The Chicken Cock Double Barrel Bourbon 10 Year Old, Batch #3/6

Tasting notes:
At first, this smells like clarified honey made into butter. It’s sweet and round and has an afterthought of lemon zest on it. But then I get melted pecan pie with French vanilla ice cream. You know when you’re nearing the end of the slice and the ice cream has melted and the pecan pie has cooled and the flavors blend perfectly? That part. We also got marbles made of cherry wood used in garden games at a replica Versailles (France).

The first impression of the mouth is that it is strong and flavorful. “It’ll clean your andirons,” Stephen barks, with that annoying “woodsman” tone he occasionally adopts. But then I start to wonder, would this clean my andirons? I then wonder, Where are my andirons? Are my andirons even adequate? (And believe me, the voice inside my head saying these things is very far from that of a woodsman.) I’m pulled out of this sorrowful shame spiral by the seriously tannic dimensions of the mouth. The subtle tones on the nose remain, but they are at times overshadowed, perhaps by the 104 proof. It’s like the rarely-performed duet for harp and jack hammer by Philip Breaking Glass, which I’m pretty sure is not the name of a person but rather that of a collective of art students, provocateurs, and a retinue of hangers-on and phonies.

The finish picks up those tannic notes and puts them to work. Leather licorice sticks used as bloody Mary stirrers. I’m on a tour inside an old cello, with a wizened mouse guiding us to the rosin clumps that passed through the F hole. What’s this? I ask as the mouse hands me sheet music. The next thing I know we come together in song. “O Tannin-bomb, O Tannin-bomb.” The tour guide now takes us to the rest of the tree from which Roy Hobbs’ bat was made. I look over at Stephen as I think he’s going to use his woodsman voice to tell us about how old, classic, and timeless this tree is, while my non-woodsman voice wonders which movie outfielder holds the record for best ballpark-adjusted defense. On the open, we get after dinner mints on roller skates. Sweet and floral notes press forward, and thin boysenberry syrup is lovingly poured over fried bacon, everyone’s favorite celery substitute.
 
 
Rating:
On the scale of how hard it is not to end this review with a “why did the chicken cross the road” joke–
The Chicken Cock Double Barrel Bourbon 10 year old, Batch #3/6 is really friggin’ hard.
 
 
 
                                                                        –John
 
 
 
–Our thanks to Chicken Cock for the sample!