Heaven's Door Single Barrel Cask Strength Straight Bourbon

Neat. Neck pour. Gallenstein Selection 2. Big Bob Dylan fan but this is my first Heaven’s Door purchase. This single barrel is 21% Rye MGP! Going to guess between 4 to 5 years. So nothing too special, but it feels cool to have a Bob Dylan bottle I will actually enjoy. On the nose, honey, cornfield, hint of chocolate. This is probably closer to 4 years, it’s youthful. Not off putting but clearly youthful. Powdered sugar. Maybe there is some fruit but I feel like I am stretching to just find something else. Creamy mouthfeel, very very sweet first impression. Straight cane sugar sweetness. Yeah, the entire experience is over the top sweet. One of the sweetest MGPs I have ever had. It’s so sweet it puckers the lips. Lots of honey, vanilla syrup, caramel syrup (like the coffee kind), hint of chocolate. Candy corn. The youth (or rye) pops up on the finish and overwhelms on subsequent sips. Getting a nice cinnamon roll on subsequent sips now too. Happy to knock on this Heaven’s Door. Not a special MGP barrel, but unique due that over the top sweetness. The novelty is one and done for me unless these get a bit more age.

Liquor City Uncorked pick; "Gallenstein #4" Barrel No. 139 MGP sourced 75% corn / 21% rye / 4% malted barley Warehouse WG; Rick level 3-94-01 Char #3; Toast - Medium 57.05% abv; 114.1 proof Open 1 month Nose - Toasted marshmallow, caramel, maple candy, cinnamon, black cherry, buttercream, charred oak, and medium ethanol. Palate - Burnt cinnamon bun, toast, sweet grain, caramel, dry oak, and milk chocolate. Finish is medium-long with sharp oak tannins, burnt brisket glaze, cinnamon dust, maple, and medium ethanol. First time trying Heaven's Door, and it's solid. I can't find anything wrong with this other than a slightly drier than desired oak bitterness. There is nothing exceptional about this barrel. But, it is such a solid sipper that it's basically been my go-to bourbon for the last month. For $60 I can't complain. I'm interested in how this compares to their more common George Dickel sourced bottles.

I was excited to try this as the one I had was a Specs Barrel Pick. I tried this first neat in a glencairn glass (let it sit for 10min). The nose was oak, leather, tobacco and spice for me. It was really overpowering and I could get the proof from the nose also. The palate is the same with some lingering cinnamon. The finish was so strong in alcohol/proof that I wasn’t able to keep going. I’m a big fan of higher proof whiskeys but this was hot! I then decided to pour it into a glass with a cube of ice. Adding ice helped a ton to mellow it out. I then got way more cinnamon and caramel too. There’s still a long burn but it’s more tolerable. Overall, it was okay. Wasn’t what I hoped but still not bad. This one needed ice though for sure. Scale: 2.25

Barrel 28537 Proof 118.9 Bottle 110 The nose is very pleasant. Notes of vanilla, cherry, butterscotch and apple. The palate is very distant than the nose however, with heavy spice. Definitely on the spicy end of the spectrum. It's too bad because it hides much of the other flavors. For this there's a real lack of balance. Some fruit comes through for a split second with dark caramel. The spice and pepper just take over. It coats the mouth, and leaves a decent spice and dark fruit finish. It's a bit disappointing. The nose is really nice which gave me some high hopes for this one. It isn't bad for what it is. I might need to sit with this and maybe it will open up some.

Worldwide Wine & Spirits store pick. 127.4 proof. Glass: Glencairn, rested 15 minutes. Color: Medium amber. Nose: Vanilla and caramel with a strong almond/marzipan note. Some jammy fruits seem to be at play also, all nicely balanced. Palate: Thick mouthfeel with more almond and some oaky dryness. A bit of baking spice, but not too much. Finish: Medium heat that lasts for a long while. Splash: The oak and spice become more prominent with a couple of drops of water. Overall: 9/10 - This is a delicious bourbon that would hold up well to ice but would be a waste to mix into a cocktail. Heaven’s Door never fails to impress.

Plaza Liquor (KC) store pick,Barrel #168, 111proof- Candy corn with a slight alcohol burn, cardamom and a touch of nutmeg on the nose. Not much leg in the glass. The palate is heavy on brown sugar with cinnamon and pepper burn, a little pie dough and pit fruit. The pepper lingers a long while. My first draw out of the bottle was nice but not overly impressive. With some air, a few days later, it is much tastier. Not a stand out flavor profile, but the sweet brown sugar is striking. Ice tames the pepper to the point of non-existence and makes the brown sugar even more prominent. Definitely worth the asking price.