There is a nice balance between the Cognac and the rye bourbon. They both do a good job of dancing on the palate. One will take center stage for a moment and allow the other to come front and center.
This does a great job of melding complex flavors. Whiskey, especially young high-rye bourbon, can be plagued with sharp earth tones like esters, oak, char, and even chemically flavors. Cognac finish can, in my experience, try too hard to put a sweet coating on a bitter pill. Thus you end up with a mix-match whiskey that just doesn’t quite equal the sum of it’s parts. Here, though, you have wonderful flavors working together to create a lovely sip.
This is a whiskey that could be a really lovely gateway drug for the whiskey-curious friends in your life. The proof is high enough that it feels like alcohol but the sweetness helps temper that trepidation.
