Taster

Nose: Huge and ripe: barley sugar/spun sugar, apricot, lashings of vanilla, orange crème brûlée - but the alcohol gives your nose a right belt.

Palate: Perfumed with a floral lift. Imagine flowers encased in orange blossom honey. Hickory wood.

Finish: Treacle, but the alcohol blurs things.

Comment: A huge old-style mouthful but the high-strength masks much of the subtle complexities in what is a big-boned bourbon.

Score: 8.3

Taster

Nose: Smells like a barbecue in progress. Fat pork being cooked over applewood.

Palate: Rich but supple. Mature. Winey. Sherry-like.

Finish: Spicy. Did someone slip some Herbsaint in here?

Comment: Wonderfully expansive. Seems to embrace the tastes of the south, all the way from Kentucky to Louisiana.

Score: 9