You should now all know my love for hyped 3yo malts by now! I personally love the mindset behind the Archives bottlings and their guys are clearly trying to get the best whiskies possible so I’m pretty interested in trying this 3yo Single Malt from Texas!
Balcones 3yo 2017-2021 (62.9%, Archives, American Oak first fill barrel, cask #19264, 195 bottles)
Colour: Deep copper with some nice gold hues.
Nose: No alcohol presence at all. It’s very powerful with dark forest fruits, blueberries, red berries, blackcurrants, cinnamon candies, bitter dark chocolate. It’s starting very well!
Mouth: The alcohol integration is perfect and the texture is very thick and oily. The flavours are very powerful, it’s a bomb! Delicious juicy dark cherries, cranberries, blackcurrant, bitter dark chocolate adding a very nice dry touch, red berries, ripe dates, a lot of cinnamon candies again and some noble wood dryness.
Finish: Mid-long. In perfect harmony with the mouth, this mix of cinnamon candies and dark forest fruits is amazing!
That’s pretty impressive, the balance between roundness and dryness is perfect. The profile is very deep and even a bit complex with some very powerful flavours, that’s really a stunner!
Score: 90
This dram is just amazing considering it only is 3 years old! If I want to say something it will be about the complexity which is present but could have been better to go higher on my score tables but come on, this is probably the best 3yo dram I’ve ever tasted, it’s rich, powerful, thick and balanced. If tasted blind I would have said that it’s a perfect 12-18yo dram for sure.
Very good job Archives, and the quality/price ratio is still fantastic!
Tasting Bro's 