I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.
Here we are with the first post of the new schedule. I’m not going to lie; it felt really weird not writing for y'all last night. Instead, I did things like hang out with my wife and read a book. It was nice—strange, but nice.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ve probably heard me gush about my love of science fiction. Whether it’s TV, movies, or books, I’ve been a fan for a very long time. One of the early greats of the genre is Isaac Asimov. I just finished watching the second season of Foundation on Apple TV+, and it put me in the mood to read that series of books again. So I started last night—dug out my 40-year-old copy of The Complete Robot and read a few short stories.
It’s something I do every couple of decades or so. I think the first time I read them was in middle school in the mid-to-late '80s. I did a more complete read-through as a young adult in the early 2000s. And then? There they sat on my bookshelf, almost forgotten, until now. There are certain books that I will just never gt rid of, and the Robot/Empire/Foundation series is among them. Even though some of the parts of it were written almost 75 years ago. It’s fun to read stories about how “the FUTURE” would look from well before the future started—well, at least what I considered the future when I was young. Though I’m not going to lie, the story I read last night could have been written today. In today’s verbiage, it was basically about a group of Google Waymo cars gone, not so much bad, but certainly dealing out righteous justice.
Sometimes, I like going back to old favorites and revisiting them—kinda like I do a couple of times per year with tonight’s whiskey. I’ve never seen it in the wild, but they are kind enough to send me a taste when it comes out so I can tell you about it and hope that if you see it in the wild, you’ll be intrigued enough to buy it.
Bernheim Barrel Proof is a barrel-proof version of the Bernheim wheat whiskey put out by Heaven Hill. It is made from a mash bill of 51% wheat, 37% corn, and 12% malted barley. The whiskeys in this batch range from seven to nine years old. It has been bottled at 122.6° proof.
Let’s see how it tastes, shall we?
Bernheim Original Barrel Proof Wheat Whiskey, B924
Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $67.
Price per Drink: $4.47
Nose: Caramel, wintergreen, and toasted grains.
Mouth: Bready, sweet, and spicy with notes of caramel, cinnamon, and oak.
Finish: Medium in length and warmth. Notes of toasted grains, cinnamon, and wintergreen.
Thoughts: This is very tasty. Sweet in the mouth but more dry on the finish. The toasted grain notes read as bready on the mouth, which I'm really enjoying. This is perfectly drinkable neat, even at over 120° proof. All in all, I really like it.
Comparison to last batch: The last batch is much sweeter on the nose and mouth. This batch shows more mint. Last batch is spicier, but the new batch has more layers of flavor. They are both very good, but if forced to choose, I'd go with this current batch because of the depth of flavor.
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