Whiskey

Fun tasting with Penelope.

They don't distill themselves, so it's all in the casks and finish, which, to be honest, is where most of the flavor comes from anyway.

I do notice with a lot of these tastings that some of the cheaper expressions I find are the best outright. Here, I think the Wheated Bourbon, which sells for $40 at Total Wine, is a solid buy. The two other interesting ones were (1) the Rosé cask finish, which had a yeasty oloroso note to it (but I think I'd still prefer Sherry cask finished scotch like Dalmore) and (2) the 10-year high-rye bourbon, which is apparently impossible to find, but has nice rye baking spices to it like cloves and nutmeg with a good mouthfeel despite being 91 proof.

Overall, I think my standards for independent bottlers are higher ever since I was introduced to Lost Lantern. I'm looking for juice that's really differentiated and I'm not sure that's what they were going for here.