Review #109 Weller Special Reserve: Bourbon

Score: 7.8 / 10

Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery

Type: Wheated Kentucky Straight Bourbon

The Weller brand is one of the most popular brands and is currently boasted as one of the best whiskey brands around as of today. Although a highly allocated whiskey by Buffalo Trace (all products from here are allocated respectively) it will send you down a spiraling path. Once you get the Special Reserve it's all uphill from there.

William Larue Weller was a pioneer in wheated bourbon. Likely even the first to add wheat, but we all know how that marketing goes.... Generally my advice is that if you are a Maker's Mark guy (also wheated), you should try to snag this around the holidays. Please don't pay more than $30 for it though, because despite the hype and name it's really not that "Special" cough.

If you want to hear about the other Weller's check out the Po It Up Whiskey podcast episode 4 right here!

Whiskey Review:

Nose: Brown sugar and oranges / other citrus notes are immediately present. Burnt toast crusts (think bread loaf ends) and cinnamon appear on the backend.

Palate: Oranges, cinnamon, and citrus all translate well over to the palate. Oak begins to ramp up with a slight ethanol mixed in.

Finish: Medium-long finish. The ethanol begins to fade away, and changes to a ground cinnamon that lingers anywhere it touches in your mouth.

Score: 7.8

Scale:

S+ Sensational - The Pinnacle (9.5+)

A - AXEceptional (astounding) (9-9.5)

B - bravo (step aBove average) (8-8.9)

C - competent (7-7.9)

D - disappointing (6-6.9)

F - flush it down the toilet (fail) (5.9 below)

Availability? Uncommon. This has typically been harder to find as it does have that Weller name. You're not going to get it unless you are close to the holidays. Start looking at stores and local posts from around Thanksgiving - New Years. Warning! Not all states are created equal.