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On the nose, I’m getting an interesting blend of notes leading off, encompassing some I associate with Dickel and some I don’t necessarily think of as common in their whiskeys. So with all that said, let’s get to tasting this unusual, 16 year old, sub-90 proof “cask strength” bourbon. I think blending the two was the right choice, because the ultimate product was more balanced and complex.” And the other one, it was very balanced, but to me it had that structure that tells you, I am drinking an old whiskey.
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It was very light and sophisticated, totally drinkable at cask strength. As she put it: “One lot completely stepped away from all the stereotypes. According to Robb Report, she blended this product from two separate and unique lots, one of which was significantly more affected by its time in the oak than the other. Like the Sweetens Cove, and other premium bottlings of sourced Dickel whiskey, the challenge here is that Copper Tongue must show itself to be novel enough to stand out from those readily available, well-aged Dickel expressions.Īlso of note: Copper Tongue was blended by Cascade Hollow Distilling Co.’s own GM Nicole Austin, who has become a celebrated distiller and blender in recent years, as the face of Dickel’s high-end renaissance.
#ORPHAN BARREL COPPER TONGUE SERIES#
Even at $100, it’s hard to call this a “value” on paper, given that George Dickel’s own Bottled in Bond series has put out several batches of 13-year-old whiskey at 100 proof, for around $40-45. The second notable thing about Copper Tongue is its relatively accessible price point, as the $100 MSRP is lower than typical for Orphan Barrel releases, but this tends to be common with less expensive Tennessee whiskeys. One is the fact that this is a cask strength release, but an exceptionally low-strength one, at only 44.9% (89.8 proof), which suggests the barrels were likely stored at the bottom of a rickhouse in cooler conditions, where they lost strength during aging rather than gaining it. What they’re delivered is Orphan Barrel Copper Tongue, a 16-year-old Tennessee bourbon that stands out in the series in a few notable ways. Everyone else has well-aged Dickel on the shelves why not them too? It only makes sense, then, that Diageo would eventually want a piece of the action via their Orphan Barrel release series of limited edition whiskeys. Everywhere you look, you’ll see the words “Tullahoma, Tennessee” if you’re paying attention to whiskey labels.
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And indeed, well-aged Dickel whiskey has been spread all over the “limited release” world in recent years, from the blenders at companies such as Barrell, to all-Dickel special releases such as Sweetens Cove. Just last week, we wrote about the launch of Dickel Bourbon, the first product bearing George Dickel’s name to roll out of the Cascade Hollow Distillery with the word “bourbon” officially slapped across it, rather than referring to itself simply as “Tennessee whiskey.” Here’s the thing, though: There’s plenty of bourbon on the shelves that is sourced from Dickel, because pretty much all Dickel whiskey can technically be referred to as bourbon-it meets all the legal requirements to do exactly that.