Old Ezra 7-Year-Old Barrel Strength
I love anything barrel strength, let me get that in here upfront. I love the heat and the way most barrel strength bourbons come at you like a four-seam fastball.
So let’s take a trip down the road with the Old Ezra 7-year for a few minutes.
To set the stage, I’m having my bourbon while I watch a video on Levi’s from the 1980s and how they tried to expand into suits to grow their business.
I like the color: straw-colored gold.
On the nose, there is a definite ethanol hit, strong and lasting.
The first sip you get the heat on the tongue from the middle of the tongue on back. I’m having trouble picking up anything that sticks out from a flavor profile.
After I swallow the bourbon, I do get a nice, pleasant burn in the throat. But I’m still working on finding something specific from a taste position.
Sticking my nose back in the glass, I get a bit of the smell of corn and straw, which goes with the color pretty nicely. The legs on this one are nice and long and thick…
On a second sip, I do start to get a bit of sweetness from the bourbon. And, the sweetness starts to expose itself on the nose as well. As I aerate the sip in my mouth, I can get a bit of a vanilla hint peaking through but it is subtle and you have to sit with the bourbon on your tongue for a moment.
I’m going to drop a little water into the glass now and see what happens with this one.
With the addition of water, you get a bit of smoothness in the overall experience. As a guide, I added approximately 5 drops of water off of dipping my fingers in my glass twice.
Now the nose gives me a little something that resembles tobacco and you still get a little sweetness. The pleasantness of the nose is elevated now. The sweetness starts to pull at something resembling a bit of cherry cola.
The taste on my palate is still a little rough to get a good grip on.
While I’m still struggling with picking out any definable flavors due to the high ABV, I do find the taste pleasant and I enjoy it.
From my perspective, I’m going to say that on the whole I like this even if I can’t pick it apart entirely.
I’ll go ahead and give this one an 85/100. I’d totally buy it again and I would definitely share it with others, but I could get used to a little more nuance.
What do you think?