No Mom, I Don’t Have a Drinking Problem: Eagle Rare 10 Year
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Picture this: It’s a brisk October night. You’re outside with your roommate at a table you found on the side of the road. Life is complicated outside the confines of your backyard, but inside, you’re free to talk about what matters. The passage of time. Love. The texture of food in your mouth when you’re hammered. How you wish your fifth roommate lived with you even though you wouldn’t have a living room because of it (which is also a subtle dig at the human condition during COVID-19 times, but that’s neither here nor there). The point is as follows: Life is simple when you’re just two guys, relaxed in your chilly but comforting back yard in a place you can sort of call home, but are also constantly wary of because you’ve both had rats crawl over your toes in that space. This is where my second review takes place.
I’m not going to claim I’ve never drank Eagle Rare before. It’s my favorite bourbon among the three I’ve had (Larceny is trash and I will hopefully review it at some point). That said, I tried my very damn hardest to get the important stuff done before the smell of weed that someone nearby was smoking interfered with the smell of the bourbon (spoiler alert: I got it done because I love you guys and I take pride in my craft).
Nose:
- Whew! That sure is bourbon!
- Kind of sweet, as far as a high proof alcohol can be
- Fruity???
- Vague note of caramel
- Wow, you can definitely tell this is 90 proof
Palate:
- Fairly sweet
- Vague hint of caramel (I know! All this talk of how I’m just gonna say all whiskey tastes like whiskey and yet here I am!)
- Yep, that’s definitely bourbon
- Shockingly smooth tbh
- Very soft in mouth. I don’t really know how to describe the texture, but it didn’t feel like I was holding something caustic or poisonous in my mouth like some higher proof liquors do
- Viscous. Not like, noticeably so, but definitely thicker than water. I’m pretty sure there’s a saying about this (Blood is thicker than water is bullshit, but bourbon is thicker than water could have some truth to it! Maybe at the end of the day, the drinks were just the friends we made along the way… Wow, I’m definitely drunk)
- Lightly peppery, definitely reminiscent of rye, although that could theoretically just be the fact that it’s 90 proof and I normally drink bourbon on ice because I’m a pansy
Finish:
- Ok, I’m definitely not crazy about the peppery-ness. There was definitely something to that, and it was a lot more prominent immediately after swallowing (phrasing)
- Even though (I’ll admit, I did the tiniest bit of research after drinking) the rye in the mash (basically, the grains that are used to make the fermentation substrate that will eventually be distilled to become bourbon) is very minimal, it still came through after the fact
- Burnt sugar??? Like vaguely sweet but also a little bit bitter and carbon-y
Aftertaste:
- Definitely faded fast, but more of the finish, which was very nice
- Kind of sweet
- No burning sensation
- I have to pee (this isn’t related to the aftertaste but the thought occurred to me while writing and youse need to know)
Conclusion
This is a very nice bourbon! I highly recommend it if you’re just getting into bourbon. It’s good enough where you can put it in a decanter and not feel like a weird poser and accessible enough where you can drink it without having a lot of experience with whiskey and enjoy it (like me! how about that). The fact that the bottle is nice looking and it doesn’t overtly smell like acetone really help here, since the first bourbon I ever tried smelled like acetone (I will most likely review it at a later time) and did not go down nearly as smooth as this stuff. This is also lowkey my go-to whiskey to recommend when I’m at work, but that’s neither here nor there.
