This blog is going to be a bit different than my usual review of a restaurant whiskey selection. Combining the factors of this being a crazy stressful week where I couldn’t get back to the place that was next up to review for a refresher and that today is my birthday, I thought I would change it up and do something I’ve been meaning to do for this blog since its inception instead of putting out a subpar review. So today, I’m going to be doing an official first draft of Fetter’s Favorite Whiskeys, the one section of my homepage that I created and haven’t flushed out yet. Once this post goes out, the list on the homepage will be updated to reflect the whiskeys discussed herein, and the homepage will finally be finished (at least for now, this is still a very rough product with much to improve upon from my view)!

This initial list will be short, but I think appropriately so. I will be giving a brief background of and flavor notes for my three absolute favorite whiskeys right now. These will not necessarily be available to everyone out there, but none of these whiskeys happen to be of the allocated or prohibitively expensive variety either, so hopefully they aren’t fully out of reach if you wish to seek them out. Of course, availability isn’t the point of this list; it’s simply my favorite whiskies. I’m just happy that my favorites happen to be renewable bottles instead of unicorns that will never grace my shelf again (RIP Ardbeg Dark Cove). And I think that’s one of the reasons they are currently my favorites. Beyond how amazing they taste, I can come back to them and restock them on my shelf rather than simply having a singular bottle to nurse and protect. They aren’t the easiest to find, nor the cheapest, but they are 100% worth it and I will always have these bottles in my collection if I can help it.

#3 Magnificent Beast – Jackalope from Crowded Barrel Distillery

This bottle could very well be my absolute favorite right now, but it is getting third in this list for a couple of reasons. For one, it is tied to a very special memory for me, which will automatically make it more favorable to me because of what it evokes emotionally for me when I break it out. Second, I actually don’t know how available it is, and I may be completely wrong in thinking I’ll be able to keep this stocked past my first bottle. Why? Well, Jackalope is a very special blended whiskey created by Daniel Whittington, the chancellor of Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas and the head of the Whiskey Academy there, which is where I got my Whiskey Sommelier certification. While the bottle says Blend No. 1, opening up the possibility of future blends, I’m not sure that Daniel will be a part of the Crowded Barrel Distillery in a production capacity moving forward, so this may be a one of a kind blend, although I hope that I am wrong.

This whiskey is a blend of Texas Malt and Light Whiskey from MGP in Indiana. Specifically, Daniel took Balcones Single Malt and Malt whiskey from Real Spirits, both aged for 3 years or less in Texas, and combined it with 15 year old light whiskey sourced from MGP. The result is something truly deserving of the title Magnificent Beast. Here are my notes:

The Jackrabbit starts on the nose very much as a single malt with lots of dusty barley and floral notes. A sweetness that originally made me think sweet fruit like a peach instead turned into more of a traditional corn sweetness with some earthy, honeyed undertones, almost like a honeysuckle. As you nose, a dried berry sweetness, bordering on a jammy note, comes out as well as a buttery caramel. It’s like a raisin quick bread with a caramel drizzle. The general barley aroma also breaks down into more specific notes as I nose it, particularly tobacco and dried wood chips. Some soft allspice is there as well. The palate is a burst of berries and cream that leads into a fresh wood and floral mid palate. The wood comes on strong, much stronger than in the nose. It’s almost like sucking on a wood popsicle stick. There’s a peppery note there, and the sweetness evolves into a nice almond sweetness that compliments the wood well. Barley again makes an appearance towards the finish, joining a more vegetal note. That earthy note comes out more in the front and mid palate as you sip more, but remains especially prominent in the linger, where it is accompanied by sweet berry notes. Just a magnificent dram of whiskey.

#2 Aberlour A’Bunadh from Aberlour

This is a whisky that I discovered on a lark, spotting it on the Scotch shelf of a Giant Eagle in Columbus, Ohio, and being interested in the sherry finish. I will admit now that I am a sucker for any whiskey finished in sherry, or any other type of wine barrels to be honest. And I was dead right with this one. I instantly fell in love with this dram and have been sad as it’s gotten more and more expensive over the years, but I still keep it on my shelf all the same. I’ll have to go get another bottle soon, as I finished off my current bottle to give these notes:

A nice pungent barley greets the nose with a hint of caramel in the background. Then the sherry takes over and gives a beautiful blanket of soft grapes and berries that sits on top of the nose. A hint of honey comes out as you keep nosing and maybe a little bit of the wood of the cask strength shows up as well, but the sherry is still the star of the show. The palate immediately opens up with sherry notes and punches you a bit with the proof. There’s a cream that brings you into the mid palate that meets a nice dusty barley along with a smooth wood tannin. The sherry note stays floating above everything and that proof never leaves either. The linger is sherry and barley, with a slight wood tannin sticking around in the back of the throat. It’s not overly complex, but the whole journey is so pleasantly wrapped in sherry sweetness that it just takes me to a happy place. I simply love a glass of this whiskey.

#1 Sherry Cask-Finished Bourbon from Middle West Spirits

Middle West Spirits is a fantastic little distillery situated In the heart of Columbus, Ohio. They’ve been making excellent and interesting spirits for over a decade now, and I was lucky enough to be on this particular bottle right from the jump. I found a bottle of the very first batch of this stuff in the campus liquor store of Ohio State University on High Street. It instantly blew me away and is still the only bottle that I have tried that I call a dessert bourbon. It really is delicious, and even as Middle West has undergone a brand refresh amidst their growth and expansion into a brand that can distribute its whiskey beyond the Buckeye state, this sherry finished bourbon stays true to what I found in the glass almost eight years ago in its very first batch:

A strong whiff of alcohol greets the nostrils and makes your hair stand on end from the proof before opening up. You quickly get plum and date notes with a nice wood spice supporting it. A slight baking spice like a cinnamon might also be present. A rich dark chocolate creeps in next and mixes in with the fruit notes. I get chocolate coated cherry, or maybe even something akin to dark chocolate Sno Caps. The baking spice becomes stronger as you keep nosing the glass. And that spice, mainly a mix of clove, cinnamon, and allspice, greets you on the palate when you first sip and stays with you throughout. A warm cherry and creamy milk chocolate lie underneath the spice at first, with the cherry coming on much stronger in the mid palate, joined by a strong wood spice that warms you and leads you into a decadent finish. Here is where the dark fruits come to play. Sugar plums and a rich dark chocolate give way into a deep tannic finish with a nice Kentucky hug from the proof. Lingering baking spices and cherry stay with you long after your last sip. A true dessert bourbon.