Having tried the Small Batch and Straight Bourbon offerings from Smoke Wagon already, it was high time to get into some of this Uncut Unfiltered I keep seeing Aaron sampling with his ladle over a giant vat. I love the blending work this guy is doing and hope he can continue to hone his skills. I'm going into this one with a little bit of high expectations so let's see if this one can hang Amongst the Whiskey.
Company on Label: Nevada H&C Distilling Co
Whiskey Type: Bourbon
Mash Bill Percentages: 60% Corn, 36% Rye, 4% Malted Barley
Proof: 113.8°
Age: NAS (Blend of 4 to 12 year old bourbons)
Further identification: Batch 49, bottled March 13, 2021
Nose: Chocolate and caramel kind of resembling a milk dud. Light spiciness mixed well with vanilla forward sweetness. Peppery oak. Dust and orange peel zest. Slightly bitter like the pith of the orange too. Definitely mostly a powerful citrus that settles well into a base woody platform. Almost grapefruit but not quite. Some rosemary spice kisses the edges of the fragrant glass. Definitely smells older with some great earthy, rich cigar wrapper notes coming through. A tight grain dark wood note comes with it. Chocolate continues to swirl. Turning a bit creamy later in the glass, some lighter fruit sits well atop a dry pie crust note. Definitely feels like there is some heavy char to the oak now. Can almost smell the floating charcoal fragments I'm sure grace these vats of liquid. The longer this one sits the more apparent the oak influence has become. Turns very floral late in the glass - this one certainly benefitting from some air time. Some funk and pepper adds to the floral bouquet well. Really has a nice complexity to it late in the glass that I can appreciate. Just a touch of a copper metallic note shines through when I really dig. Empty glass is all chocolate and caramel.
Palate: First sip is a lovely dive into the land of syrupy cherry. A swirling spice takes a tour of the inside of my closed mouth. Plum stews into the lemon bite. Some light mint presents kind of like a mint chocolate chip (no ice cream). Woah now... Some larger sips are quite intense and you are certainly reminded this is up there in proof a bit. Really intense for only 113.8 proof, I'd have expected that last sip to be near 130. But with that came tons of great flavors... crushed cherry skins, a rich caramel, brown sugar, light vanilla bean, and the ever present twang of some citrus zest. Drinks a little hot at times I think when a dry cinnamon flashes into existence and pushes out through your nostrils. By the end of the pour things have certainly mellowed out a bit with the citrus melting into the caramel for a lovely combination. The cherry comes back around well and presents much sweeter than the tannic skins note from earlier in the glass. At the start of this pour I wasn't certain I was going to love this, but by the end of the glass I sure do! This is definitely one I see myself sipping slow on an evening when I get home a little later than usual from a hard days work. The caramel and citrus combination are the highlight of this pour.
Rating: 4/5
