Pale, almost peach color. Light aromas of caramel, sweet citrus. Tastes of sweet caramel, faint bite of oak on the end. Simple, but clean and pleasant. You’d have to be careful mixing this — it would get lost easily — but it should be nice on the rocks or with seltzer.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2011)

Hot solvents on the nose, reminiscent of Hinkle’s Easter egg dyes. Heavy-handed sweet wash of caramel, very hot, cloying finish. Not easy to see this as related to the clean innocence of the standard expression.

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2011)

The discontinued 10 year old CC Reserve was typical of the hard-rye genre, with vanilla, caramel, ripe fruit, and hot pepper stitched onto a flinty-firm base. This new 9 year old version, though similar, has obvious differences. Pleasing heat rides an initial surge of toffee, dry grain, and dried dark fruit. A soon-to-arrive pithiness on the shortish finish refreshes, but without the familiar steeliness of its antecedent.

Reviewed by: Davin de Kergommeaux (Summer 2013)

When they say berry, they mean berries: baskets of blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, until suddenly the palate veers off into grape popsicles. This is one sweet, unabashedly faux-fruity potation, but other than traces of oak, not much whisky flavor remains. Still, in the right hands it could be a lot of cocktail fun. Rather than serving it in a whisky glass, a dram or two on French vanilla or coconut-milk ice cream is genuinely scrumptious.

Reviewed by: Davin de Kergommeaux (Spring 2013)