Perhaps the photo gave it away? Once you taste this, it will explain everything. Let’s not waste our times on the history of Orphan Barrel, or that this is just some 28yr old Dickel juice aged somewhere else, or why it’s called American Whiskey instead of Bourbon… I’m going to let other bloggers write about than and instead I’m just going to get into the review…
The color is extremely light, just from looking at it, I would have assumed it was a 2-3 year bourbon. Very hard to believe this has been aged for 28 years.
The nose has aromas of my bathroom garbage can, used Band-Aids, pine needles and rubber. The first time I tried it a few weeks ago it was more potent, now, although the smells are the same, they are less pronounced, but nothing better coming through.
The taste, hard to believe, is even worse than the smell. It is dry, astringent, unappealing, just not good at all. It has the feeling of being massively over oaked, without any of the positive aspects of oak–pretty amazing feat in itself. I guess the only redeeming quality of the taste is that I’m getting a slight burnt orange aroma, which is better than the trash I was getting before. The taste just brings a frown to your face, like you are sucking on a lemon, but a lemon that tastes like trash. Just gross.
Now… here is the kicker. I paid $199.99 for this thing. I actually bought 6 of them for $1200. I was convinced I was going to flip them and make a killing on it. Can you imagine how upset I was when I got home and tried it? For full disclosure, I did list them on bottle-spot and was able to get rid of all of them, after shipping costs, for just a little more than I paid for them, but I feel bad for those people who bought them. This is just gross. And the fact that Diageo had the balls to not only put this out on the market, but charge $200 a bottle for it is so bad. It’s even worse that I bought it for that price. I keep buying these stupid Orphan Barrels, partially because they tend to go up in value and also because they have such pretty labels and look good on my bar. Why do I keep doing this to myself? I hope everyone reads this before they go out and buy another Orphan Barrel ever again… I have just one more thing to say… Diageo: go fuck yourselves. 1/100
