![]() I'll give it a 6/10.īob: It's not a very sweet whiskey. I'm coming down a little bit from the nose, but not too far. The part that's hard is that it's like a little bit overly-done toast, kind of slightly burned. There’s a little bit of caramel, the vanilla turns almost into a bright cream soda. Tasteīrad: And as we get into the palate, it turns very oaky on the palate. So I'm just going to give this a 6.5/10 on the nose. ![]() But that sour wood note is making me think that it might carry through a little bit to the flavor. I get a pound cake with almond extract in it. And so there's a little sour note on the nose for me that is just taking away slightly from the experience. And it almost has that slightly sour smell to it of brand-new chopped-down tree. This does smell almost like fresh-cut lumber. But where it smells young is kind of like, every once in a while I see this note in bourbon nosing about “green wood,” which is basically just like unaged wood. I'll give it a 7/10.īob: This is not an overly grainy nose, although I am picking up a little bit of rye here. It's generically pleasant with a little bit of nuttiness. But I'll be honest, there's not much to detract here. ![]() And that's kind of what I'm getting here. I say that because I actually like almonds, but of all the nuts out there, they don't have a ton of flavor or nose to them. What are you picking up on the nose? Noseīrad: For me, it gets a little bit nutty at the front end. But for now, Brad, let's talk about Benchmark Top Floor. However, we will be drinking Benchmark here again in a couple of weeks. Episode 001 of Film & Whiskey was Benchmark. So, if that tells you what you need to know, then.here we are.īob: So, it's been a long time since we've had Benchmark. This is a non-age-stated bourbon, so we're assuming that it is at least four years old, but we don't really know how long it's been aged, and it sounds like they're trying to pass off some really young whiskey that might taste a little more matured.īrad: Yeah, I was going to say it has been aged long enough to charge $15. There's a reason that they're doing it with the $15 Benchmark here. You know what I mean? You're, not going to be like, “Hey, this is Lagavulin 16, but we aged it on the top floor, so it's really like Lagavulin 28.” But you're not going to sell something on being rapidly aged unless you're kind of implicitly admitting that this is not aged very long. As I said at the top of the episode, this is an 86-proof whiskey coming out of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, and according to them, it is aged on the top floor of their warehouse and it ages comparatively more quickly because, and I'm quoting their website, “heat rises.”īob: I do love the gimmick here, which is “we're going to bottle just the top floor because in theory, scientifically, heat rises.” And so it should evaporate more things out of this whiskey quicker, causing it to expand and contract quicker, causing it to age quicker. The following review is taken from our episode " Unforgiven / Benchmark Top Floor." Click the link to listen to this review in audio format.īrad: Alright everybody, today we are talking about Benchmark Top Floor. Top Floor, as the name suggests, is composed of bourbons taken exclusively from the top floor of the rickhouse, and bottled at 86 proof. However, the distillery recently decided to expand the Benchmark line, now offering an additional five expressions. Distilled by Buffalo Trace, Benchmark has long been a bottom-shelf staple with a 40% ABV and a $10 price tag. Today, we're reviewing Benchmark Top Floor, the most inexpensive and lowest-proof offering in the new collection of special-edition bourbons bearing the Benchmark name.
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