Cadenheads Small Batch A Tennessee Distillery 16 Year Old Cask Strength Tennessee Whisky (700ml)

Indie bottlings from the US usually offer something special. This selection (rumoured to be a George Dickel) from UK's Cadenheads was drawn from two barrels yielding 282 bottles. Their tasting notes describe aromas and flavours of "Smokey oak, maple syrup, thick treacle, lots of vanilla, cigar box and honeycombe sweets with more wood smoke and nougat coming through at the finish". Why do we think it's a Dickel? The clue is in the spelling of 'whisky'. Where JD include the 'e', Dickel do not.

Other reviews… Good, let’s be an a****le for a minute. They state ‘bourbon’ as the wood type, but can it be bourbon since they’re only allowed to fill new oak? Can some bourbon (including Tennessee) be ex-bourbon? Good, stupid moment over… Oh and yes this is Dickel. Colour: amber. Nose: almost luxurious, extremely soft and caramelly, full of popcorn and gingerbread, maize syrup, Cointreau, praline and nougat, then dried coconut, which might be a tad excessive. Mouth: very easy and soft, sweet, on coconut balls, vanilla, preserved apricots, candyfloss and white chocolate. Tends to go towards café latte too. Drops of Cointreau once again, sweet rye bread, then cocoa powder. Finish: rather long, pleasantly dry. Some marmalade and a touch of lavender and caraway in the aftertaste. Comments: very good too. Rather fascinating to be able to compare these babies, thank you Cadenhead! Am I getting American? PS: looks like once a barrel's left the US, you could indeed do whatever you like with it, including finish it in Port (!) while keeping naming it Bourbon or even Kentucky straight Bourbon, as for example Angel's Envy just did. Thanks Steve U.
86 points - Serge Valentin, whiskyfun.com