George Dickel Single Barrel

This was kind of an impulse buy. I saw a friend post his online and decided I wanted one too! This is a 17yo George Dickel Single Barrel store pick by Nashville Daily Spirits, barreled on Sep 11, 2003 and bottled "this summer" as I was told by the store employee who couldn't remember the month. This is bottle #173 at 100.8 proof. It does not say cask strength on the label but I looked it up and apparently it is cask strength. Being a hot, humid climate, I would expect this to be much higher proof. Maybe it was on a low floor in the warehouse?

Mashbill: 84% Corn, 8% Rye, 8% Malted Barley

Neat in a Glencairn.

Nose: Bold nose on chocolate, mocha, coffee beans, vanilla, dark berries, a slight nuttiness, oak, and caramel. Nice, bold, "bass." The discernable oaky-ness gives away that this is an older whiskey and is always a welcome part of these older vintages. Very solid nose with a lot of your typical Bourbon, errr, Tennessee Whiskey notes.

Palate: The palate takes a turn from the nose. Less coffee/chocolate and much more oak. Quite oaky, nutty, spicy, even a dill pickle note. When the fruits show up there is some dark cherry, vanilla, and if you look for it a bit of that chocolate/coffee comes back, but the palate is really dominated by oak and nut flavors.

Finish: Decently long finish mixing parts of the nose and the palate and leaving some things off. Towards the very end the dill pickle note becomes more prominent before leaving a nice oaky taste in your mouth and throat.

Overall: Excellent nose on this. Unfortunately the palate does not measure up to the nose. Dare I say, this was probably in the barrel for 1 or 2 years too long. The palate was very oaky to the point that it overtook some of the lovely things from the nose. Which if you really like older American whiskey (and don't want to pay over $100), this might be right up your alley. It's still good, the nose just hypes it up so much to where the palate just can't compete with it.

For perspective, if this were sitting on the shelf for $80 again, and there was a Knob Creek Single Barrell store pick sitting next to it for $50-60, I'm taking the Knob Creek all day. The age demands a price premium, whether the whiskey is actually better for it or not.