Smooth Ambler Wheated Bourbon

Apart from a dram of Weller SR at a bar after an evening of drinking and serving beer, this is my first wheated bourbon. It will certainly be the first that I’m drinking analytically. So I guess this is where I find out if I like wheated stuff or not!

Source: Sample from Master of Malt.
Setup: Blind in a trio tasting with Michter's US*1 Straight Rye & Evan Williams SiB 2014
Drank: Neat, in a Glencairn. Rested 15 minutes.

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Nose: Rancid apple butter. Super musty. Wheat beer. Wet paper.
Palate: Hot! Is this young? Paper and popcorn on the palate.
Finish: Lingering taste of wheat and burnt corn. Finishes long, but I wish it wouldn’t.
Overall: Super weird wheaty/papery thing going on here. I don’t like it at all.
Blind guess: Something with wheat in it?

Rating (given blind): 2

Thoughts: Well, shit. I guess that means I don’t like wheated bourbon. Maybe it’s an acquired taste? This tasted sort of like someone had tipped bad wheat beer in my bourbon, I wasn’t a fan at all. That rancid wheaty note just took over everything, no nuance left. I don’t remember this at all in the Weller SR I tried, but I was not exactly being analytical when I tasted it. I think there’s more wheated stuff in this box of samples, so I’ll have to wait and see if there’s anything to change my mind.