Maybe it’s the whole BMD incident from last week, but this being a blend of whiskey and other spirits (not the same thing, but the aroma and taste make it hard to discern.) Apologies we’ve not made it clear – this is a blended whiskey. However as we found out via the back – it’s not a blend of many whiskeys but a blend of bourbon and neutral spirits.
This one is a bit of a puzzle, but overall the main takeaway is that if you signed up for a good old fashioned whiskey like the picture of a hunting dog suggests – you will be found wanting here. Sure it’s brutally honest about itself, and it mixes well enough to do the job – but it’s not what you want.
What they Say: “Bird Dog Kentucky Whiskey is Blended with 20% Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey and 80% Grain Neutral Spirits.”
Taste: 2.5 – A bunch of caramel flavoring, and much like the aroma a distinct lack of whiskey smoke or wood. Maybe you should have a bit more than 20%.
Aftertaste: 5.5 – It ends with an almost maple syrup-like flavoring, and there’s just a hint of something like ash lingering there. It’s overall better than than the caramel rum-like taste, but it’s missing something.
Burn/Smooth: 5.0 – It is not entirely smooth, but it’d be false to say it burns like an 80% neutral grain spirit would. That’s likely a factor of whatever caramel or sugar they got into this, but it’s at least worked.
Aroma: 4.5 – That smells more like a rum. It’s a caramel kinda sweetness covering up a clear ethanol like smell. Not a whiff of smoke nor wood. It’s a thing. We suppose against whiskeys it’s merely subpar as it’s not awful.
Honesty: 9.0 – It has a dog on it. The design isn’t bad. And they don’t say a bunch of nonsense either. Then we come to the reason this is so high. It’s because they actually come out and say this is 80/20 neutral spirits and bourbon. They know they are a blended whiskey and they tell you how that came about. That takes guts to admit that what you’ve sold us is at best 20% bourbon punched up a bit. So they are without fault – honest.
Mixability: 5.0
W/ Rocks: 4.5 – It’s colder and a smidge smoother, overall nearly nothing changes.
Whiskey and Coke: 5.5 – It’s of course – fine here. It’s how you are most likely to consume this, and it gets the job done, but don’t expect a letter home of it’s faithful service to the people.
Value: 4.5 – That could be a few bucks cheaper and be all the better for it. Let us be clear though, this is a simple 20 dollar bill for ‘get drunk juice’ with no frills, no thrills, but critically isn’t swill. You, for the most part, get what you pay for.
Google Shop Average: $20
Website: https://www.birddogwhiskey.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 5.0
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Metric Score: 36/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.14 |+| Reviewer Average: 5.0
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Final Thoughts: Here’s a bit of inside baseball, we did this review just after a review of Caol Ila to come in 2 weeks time, and it’s REMARKABLE the football field difference in opinion and flavor. This is like spackle for your wall – it will do the job, it’s not crazy expensive, it’s an honest product, and you feel nothing for it. It’s a whiskey without a soul.
