To begin, a big thanks to my home state’s considerable whisky brain trust for being so generous with their knowledge, experience, assessments, & time.
Before being lucky enough to snag this first bottle of Sweet Wheat, I’d tapped into this brain trust to ask people’s opinions about what seems to be a somewhat divisive allocated whisky – some dislike it with a passion while others are big fans.
It’s still early days & I’m only a few pours in, but, at or close to MSRP, I’m really enjoying Sweet Wheat – it has a lovely aroma profile and a pleasant palate, albeit one that doesn’t quite live up to the promises of the nose (but this is the case with many spirits, honestly).
There’s a lot of honeyed caramel, vanilla, cherries & dried fruits, toasted oak, buttered roasted corn, light baking spices, honeyed roasted nuts, citrus peel, & white & black pepper.
As some whisky friends said to me the other day as we shared some pours from the bottle, some of the divisive views on the bottle seem to be based partly on the prices people paid for it and the hoops they had to jump through to get a bottle. I understand that – If I paid over $50-60 for the bottle, let alone 2x or even 3x + MSRP for it, I’d be disappointed, too. However, no one makes someone overpay for a bottle and when we do, it’s not the fault of the spirit but of ourselves. I’ve done it, so I’m addressing myself here as much as anyone. Furthermore, people who overpay are setting themselves up for disappointment and when they go into bottle tastings expecting to be disappointed, it’s no surprise when their foregone conclusion/determination comes to pass.
Combine overpaying for a bottle (multiplied by how much we overpaid) with going into first tastings prepared to be disappointed, then it’s not surprising that we often are because we recognize, even if we don’t want to admit it, that we overpaid & shouldn’t have done so. This is a difficult lesson to learn & takes time – but so does every lesson worth learning.
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