Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
2014 BTAC Release
69.05% ABV
$80, but good luck
Color: Dark, deep russet brown.
Smell: Some serious alcohol heat invading my space. Beyond the initial nostril assault, there are a ton of leather, oak, and spice smells. Big-time notes of cinnamon and clove, and the underlying sweetness of brown sugar and maple syrup. Really nice, but very hot.
Taste: This is a big-time whiskey. Even if you're used to sipping things neat, this will come at your tongue and cheeks like an army of miniature soldiers wielding charred oak bayonets...in a good way. Very much in keeping with what the nose leads you to expect. There is a nice initial rush of sweetness before the burning spice box takes over mid-palate. Again, lots of leather and spice - cigar-like qualities. And the finish is basically endless, with all the oak influence you could hope for continuing to sting your cheeks for what feels like minutes after swallowing.Overall: I am really impressed with this bottle. I purchased this back in the fall, and have been tasting it every so often across the past couple of months. At first it was super harsh and pretty turpentine to my palate, but through some combination of my increasing tolerance for neat whiskey (most plausible) and bottle conditioning/oxygen interaction (maybe possible?), this is tasting wonderful to me now. It's not as fruity, silky, or nuanced as a few other things I've tasted coming out of Four Roses, but it packs a ton of traditional flavors (leather, oak, sweet vanilla, spice) in a ludicrously powerful barrel proof offering, and I highly recommend it. To my palate, it's a more refined version of Booker's (I realize Booker's varies bottle to bottle, but just picture that typical profile dialed up to an 11). Like the Eagle Rare I reviewed earlier, taste this if you can. It's not worth $500/bottle (which is what I've seen it for), but if you have a friend or a local bar that somehow got some, it's a must-taste.
What others have said:
Mike Flaminio at Whiskey Lately rated it 4.5/5.0:
- "Aroma: Dark fruits of raisin and figs. Old wood, wood polish. A little musty. Dark caramel. Deep, dark, and old. A little water brings out more lighter fruits and spices.
- Flavor: Lots of sweetness and alcohol heat up front. Fruity. Thick syrupy. Resiny wood and tannins make for a nice thick mouthfeel. Char lingers in the finish. With a little water I get a bunch more caramel, vanilla, and cinnamon spice up front that the heat may have been hiding along with chocolate and coffee. Still has some heat.
- Overall: So, I have no idea why I’m posting this review. Odds are if you’re interested in George T Stagg, you either will buy it on sight or can’t find it. What I may say here probably won’t persuade you and certainly won’t change your chances. But hey, I managed to get a bottle, so lets have some fun."
Richard Thomas at The Whiskey Reviewer rated it an A-:
- "The aroma is thick with caramel and dried, dark fruits like raisins and figs. Yet hand in hand is a balancing and quite crisp note of wood.The palate is where the big pay-off is with this bourbon. The liquid reveals more complexity, with a toasty oak underlaid by spices like ginger, cinnamon, cloves mixed into a concoction of vanilla syrup and chocolate syrup.The finish was a moderate one, and somewhat understated compared to that taste, but the warmth just goes on and on. This stuff will be perfect right between Thanksgiving and Christmas.So how does this Stagg measure up against past installments? Clearly, but only slightly better. They have all been “A-” bourbons for me thus far, but this one is a full point higher than the others."
- "The one you’ve been waiting for. The bruiser of the bunch. The hottest bourbon that isn’t named Pappy. It’s telling that the Stagg is set apart from the rest of the batch in the photo above, I think. This is a monster of a whiskey. Just look at the depth of color compared to the other whiskeys in that lineup — and remember, there are some 18+ year old whiskeys in there! As always, this is the kind of whiskey that, as grandma used to say, would put herr on yer chest, and at 138.1 proof it’s nearly a return to the heady days of 2012 and prior, when the whiskey regularly hit 70% alcohol. Fear not the water on this one — a selection of barrels from warehouses C, H, I, K, L, P, and Q distilled in 1998 (making it 16 years old). You can douse it 1:1, water to whiskey, and still get plenty of its character. And that would include tobacco, (very) dark chocolate, fresh roasted coffee bean, slate, and pencil lead. A smattering of spices arrive in time for the finish — cinnamon and cloves, the usual stuff — which help to season what is, as always, a dark, mammoth, brooding whiskey. This year, Buffalo Trace has just about nailed it. Stagg is always a tough nut to crack — and my palate tends to prefer more nuanced spirits — but the sheer depth of its flavor has me finding myself drawn more to this release than it has in recent years. A-"
