Review #28: Eagle Rare 17yr, OB, 2012 release, 45% abv

just in time

I've been nursing this bottle for 13 months now, which is longer than I had planned. Just when panic was setting in, I found a bottle of the 2013 release, though. And panic was setting in! This is/was my most irreplaceable bottle -- I don't have and can't get anything else quite like it, which isn't true even of bottles that I in some ways like better.

Nose: every kind of tannic flavor (leather, oak staves, assam tea, tobacco leaves) plus every kind of corn flavor (corn freshly cut from the cob, roasted corn, corn pudding, popcorn) plus creamy vanilla. The first striking thing for me was how fresh the corn notes were in comparison with the mellow old wood.  And after the first impressions, there's a beautiful old-whisky perfume: cherries, honeysuckle, peaches poached in syrup, vanilla custard, and a little cinnamon stick and barrel char -- I have an old Glen Grant a little like that but oakier.

Anyway, it holds up well on the palate -- it's a dry flavor profile but the vanilla and spices keep it all together -- and the finish lasts forever, starting with the vanilla and ending with that ethereal old-whisky flavor. When I first tried this, I thought the proof should be higher, but I think any higher might cover up some of the flavors. It's pretty close to perfect just as it is.

score: 92