Hypothesis Unclear
Barrell Craft Spirits' "Dovetail" series is an experimental line of blended releases featuring the same approach at slightly different proofs and formulations. This batch, bottled in February 2019, is a combination of 11 year old Tennessee bourbon finished in black strap rum casks and LBV Port pipes alongside 10 year old Indiana whiskey finished in Dunn Vineyards Napa Cabernet barrels. I'm a big fan of unique barrel finishes, so this one had me excited right away.
The nose has a nice sweetness to it, highlighting vanilla and toffee off the bat. However, if you linger it gives way to ethanol rather quickly. The palate is hot right out the gate, abandoning the promise of sweetness for immediate cinnamon spice, but with a little water it becomes more like pancakes and maple syrup. The long finish lingers, but at cask strength all it brings is the continued sensation of that burn from the palate. The water softens the finish back into that mild sweetness again.
There's very little complexity in this release when tasted neat, as the burn overpowers any other elements fairly easily, but it gets a little more interesting with water. Despite the promise of a unique barrel finish, this brings very little to the table that can't be found in dozens of other releases. Even though water can mellow out the burn, I found there wasn't all that unique of an experience was waiting underneath.
I generally love cask strength whiskies neat, but this one delivered nothing impressive on its own. Drink this one with water or skip it, because it doesn't produce anything notable on its own. Overall, it's not a bad whiskey, and it can even be good with a little water. However, I found myself utterly disappointed given my expectations. A lot of care went into blending all these unique elements from two differently finished whiskies, and the outcome just let me wanting more of a "wow" experience.
