Hirsch Small Batch Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon

Nose: young (green is a good adjective) wood, vanilla, honey, caramel, spice Palate: oak (strongest), sweet corn and caramel, maple, cinnamon spice Finish: ends with a spicy orange citrus As is my favorite way to discover whisk(e)ys, I randomly picked up this bottle of Hirsch Small Batch off of the shelf. For the price point, I was very pleasantly surprised. On the nose, the ethanol smell is a little off-putting. However, once you get past that there are some beautiful notes that appear. However, many of these notes are pretty typical "bourbon" notes. It's the taste and the finish that truly make the bourbon enjoyable. On the palate, it's bitter at first but gives way to delightfully sweet notes. The finish completes the experience with a fiery burst of citrus that comes from deep in the throat. Overall, very much worth a try.

Nose - Definitely smells like a young bourbon. Has an ethanol smell, like very young whiskey aged in a young sapling/green oak barrel. Light hint of mint and eucalyptus, slight hint of vanilla, burnt sugar, and a faint hint of honey are also present. Taste - Hits the tongue with a boozy sweet corn taste, hint of vanilla, cinnamon spice and red hots. Faint bit of watered down honey and that's the extent of it. Finish - Has a nice warming sensation, but then immediately transitions to this "green" oaky bitterness like if you were to chew on a young oak twig. At the very end there's this slightly sweet, but bitter taste, almost like if you licked some heavily burnt sugar. 70/100

Tastes vanilla, light cinnamon and brown sugar up front. On the end is a wonderful more robust cinnamon and brown sugar with a slow burn.

Very laid back, lacking spice. But also an odd flavor I can't identify, that leads me to prefer Willets.

First taste was strong and fiery. After that very enjoyable. Had it neat. Good burn at the end.

Nose: apples, grass. Palate: brown sugar, barrel char, spices. Mellow finish. Very pleasant.