J.P Wiser's 18 Year Old
Old, Sweet, and Fruity
0 377
Review by @Victor
- Nose20
- Taste20
- Finish18
- Balance19
- Overall77
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The reviewed bottle is # 0947 of 3500. All of Wiser's whiskies are distilled at the Hiram Walker & Sons Distillery in Windsor, Ontario.
Nose: sweet, fruity, as from wine finish or additives, some old oak present, and some spiciness, apparently from rye. This is mostly quite pleasant and would be quite a good nose except that there is also some industrial chemical smell here as well.
Taste: Very sweet, very fruity immediately. Unfortunately there is some unpleasant chemical taste also in the mix. There is significant sharply defined wood here, and definitely signficant sharply defined spice, tasting like rye, but the sweet fruitiness overpowers those flavours.
Finish: very sweet, very long, and unfortunately rather cloying.
Balance: I have been sampling this bottle repeatedly over 6 weeks time. At first I was furious with myself that I had bought it, because even though this has been aged 18 years, the sweet fruitiness here is way over the top, and is definitely not sufficiently balanced by an adequate level of wood flavours, spicy grain flavours, or alcohol astringency. This has significant spice and wood flavours, just not enough to balance the ridiculous level of sweetness offered. Worst of all this tastes to me to not have its sweetness come naturally from the wood, but instead to be the product of sweet additives. And then there is that chemical flavour lingering to accompany the good natural flavours. I like this a good deal better now than I did during my first 4-5 tastings of it the first week after I opened it. Still, this could be a much much better whisky if they would only tone down the fruity sweetness and get rid of those chemical overtones.
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Are there variations from bottle to bottle? Yes, there are variations from bottle to bottle, and sometimes those variations are very significant. I sampled some drams last night from a friend's bottle of Wiser's 18 yo which I liked much better than I like my own bottle of it. I would rate his bottle at 87/100. It was more focused, less overpoweringly sweet, less artificial tasting in its sweetness and not cloying in its sweetness, compared to mine. I would be happy to have my bottle taste just like that one. Sampled right now, my bottle is still too sweet for my taste, and the cloying quality is still there. The chemical/artificial element has diminished, so it has improved a little, now that the bottle has been open for about 5 months. Right now, I would give my reviewed bottle, above, a rating of 80. I only get cravings to drink from it out of curiosity to remind myself of its taste, and to continue to observe it for further migration in its flavours now that the bottle has been opened. I would be delighted if additional time would make its flavours more like my friend's bottle.