George Dickel No. 12

Tasting this neat from a NEAT tasting glass. I'm tasting this side by side with the Dickel 8 year bourbon. It almost doesn't make sense for there to be two whiskies that are so alike and separated by only a dollar or so in price in my market (Tampa). I liked the Dickel 8 Year Bourbon quite a bit, especially at its sub $25 price point. Let's see how this expression compares. On the nose the Dickel 12 comes out sweeter with creamy peanut butter, caramel and vanilla notes. There's a bit of a perfume note & a whiff of latex paint in the fading notes if you really get your nose in there. In comparison the 8 Yr has more of a cake frosting sugar note, but its met solidly with barrel char, vanilla and dry oak tannins. On the palate the 8 Yr opens on a sweet note with caramelized sugar and vanilla followed by baking spices with a warming finish. The 12 is less sharp in its introduction of barrel sugars, is softer all around in focus and is less complex. The 12 feels just a bit thinner while also being a bit more homogenous in its flavor profile. It's like a lens just slightly out of focus and I can't really pick apart any details in the flavor profile. It's very tasty, but not at all demanding. I've enjoyed about half the 12 so far. It makes a very nice Manhattan and an equally good Paper Plane. It's completely acceptable as a sipper. But for $1 less in my market the 8 Year Bourbon is the better buy and the more interesting expression. I doubt I'll replace this bottle when its finished, but I'll most definitely replace the 8 Year. George Dickel No. 12 is a solid Tennessee whiskey. It's easy to enjoy on its own or as a mixer. It's affordable. It's not demanding and is a good choice for a drinker with a less adventurous palate. It just seems to miss that little bit of sparkle.

I've reviewed this whisky once before, on April 8 of last year. A year later my notes are different, partly due, I'm sure, to the training of my palate over time, but also I'm sure partly due to the subjective nature of tasting whisky. I thought more highly of it then than I do now, but I had less experience then, and its fall in my estimation isn't due to the quality of the whisky, but rather to my having since discovered even better juice. The mash bill is 84% corn, 8% rye, and 8% barley. A fifth cost me $27.99 at Kelly Liquors (just a couple of dollars more than I got a fifth for at Total Wine a year ago, which is amazing considering that Total Wine is always cheaper, and prices have been going sky high since January of 2021). It's 90 proof whisky, there's no age statement (and the label doesn't call it straight whisky, so that aid to guessing the age is absent), and in the glass the color is dark gold. NOSE: Vanilla, pecans, honey, some kind of grain note that I can't be specific about, cinnamon, sweet corn, something earthy, peanuts, and puffed wheat. MOUTHFEEL: Silky TASTE: Honey, oak, cinnamon, charred wood (I expect from the Lincoln County process), black pepper, and pecans. FINISH: Medium in length, with only pecans and a little oak. SUMMARY: The taste is nowhere near as complex as the nose, but it is good. I especially enjoy the nuttiness of this whisky. This is the first whisky where I detected a nutty note (pecans in the finish), and although I've since detected nuts in other whiskies, this is still the nuttiest I've ever had. RATING: Good, which translates to 3.125 stars, or 6.25 out of 10/62.5 out of 100.

Mashbill #12, aged 6-8 years, bottled at 90 proof. Tasted neat. Color is a golden brown, with strong lingering legs on the glass. Viscous. Nose is sweet cherry fruit, brown sugar, and vanilla oak. In the mouth, tannic oak and char, burnt brown sugar over the top of fruit. Viscous mouthfeel. Spicy rye and baking spices comes through as this heads to the finish, which is long and warming (ethanol) with char smoke, grassy rye, and tanic valilla oak. Was impressed by this $23 bottle. I like it more than the 13 year old BIB Dickel at $45 that I tasted recently, and now side by side. This is sweeter, thicker, more complex all the way through to the finish, without the distinct sour flavor. I disagree with the Distiller Tasters' reviews of this and the 2008 13 y.o. that dropped in 2022. I feel like they have it backwards, but... that's the beauty of individual tastes...and maybe the benefit of the individualistic reviews that this site relies on. We all have different expectations going in, and different reactions to complex flavors on the fly. Not to mention the nostalgia-bias of a brand you drank in college in the 1970s. Such is life. So...try it yourself and make up your own mind. Heck, how wrong can you go for $23. Maybe I'm being too generous, but I think not--maybe too conservative.

With Joe Biden, the most popular president to ever exist, in the fairest election ever held in the history of time, we as Americans, all decided that, yes, we want things to suck more than before. So now we got what we all wanted and we are so happy. The bourbon world feels like its all adequately priced, now that our amazing politicians have put us all trillions more into debt so they can be more wealthy for our best interests. This means, happily, that prices on everything have gone up up up up and scarcity is widespread and yeah you gotta hand it to bourbon for being so ahead of its time. There are however a few pesky relics of the past still standing their ground and being fair and reasonable and just and keeping the value high and the cost low. The chief amongst these stalwart threats to our democracy is George Dickel. No doubt leading the charge on this radical viewpoint, it stubbornly remains the very best value in the bourbon world, especially with this offering. Its damn good too. So until we stamp out these last few terrorists you should get it while you can. Because America is building back better baby. Not better for us, just for the few at the top. And we are all apparently on board with that. Brandon For Life.

For the price this is great whisky - it drinks at least $5 more than I actually paid for it. I've had several tastes recently that greatly underwhelmed me, but this one exceeded my expectations - which were pretty high based on the No. 8. This is a nice, sweet, authoritative whisky that's liable to become one of my favorites. NOSE: Alcohol, corn, vanilla, fried bananas. TASTE: A generic sweetness, brown sugar, cinnamon, pie crust, and honey - it's like apple pie, except I didn't taste any apples. And I didn't detect any oak here, which surprised me; it also surprised me that I didn't mind, because I've come to enjoy some oak flavor. FINISH: Alcohol, spicy honey, and finally an oak that lingers and lingers.

On the nose: fresh cut apple slice, peanut, caramel, clean vanilla, medicinal cherry On the palate: caramel, vanilla, cherry, mint/mint tea, black licorice, herbal and that Flintstone vitamins note. On the finish: relative short and keeps the mix of sweet and bitter with an astringency to it. Overall: Polarizing for a reason. As someone who unironically ate conversation heart candies as a kid and loves black licorice, I really like this, but your mileage will definitely vary. Solid quality/price ratio is this kind of profile if your thing.