Southern Star Paragon Bottled in Bond Wheated Straight Bourbon

Note this is a neck pour. Off first scent I got a touch of pickles, no idea where that came from. The more I smell it, even taking it to my wife the note is still pickles. All my wife smells is bourbon. Idk. After the offputting smell of pickles, the taste on initial taste backs that up. After that there is a really nice corn sweetness that comes through. There is definitely a dill after taste through it though. The finish is right where I want it to be, present but not overwhelming. I want to remember that I shouldn't drink too much of it. Overall, I think after the pickles it could be a nice whiskey. I hope this is just due to it being a neck pour, but it is not my jam with the dill and pickle flavors. Will come back to this soon to see if after the neck pour its better. I let it sit a bit and with some air it started to develop or move past the Rick... there are almost reallt subtle floral notes behind it which were really pleasant.

This is a really nice bourbon. There are 3 Paragon bourbons and this is the middle priced on, Bottled in Bond (4yr). Nose neat has honey, oak and dill with that wheat sweetness. Palate offers oak, honey and chocolate. Adding a cube of ice brings out vanilla and Carmel in both the nose and palate but does make the whiskey taste thinner. Finish is long. The problem is this whiskey is just too expensive. It’s a local for me and I really like it, but it’s significantly overpriced. I’d really like to try the cask strength version, which is $10 more, but I’d have to think about it. There are a lot of excellent bourbons for less than $70. Still, this is a really solid bourbon.

Part of a virtual tasting with Southern Distilling **this should be labeled as Paragon Bottled in Bond Nose - Sweet grain and grass, vanilla, Cherry Coke, caramel, butterscotch, cinnamon, allspice, toasted oak, and light ethanol. Palate - Honeycomb, artificial cherry vanilla flavoring, cinnamon stick, cardamon, clove, and toasted marshmallow. Finish is medium with dry cinnamon powder, oak tannins, caramel, vanilla bean, and light ethanol. Much, much better than the previous two samples. This wheated BiB is something I would buy and competes favorably with other wheated bourbons.

Nose: Caramel, fruit, oak, hint of pepper Palate: Caramel and vanilla transitions to oak and baking spices Finish: Short, sweet and spice profile On the second time around on this one, I looked at the wheated 70/16/14 mashbill, I couldn't help but think about comparing this to Maker's Mark, another wheated bourbon with the exact same mashbill. If you like Maker's- you will LOVE Southern Star Paragon Bottled-In-Bond. It's in the same profile but Southern Star hits harder with the softer caramels and vanilla. Safe to say my opinion has increased on the revisit.

Nose 4.5 / Palate 4 / Finish 4 - Total 4.25 Nose is aromatic and very sweet. The wheat is evident. Lots of caramel. Palate is more of the same, with a bit of heat building through the back end. Finish is medium-short length, with a bit of heat on top of the same caramel sweetness. Overall, maybe not a very complex bourbon, but one that is very well-done. Either this or its Cask Strength version is the best NC-distilled bourbon that I have tasted.

Nose: Buttery caramel, vanilla, baking spices, and oak with a hint of pepper Palate: Vanilla forward throughout Finish: Transitions to a short finish with some lingering spice and sweet vanilla A great example of craft bourbon done right. The softer, sweeter profile fits right at home as a wheated bourbon. As a bottled-in-bond release, I think this holds its own to similar bourbons from the larger distilleries.