Review #185: Wyoming Whiskey National Parks No. 4: Mammoth Hot Springs

MASH BILL: 68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% malted barley

PROOF: 98

AGE: 5 years 

COST: $60

I saw a guy in an Instagram post take this bottle and pour it right into a toilet and flush it down claiming it was a straight drain pour. When I saw this, it really disappointed me because I love the concept of the National Park Series that Wyoming Whiskey does: an annual release aimed to highlight US National Parks using some of the best whiskey barrels they have to produce a expression worthy of honoring our national parks. As someone with a goal to visit all 63 national parks in my life, I eat this shit up!

Sadly though, Wyoming Whiskey has not been available to me locally until the last couple years, and at the time I saw this Instagram drain pour post, I had not yet come across a National Parks Series bottle to develop my own opinion. But I was just generally disappointed because I would think it takes a lot for someone to call something a drain pour (at least it would for me)! A few months after I saw that post this bottle showed up at one of my local stores. I immediately picked it up, but after flashes of that post went through my head, I decided to put it back down and get something else. After a couple weeks of seeing it on the shelf and really wanting to get it still, I finally decided to pull the trigger. With that, let’s see if this is really a drain pour…

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Auburn color (1.5); oily and viscous looking as it clings to the glass with fat legs.

NOSE: Sweet and inviting. A dried fruit sweetness captivates me initially with dried cherries and apple; Orange slice candies, baker’s chocolate accompanied by a herbaceous note, and toasted vanilla bring even more sweetness with a slight earthy, herbaceous flair. A dense black peppercorn note adds more earthiness and a depth. The longer I nose this the more the dried cherry and chocolate notes dominate and become more fresh, like a cherry cordial.

PALATE: Thinner on the palate than it appears in the glass, but the mouthfeel still has a fattiness to it. Cherry syrup sweetness. Baked apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Black pepper and ginger add a pronounced numbing spice. A creaminess with textures invoking tastes of brown butter, melted dark chocolate, and burnt caramel.

FINISH: A medium length finish leaning sweet at times and dry others. The orange and vanilla notes show back up in the finish, but accompanied by more earthy spice: baking spice, white pepper, spiced oak, and burnt caramel. The cherry note remains consistent throughout the sip and is present here as well. The finish starts off rather sweet, but after a few sips I noticed my palate became rather dry. It’s a bit paradoxical at times as I normally view finishes as either leaning sweet or dry, rarely both.

RATING: 6.9/10

OVERALL: I love, love, LOVE, that this expression sips like what national parks are all about: earth, beauty, ruggedness. It was well balanced with beautiful sweet notes, earthy notes, and spices adding a rugged harshness. It was very well executed and is a damn good whiskey! The earthier notes had a bit of a dirtiness to them that held me back from cranking up the rating more, but I also think that dirtiness adds to the charm and ruggedness of this sip. I wish it was a little more robust in flavor as I struggled to pinpoint some notes, and I think another 5-10 proof points could have gone a long way in this respect (though it may have thrown off the balance of this sip as well).

Honestly, if I was giving credit for how well the whiskey jives with the theme of it, this would be a damn near 10/10. It feels like I should be sipping this at the end of the day, next to a babbling stream in a valley between two mountain ridges, the crackling of a campfire heating up, the horizon exploding with orange as the sun sets just over the mountain ridge in front of me, having just spent the day hiking and now getting ready to throw some steaks over an open flame…bliss. That guy that I saw on Instagram calling this a drain poor…I get all palates are different, but damn I wish he had given me his bottle… I relearned a lesson through this: don’t always trust the palate of other people. My recommendation is to compare your own tasting notes to someone else’ for a few expression to see if you pick up on some of the same notes and if you enjoy similar things before you decide to believe their opinions would represent yours – their palate may be completely different from yours.

 

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select, Hillrock Estate Sauternes CS

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, BBCo Origin High Wheat, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, Maker's Mark Wood Finishing releases, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Woodford Reserve Batch Proof 121.2, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08, RR15