The Experience
Nose
J’s Bottle Shop – Baking spices, brown sugar, nutmeg, leather (not strong), others have better nose
Top Shelf Beverage – Honey, tea, Karo syrup, lemon zinger, dried grass, better nose than J’s
The Barn Bottle Shop – Red hots candy, maple syrup, anise, hay, lighter nose, better nose than Top Shelf
Palate
J’s Bottle Shop – Dried cherries, leather, oak, a bit of tobacco, vanilla, sweet on the lips
Top Shelf Beverage – Bitter oak, tannins/sulfur, leather
The Barn Bottle Shop – Cinnamon, light leather, ash, vanilla, baking spice
Finish
J’s Bottle Shop – Extra long finish, a bit of tobacco, mellow, best finish of three reviewed
Top Shelf Beverage – Medium finish, tannins, mild tobacco, clove, clover honey, gets a bit thin
The Barn Bottle Shop – Short finish, spice, char, wood, taste of green
Appearance (color, bottle, packaging)
Nice bottle with good artwork on label, dark copper color.
Availability
Good availability where distributed.
Price
Set at the right price for the product received. Good value in this review’s opinion.
Thoughts
Spoiler alert: We are huge AWS Fiddler Georgia Heartwood fans. Probably have spent more on this whiskey than any other in the collection as is apparent in the three reviewed here. It is a single barrel expression so all are store picks and can have variation. Around us there are more store picks available than we can afford to buy. However, they have all be varying degrees of excellent. Have yet to run into one we do not like. We have also visited the distillery on several occasions and this product and others are consistently good.
Hits all the right points for us in nose, palate, and finish. Excellent pour, in the top 10 of 2022.