jack daniel's single barrel barrel proof

Nose Overripe banana funk, maple wood smoke and a hint of brown sugar. Bready richness balanced by subtle cinnamon.

Palate Wood smoke covers every taste bud, along with undertones of caramel, tobacco, and leather.

Finish The maple and brown sugar is dominant in the spicy swallow and the aftertaste. The heat seems to dissipate quickly and a delicate, black cherry adjacent sweetness lingers.

Notes This is the bottle that convinced me what Jack Daniel's is capable of. In my mind this is a graduation from the mass-produced, watered down poison that serves little purpose other than transporting friends from lucid to stumbling. What a maturation it is: This whiskey tastes aged, wise, and the high proof delivers an incredibly complex flavor profile. We still won't be lucid, to be clear, but what a refined way to make it there.

Story You remember a north Georgia summer breeze at dusk, barely enough burnt daylight left to climb into the hayloft of a barn that held nothing but a thousand memories. The ancient apple wood and wilted straw bales fill your nose. The ladder crumbles, it was sure to happen eventually. The pain is memorable instead of unpleasant. The suffocating heat is memorable instead of unpleasant. The stinging gnats are memorable instead of unpleasant. A brotherhood without blood capstoned by a panoramic thunderstorm, resounding echoes cascading across forgotten pastures. Far too much youth for southern whiskey. Character. Memories recognizable the moment they’re created, when tridents of lightning score across the sky.

music pairing josh mcbride by the head and the heart

score  84.3 / 100