Harry E. Wilken 15 Years Old Pre-Prohibition Era TASTING BOTTLES 50% 1917

Distileerderij	Elk Run
Bottelaar	The American Medicinal Spirits Company
Serie	X
Gebotteld voor	For medicinal porposes only
Gedistilleerd op	Fall 1917
Gebotteld	Fall 1932
Land	Verenigde Staten
Streek	Kentucky
Leeftijd	15
Cask Type	Virgin Oak Casks
Vatnummer	X
Alcohol percentage	50
Inhoud	0,473
Conditie	In originele verpakking
Etiket	Perfect
Voorraad	0

Professionele reviews

Serge Valentin (90)

Colour: rosewood.

Nose: deep, intensely polished and brimming with incense, pot pourri, orange bitters, cloves, liquorice, dry wood spices, cola cubes and fruity red chilli heat. There’s also this medicinal aspect as well, a kind of concentrated, very spicy cough medicine. Given time it unfolds with notes of mint leaf, old pipe tobacco, unlit cigars in cedar boxes, blood oranges and some soft notes of caraway. Really beautiful. Not just an emotional old whisky, but aromatically majestic and technically brilliant. The kind of aroma that makes you realise just how spectacular and idiosyncratic American whiskey is when its at its best. A style you just cannot replicate anywhere else I think.

Mouth: the level in this one was pretty low but you still feel the power and the sinew of the distillate and the quality of the wood even after so many decades in that tiny half bottle. Orange oils, sharp spices, textural citrus fruit pastes, rinds and oils. Menthol tobacco, leather, very distant dried herbal aspects and a sooty, earthy and almost greasy quality. More of these cough medicine notes, boot polish, bay leaf, strong black tea and an intensely peppery, clean wood spice quality.

Finish: long, earthy, sooty, camphory, waxy, peppery and wonderfully spicy. Big, echoing mulled spice notes. Some chamomile and herbal teas. Hardwood resins.

Comments: I know shamefully little about American Whiskey but I feel that I know enough to recognise the level of balance and complexity and power in this wee slice of liquid history. An embarrassingly pleasurable whiskey.