Review: Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon
Review: Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon
It keeps getting bigger and bigger, older and older. This year’s Repeal Reserve is made up of three whiskeys: 9% 17-year-old bourbon (2007 distillate) containing 21% rye; 24% 10-year-old bourbon (2014 distillate) comprising 21% rye; and 67% a second 10-year-old bourbon also from 2014 containing 36% rye. These are the same two recipes Remus has relied on over the years for this series, but with just three whiskeys in the mix, it’s a simpler and slightly older recipe.
Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon Review
Remus Repeal Reserve is always a delight, and Series VIII is no exception. It kicks off with a surprisingly racy, almost boozy nose, bursting with aromas of red pepper and baking spice, mint, and almost pruny dried fruits. A whiff of camphor adds a slight medicinal tone to the nose, but it’s mild and, in its own way, engaging in a frontier-evocative way alongside a modest punch of barrel char.
A slight shift of gears is on tap for the palate, where chocolate and cola kick things off, followed by a sweet brown sugar note, bordering on molasses for a spell. Ample baking spice here shifts from cinnamon to clove, the mint moving into menthol on the finish. It’s not particularly fruity unlike last year’s quite different Series VII (which I sampled side by side), but that’s no complaint. I actually like Series VIII a bit better. In any case, as always, this whiskey is so exuberant in so many different ways — and deftly balanced — that it evaporates with downright unfortunate speed.
100 proof.
A / $100 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
Remus Repeal Reserve Series VIII Bourbon
USD100
