Review #202: Dettling Cask Strength Single Barrel: Porch Pounder

AGE: 5 yr

MASH BILL: 70% corn, 15% rye, 12% oat, 3% blend of 3 roasted rye and wheat malts

PROOF: 113.74

COST: $105 for 750mL bottle

When I passed through Alabama last January after the holidays, I stopped into 4 different liquor stores trying to find a cask strength Dettling bottle with no luck. As a matter of fact, the only Dettling bottle that I found was a lone single barrel Bottled in Bond bottle at my last stop before crossing into Georgia. I still picked it up since Dettling was getting harder to find on the shelves, and while I still enjoyed that bottle, I wanted to get an unadulterated, cask strength bottle at some point.

Fast forward 10 months and I was able to be hooked up with this bottle I’m reviewing today, which is a single barrel pick by the Denver Bourbon Hunters. This barrel was named Porch Pounder for how easy it was to drink. If you want the full details on this bottle, check out this review here.

Let’s see if this is as easy drinking as its name suggests. To set the scene just right, I’m literally sitting on my porch with a Gelncairn in hand and the bottle by my side! Pound away!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: A reddish tint, mocha color (1.9), medium viscosity in appearance with lots of thin, slow legs. 

NOSE: Sweet and dark. A blend of chocolate and berries lead off. Blueberries, raspberries, and cherries co-mingle with bakers’ chocolate and toasted oats and nuts. Digging a little deeper there’s a nice backdrop of vanilla cream, caramel, and toasted oak – none of which are a dominant notes, though the oak does stand out a little more than the others. There’s not a lot of spice to this, but I do get a little black pepper and rye spice when I consciously think about it.

PALATE: Medium mouthfeel, matching what I saw on the appearance. The berry and cherry notes from the nose translate to the palate well. Each sip bounces around between notes of ripe blueberries and cherries, tart blackberries, and overly ripe raspberries. There’s a consistent note of cocoa powder. As the flavor builds in, darker, earthier notes start to show up, but never squash out the sweetness: cigar wrapper, toasted oak, and a somewhat dirty, earthy note. With a good chew, the cherry note really pops and as well as caramel chews. There’s a little more spice than what was on the nose with notes of coriander and nutmeg, but again, not a lot of spice here.

FINISH: Medium to long, sweet finish. However, it is the earthier notes that last the longest. The caramel and cherry notes carry over from the palate; however, the cherry profile turns a bit more medicinal. The unsweetened chocolate notes persist as they have through the rest of this experience but become a bit more forward as the sweeter notes fade. The toasted oak note has remained consistent as well, though it turns spicier here in the finish. I think it’s a nice blend of seasoned oak, white pepper, and a touch of cocoa powder that carry on past the sweeter notes.

RATING: 7.4/10

OVERALL: This is really much of the same experience I had from the BiB Dettling bottle that I reviewed for Review #143, just a bit more robust. Still a sweet and earthy profile overall. This did have a lot more fruit sweetness than I got from the BiB expression (which I still have some of that bottle left and was able to compare these two side by side and confirm this bottle really is sweeter). There’s less caramel than the BiB, but the chocolate and oak notes are more tame and that brighter fruit sweetness carries itself well through the sip. While I love the unique profile, I’m holding back on rating this higher because of the mouthfeel not being thicker, the finish being less than ideal (I actually think the finish of the BiB bottle I have is longer and has more complexity), and in general the earthy notes are pretty dense after a while. All the Dettling whiskey I have tried has a very unique profile though and if you’re a chocolate lover, I think it’s a great mash bill for you to try. Those roasted malts really show up and give nice chocolate and roasty notes to the whiskey.

 

1 | Disgusting | Watershed Apple Brandy Finished Bourbon

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, BBCo Disco #7 and #13, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08, RR15