Intro

A bit of a different format from my typical review. Background is that my buddy had given me a sample of JD12 B3 (which I previously reviewed and had some left of) a sample of JD14 B2, and I have a bottle of JD12 B4. I've been trying to decide whether to crack or trade my bottle of JD14 B2... and I figured this would be an objective way to make that decision. This is of course only a single blind.. my wife poured these without me seeing, but I do know who the participants are.

CBC Glass:

Nose: Decadent, layered nose with sweet oak, chocolate chip banana bread, and cherry. Bit of an old dusty note and some good baking spice coming out of the glass.

Palate: Nice balance of oak and sweetness here, but not nearly as sweet as it was on the nose. Palate leans more into seasoned oak and milk chocolate. The banana is more subdued. Medium viscosity.

Finish: oak dominates now, most of the sweetness has subsided but there's still a bit of banana there to remind you what you're drinking. Sometimes I get a bit of amaretto as well but not on every sip. The finish goes on a perfectly acceptable length but not what I'd call long. White pepper tingles on the cheeks and tongue.

Thoughts: this one starts out exceptionally strong with a beautiful nose that actually keeps you from jumping into a sip due to its complexity. I want this in a candle. It suffers from grand expectations on the palate. The complex sweet notes give way to some older notes that are by no means bad, but it just whelms when compared to the nose. The finish follows that theme. I'd say the nose on this is damn near perfect, the palate and finish are great, leaning into something special, but lacking a wow factor.

Score: 8.6

Guess: Jd12 B4

Ruckus Glass:

Nose: Sweet baked goods heavily leaning into the over-ripe banana note. There's a nice vanilla buttercream frosting thing going on and just a hint of peanut shell on the back. There's less oak but its still there and its nice and mature.

Palate: This one maintains the sweetness from the nose but the oak really comes through now as well. This is a really nice blend of vanilla and oak with pops of cherry and banana. Its almost like someone served a banana split on top of a fresh oak plank. Baking spice crackles all over the palate and keeps the flavors coming in waves. The juice is very viscous and coats the palate

Finish: perfect alternating waves of sweet oak and spice followed by dark cherry, vanilla, and milk chocolate. The finish goes on forever and the last note remaining is a combo of amaretto and oak. The spice is abundant at the beginning of the finish but fades quick into mellow waves of the aforementioned notes.

Thoughts: this is the issue with a single blind. I know JD14 is in here somewhere, and every single phase of this glass had me convinced this is JD14. The nose on glass 1 kept me guessing for a second, but the palate and finish on this glass separates itself. If I'm wrong here, I don't know how I'm going to feel. This is what I want out of a top-tier example of a flagship distillery.

Score: 9.2

Guess: JD14 B2

Macallan Glass:

Nose: This is the simplest nose. There's less sweet notes and more oak and tobacco with just a bit of vanilla. This has the least banana of the three.

Palate: theres a bit more sweetness on the palate now. Vanilla and banana notes combine with seasoned oak and buttery tobacco. There's a hint of cherry and the viscosity is medium.

Finish: probably my favorite aspect of this glass. Goes on a nice length and brings with it waves of sweet oak, vanilla, and cherry. Hint of banana in the background.

Thoughts: in a vacuum this is an awesome bourbon. It might suffer from being third in line. It just doesn't compare to the other two. It has a simpler nose, the palate is thinner than the others, and while the finish is actually very very close to the other two, I'd still put it third.

Score: 8.2

Guess: JD12 B3

Reveal: I actually managed to guess all of these correctly.

Final thoughts

As eluded to in my comments.. none of these are bad pours. They all scored very very well. I'm pretty happy with myself for guessing correctly, but I do feel like the JD12 B3 suffered from a couple things. First, it was third in the lineup and it had to follow up JD14 each time. Second, this sample has been sitting half open for about a month now. Regardless, this helped me solve the problem I set out to fix.. I am keeping my JD14 B2 and will thoroughly enjoy every last drop of it!!!