still, there's much better cheap options.

I am not sure what magical energy I had during my last tasting to actually enjoy this. I don't like being harsh about whiskey usually, but man... this one's rough. A lot of strange vegetal notes on the nose with a hint of uncooked flour. It barely even smells like a whiskey to me, more like a tequila as another reviewer stated. Same flavors carry over into the tasting with a little bit of unpleasant spice on the finish. Diluting it down made it a bit more drinkable, but still very rough.

I have really drop my rating on this one on a second review. It’s extremely grainy it just offered  very little that was pleasing. The finish was very offputting, and any pleasantness that you might draw from some of the green notes were very one-dimensional, and I just struggle to find any Texas whiskeys that are worth my coin.