Sunday 24 December 2017

Ragtime Rye & Sonoma County Bourbon No.1 Reviews

Hi everyone,

Well I finally got to 50 American whiskey reviews! But at what cost I ask? What cost?!
Various low scores but also some great finds, and I have to say I am getting into this Bourbon/American whiskey thing and I’ll be hunting more down in the future.
While visiting San Diego recently I also bought my first bottle of Bourbon since Jim Beam White back when I was first starting out and went for Knob Creek 9 Single Barrel, being a pretty reasonable price.

Anyway,
I don’t know what part of the process this ‘burnt plastic’ note comes into some American whiskies but I rarely find it in Scotches. Particularly craft American whiskies seem to be affected.
Now, this could just be my palate finding some note that others get but aren’t put off by, but for me the smell of burnt plastic can really ruin a whisky.
Exhibit A:


Ragtime Rye 45.2%
Colour: Light Bronze
Body: Medium
Nose: Wine gums, clove and plastic, coriander, ginger and pepper. Quite spicy.
Taste: Spicy, nice arrival but then rubber and plastic, acrid burnt plastic.
Finish: Medium length. Black pepper and plastic.
3 years old, New York distillery. Hate these plastic-y whiskies, it just overwhelms everything else.
57/100

Sonoma County Bourbon 47.8%
Colour: Bronze
Body: Full
Nose: Even more acrid than the rye. Burnt plastic and clove, liquorice, coriander. Hard to get past the burnt plastic though.
Taste: Dry, clove, cardamom, coriander, spice box, rubbery oak and plastic. Then burnt plastic.
Finish: Medium length. Burnt plastic and some oak.
Not sure I agree with this Sonoma County stuff, the Rye was better IMO.
52/100

Thanks for reading!
Also, happy Christmas Eve everyone!

American Reviews #50-#51
Whisky Network Reviews #618-#619

American Average: 69.0
Network Average: 74.6
Best Score: 92
Worst Score: 22
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

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