Rodney! You weren't involved in Caterpillar in some way, right? You know I love your docs, though I haven't had a chance to see Ghost Boy yet.

Palate: Big, hot, intensely flavorful. Cherry cough syrup, old oak, tons of wood-derived spice. Brown sugar cookie, cinnamon, chocolate and waves of pepper and chile-like heat. Strong sweetness, dried fruit and leather. Serious heat. Delicious, layered intensity. Huge bourbon.

1. George T. Stagg Bourbon 2025

Nose: Big, bold, oak driven and spicy. Old funky rickhouse oak, spiced cherry lozenge, hot cinnamon, brown sugar and nutmeg. Dark chocolate, roast and considerable ethanol.

Palate: Drinks easy, but deeply flavorful. Cherry jam, blackberry, vanilla cream, sweet barrel char. Slightly bitter smokiness and 90% cacao dark chocolate, into rickhouse funkiness, cigar wrapper and creeping tannin. A greater volume of flavor than the E.H. Taylor, more complex in general.

2. Eagle Rare 17 Year Bourbon 2025

Nose: A deeper combination of sweet and funky oakiness. Espresso, dark chocolate, toffee, black cherry, but more unexpectedly light florals dancing around as well. The sweet roast is great, but slightly muted overall.

Palate: Much sweeter than on the nose. Enveloping caramel and vanilla, strawberry, cherry. Liquid toffee candies, with cinnamon and swirls of rich chocolate. Decadent and desserty. Pretty tasty, all in all.

3. William Larue Weller 2025

Nose: Strawberry jam, toasted wheat, tobacco, slightly earthy, a little bit of smoke. Some clove and cinnamon as well. It’s actually more distinctly grainy than Weller nose tends to be, but gets sweeter and more caramelly with air.

Palate: Candied sweetness, with candy apple and brighter citrus, merging into spice. Pepper and especially anise, meeting more honeyed sweetness. Big mouthfeel and silky texture with long-lasting pepper, cocoa powder and some barrel char and dried herbs. Nice.

4. Thomas H. Handy Rye Whiskey

Nose: Toasted oak, cocoa, herbal rye. A greater sense of oakiness, but also some greater freshness. Big spearmint and a more grassy rye character, with lingering rye grain. Ethanol isn’t as big as you might expect.

Palate: Big rush of herbal and grassy rye on palate, greener tones, apple flesh, mint, then cinnamon and cardamom. Flashes of charred oak, but not as roasty as the others. Fairly well balanced, with lingering pepper and herbal rye finish. Like more than I often like Sazerac 18.

5. Sazerac 18 Year Rye Whiskey

Nose: Toasty, really evoking buttered rye bread with caraway seed. Pepper, toasted sugar, orchard fruit, glazed donut. Rye grain certainly expresses itself with a slightly malty sweetness.

Palate: Very smooth and slick texture. Bright fruitiness and more cooked dark fruit, but not quite as sweet as expected. Slight tartness. Cherry, toffee, charred oak, some modest roasty bitterness. Perhaps a tiny bit muted, but perfectly pleasant.

6. E.H. Taylor Bottled in Bond bourbon

Nose: Cherry pie, grape jelly and significant fruitiness, meeting halfway with sweet roast, dark chocolate and barrel char. A certain tart dimension to the fruitiness, but also some caramel candies and hints of leather. On the mild side.