Review: Battle of the Noines
3rd time the charm?
Long time lurker, first time poster. Thought it would be fun to blind 2 9-year single barrels with similar proof. I can’t get all the fancy notes - I’m usually “oak,” “vanilla,” and/or “good.” But let’s see how fancy I can get.
Our contenders are:
The Reveries Manifesto- 9 year single barrel. 75 corn/ 21 rye/ 4 malted barley. Got this from shared pour maybe a year ago. Bottle about half empty. Around $100 and 121.6 proof.
Nashville Barrel Co. grateful Kelvin’s - 9 year single barrel. Not sure the exact breakdown but a quick google says 36% rye mashbill. Picked this up last month at the tasting room in Nashville. Which I highly recommend if you can pull yourself away from the debauchery on broadway. They were awesome. This was around $125 and clocking in at 123.04 proof. Only had 1 pour out of this so far - open a few weeks.
1st pour-
Nose is definitely candy sweet, maybe butterscotch? Getting that “oak” note that I’m great at detecting. On the palate, less sweet but still there some. There’s a little heat but it fades fast. Finish medium+. Anyway this is basically what I want to drink forever. 9.0 for sure.
2nd pour-
Nose is not as sweet. In general not as potent as 1st pour. Still smells “good.” Palate is more traditional “vanilla” and “oak.” But still generally not as potent again. Finish a solid medium. I will say this had very little heat if anything for 120+. I’ll give it an 8.5.
Despite the unsophisticated palate, recency bias tells me the 2nd pour was NBC and I was right. It’s actually fantastic it just is tough running up against that reveries bottle.
This was fun hope you enjoyed. Next Saturday if I want to get drunk mid day (every Saturday?) maybe I’ll blind some ryes.