Bulleit Bourbon

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whisky • american whiskey • bourbon

First review! How exciting. I’ve been interested in Bourbon for almost a year now, and I’m beginning to feel like I can start to meaningfully review stuff. I’ve been into beer for much longer, and that’s helped a little bit. I’m based in Norway so my access to good bourbon SUCKS, but these things find a way (it just costs a ton of money).

Anyway, my plan is to taste everything blind. I have a collection of 11 bottles, and a customised Master of Malt advent calendar awaiting me, so I will at least be able to do my first 35 reviews blind. I am also trying to exclude the notes that I find common to most bourbons, such as oak and vanilla, unless they are so prevalent that they warrant mentioning.

My setup for this is a trio-tasting. I get my girlfriend to pour small pours of 3 bourbons of her random choosing, and I taste them blind. After writing notes and a rating, the bourbons are revealed.

Bulleit Bourbon, 45% ABV

So, Bulleit! This was one of my first bourbons (along with Four Roses Yellow Label) after I really started paying attention, and it’s one of the easiest to get here in Norway. It’s cheap by Norwegian standards, and readily available, so it makes a good daily drinker—second perhaps to Four Roses Yellow (I guess a future blind tasting will reveal which one I actually like more!).

Source: Own bottle.
Price: 399 NOK/48 USD from Vinmonopolet
Setup: Blind in a trio tasting with EH Taylor Small Batch & Four Roses SiB
Drank: Neat, in a Glencairn. Rested 10 minutes.

Nose: Opens with pine, green thyme/dill, sawdust, following with some deeper salt licorice/dates notes. Out of the 3, this is the most candy-flavoured.
Palate: Kind of thin, notes of birch syrup.
Finish: Not super complex. Mild spice, some woody bitterness, caramel and floral thyme.
Overall: Sweet, floral, candy. Not overly complex. It’s drinkable.
Blind guess: Bulleit or Wild Turkey 101

Rating (given blind): 4

Thoughts: I’m pretty satisfied that my thoughts of this bourbon blind lined up pretty well with my opinion of it unblind. It’s a decent discount bourbon, and considering it’s usually one of four bourbons Norwegians have to choose from, that’s sometimes the best one can hope for.

Note on early reviews: This review was imported to my blog from reddit, and at the time I used a classic 5-score for rating. I’ve mapped these to the t8ke scale for the blog. Here is how they were mapped: 2.5=1, 2.75=2, 3=3, 3.25=4, 3.5=5, 3.75=5, 4=6, 4.25=7, 4.5=8, 4.75=9, 5=10.