Virginia Gentleman 90Proof/6Year "The Fox"!

Name (full): Virginia Gentleman 90 Straight Bourbon Whiskey (nicknamed "The Fox")

Proof: 90

Price: $20.99 (plus applicable shipping) from Sams-Wine.com

Bottle: A rather Cylindrical bottle with a 2 1/2 inch gold wax sealed neck, a little more robust looking than most bourbon bottles I have seen. On the front label is a delightful painted hunting scene of six men on horses chasing after a pack of dogs following a fox hunt. Cracking the seal makes you want to scream "Release the Hounds!!" to that hunting trumpet of yore. It notes that the bourbon is "Distilled in Kentucky and redistilled in Virginia. Bottled by the A. Smith Bowman Distillery, Spotsylvania County, Virginia". It is also important to note the distinctive raised fox head just below the base of the neck of the bottle. Overall a very distinguished looking bottle, quite unlike almost all other bottles of bourbon I have seen before. Distinctive.

Color: Very Russet, Burnt sienna or Indian Red.

Nose: Through my takings I noticed two definite themes running through the aroma : Sweetness (Maple, Figs, Honey, Plum Sauce, butterscotch), and a Tart/Greenness (green sap, the inside of stalks, crabapples, green grapes, young green wood) this bourbon also has some great floral notes (gardenia, rose hips). When Diluted: The sweetness seems to take over to the exclusion of just about everything else, clover honey, maple & vanilla.

Taste: The sweet/tart theme from the nose continues. . . .anise, butterscotch, maple, green wood/birch bark. This may sound strange but it also tastes a little like the water left after boiling collared greens. Light and a little grassy.

Finish: Here is where I get a little confused. The finish is medium and warming with a short blast of fennel/pepper at the end. I was led to believe that this was a wheated bourbon and was rather surprised at the burst of spice at the end of the finish. It is really good though, quite invigorating.

Mouth feel: medium filling in the mouth, and a little sharp and tingly around the edges. It is rather thin but has an interesting viscous quality (it hugs the sides of my snifter). Note: It produces a really satisfying feeling to draw air over this bourbon while it is on your palate.

Conclusions: There is a lot more going on here than I originally expected. There are only 2 or 3 core flavors that I detected but this Sweet/Greenness interplay that I tasted makes for interesting and quite invigorating combinations as you drink it. I enjoy this bourbon more now than when I first acquired it because of this tasting. Originally I found it rather insipid to the point of dullness. I think it was more that I wasn't a very good taster at the time. It is definitely, as has been pointed out, a young tasting bourbon (line it up against any 8-12 year bourbon and the differences are STRIKING), but it makes a wonderful change of pace.

The thing that interests me the most about this tasting was what wasn't there. In all three of my sit down tasting I failed to note any real presence of a barrel/char taste, which I could pick out in almost everything I have tried so far, even some bourbons younger than this. I am not sure what to make of this, but I do find it fascinating.

It is my recommendation that you drink this in the early afternoon on a sunny, early summer weekend day reading a book that truly stimulates your mind, because this bourbon will help perk your senses and comprehend the subject at hand more clearly (Even though it only March, the suggestion still rings true. I have been reading The William S. Burroughs Reader accompanied by this bourbon and it has been resounding success, pulling things from the text I never got before. . .)!! Not my favorite (I seem to be gravitating to slightly older bourbons, like Russell's Reserve for example, or Elijah Craig), but it is Quite a find, It does Virginia proud.

Tom (the Gentleman Hisself!) C