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Best 2025 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Whiskey Deals + Town Branch Imperium Bourbon Review
Apr 28, 2026
It’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday Week, and I’m sharing the best whiskey deals, distillery sales, merch discounts, and bottle drops worth your money this season. Whether you’re stocking your bar or shopping for bourbon lovers, I’ve got the highlights you need so you don’t have to scan every mailing list yourself. Then, I crack open the 2025 Town Branch Imperium Bourbon — a 105-proof, wheated bourbon blend with notes of dark chocolate–covered cherry, caramel, and cedar-driven oak tannin. Is it worth the $120 price tag? I share my honest verdict. Episode includes: Dark Arts Cellar Sale details Deanston 15 Year Tequila Cask Black Friday Drop Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam & High West Merch Discounts Whiskey Advocate 2-Year Subscription Deal Byte-Sized Review: Town Branch Imperium Bourbon (MMXXV)
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Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, I'm sharing all the latest and greatest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals across the world of whiskey
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From discounts on merch, glassware, and even bottles, you don't want to miss this
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Plus, I'm reviewing the brand new 2025 edition of Town Branch Imperium Bourbon Whiskey
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Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Bourbon Bites podcast. I'm your host, Clifton, and this is the week of Thursday, November 27th, 2025, Thanksgiving Day
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If you're listening to this on release day, I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with your friends or family
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If you listen to this after the fact, I hope you're having a wonderful day filled with many good pours
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I actually just got back from a whiskey giving event in Lexington, Kentucky, hosted by It's Bourbon Night
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it's kind of a last minute decision to go attend but I'm really glad I did I got to participate in
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a really cool barrel pick from Nulu under their new Louisville label I did lots of thieving from
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the barrel at both Dark Arts and RD1 and really just spent some quality time with some incredible
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folks now unfortunately I ended up bringing back some sort of a cold with me after the trip
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thankfully it didn't kick in until after I got back home and it's mostly gone now but
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just want to apologize in advance if I sound a little more nasally than usual. I'll try to keep
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this episode short because I wanted to do something a little bit different this week
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Instead of giving you whiskey news, I'm actually going to talk about all of the Black Friday
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Cyber Monday, Cyber Week deals coming to you from your favorite distilleries. So I don't know about
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you, but I'm on a lot of newsletters for a lot of brands and they have been blowing them up
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letting me know about all of their sales on their merch, on their whiskey, on their experiences at
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the distillery and instead of you guys signing up for all those newsletters yourself I'm just
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going to share a few of the highlights that I've come across in my inbox. Now if you listen to this
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much after the fact keep these in mind for next year if you're thinking of buying some stuff around
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this time of year. See which distilleries do these things in the past and keep an eye out for them
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for future years. And the first one I'm going to talk about is one that I found out about while I
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was in Kentucky. This is Dark Arts Cellar Sale. This one's actually kicking off a day earlier on
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Wednesday the 26th but I got a little sneak peek at the bottles available and it is an incredible
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selection of different products across the dark arts line some of which are including their five
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year Mizunara stave bourbon their six to nine year stave wine or spirit finished bourbon or rye
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and their 10 to 12 year old straight and finished bourbons plus a 13 year old rye now the pricing
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isn't necessarily available on the website but at the little sneak peek I got I'm telling you if
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you're in the Lexington area, you're going to want to go check this out. I may or may not have got my
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hands on a couple bottles that are part of this sale because they aren't that good of a price. So
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if you are in the Lexington area, go check out this sale. I promise you, you won't be disappointed
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Also, if you spend $150 during the sale, you'll receive two Dark Arts tasting glasses as a gift
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from the house. So even more reason to go check that out. If you're there and you happen to see
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Sarah Algram, formerly of It's Bourbonite. She is one of their incredible staff members there
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Tell her Cliffy says hello and that he's sent you to this incredible sale. Also get some drinks at
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their bar. They have a ton of their single barrel products at their bar, plus some really fun
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cocktails. So go check them out. As one of the highlights of my trip was visiting Dark Arts
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Now this is one of the few Black Friday discounts on actual whiskey, but there was another one that
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hit my inbox that I wanted to give a quick shout out to. There's a special release of Deanston
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It is a 15 year old tequila cast release that they are offering at an exclusive Black Friday discount and it's only available this weekend
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So this is an experimental limited edition release that's meant to celebrate spirits with true Highland character
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It finished in hand selected casts that once held agave tequila from the Jaliscan Highlands in Mexico It is a fruity floral dram with sweet warming notes So right now I seeing it on their website for about
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I'm not sure if that's the Black Friday price or if it's going to drop even further
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But that's just another one I wanted to shout out because it's one of the few other options I saw that was a discount on Spirits themselves
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Now I know a lot of local liquor stores are also doing sales depending on where you are
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but I don't know if many online retailers that are doing big sales this year if you do please
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let me know or if there's any distilleries offering special releases beyond just their
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merch and things like that would love to hear about it please let me know on my discord server
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if you're not yet a member you can join us at bourbonbites.com it's open to everyone but if
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you are a bite club or patreon supporter you get access to some exclusive rooms like our vip lounge
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our monthly movie night and our exclusive tasting experience if you want more details you can go to
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bourbonbites.com on all that info. But yeah, head to our Discord server and let me know what sales
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or discounts you see across the web this weekend and into next week. Now, moving beyond whiskey
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itself, I will say Buffalo Trace has been really promoting their sale. Right now, they're offering
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20% off if you spend $120 at their store. You can also get 15% off when you spend $75. And if you
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spend over $140, you get a free stuffed buffalo. I can attest these are so cute when I visited the
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distillery. I almost bought one for myself. But bonus offer, free shipping is included on orders
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over $89. And this is only through the 30th of November. This is just for their online store. So
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if you're interested in getting your Buffalo Trace merch, whether it be shirts, barware, or candles
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or bitters, check out their sale. Add up to your cart because the more you spend, the more you save
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So I'm always a person that like builds out my cart and then waits a minute before purchasing
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because there's a good chance I'm going to want something else later on. So if you want some
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Buffalo Trace merch, check that out. Similarly, Jim Beam is offering 25% off site-wide. That
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includes their hoodies, their shirts, their hats, their beanies. I'm looking on their site here
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Looks like they have some bourbon cherries. There's something that looks like a, oh, it's a shaker, cocktail shaker. Okay, cool. Yeah, so basically site-wide on Jim Beam's merch store
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it's 25% off and that's through November 30th as well. Another major distillery that's offering
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a discount on their merch is High West. They're selling many of their items for up to 50% off
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this Black Friday. From apparel to drinkware to accessories and limited edition merch
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those are all on sale while supplies last. They have it categorized based on how much percent
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off you get. So there's like a 50% off section, a 40, a 30, and a 20. So check out their website
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highwest.com slash sale and see if there's anything you like. I will say High West merch
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is really high quality. I came home with some of it myself when I visited their distillery last year
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So definitely check that out if you are a fan of their stuff. It's just really good quality merch
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Now maybe if you aren't in the market for merch but you do like some good whiskey reading
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Whiskey Advocate Magazine is on sale where you get two years for the price of one. For just $22
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you get two years of Whiskey Advocate Magazine which includes 90 plus whiskey reviews in every
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issue. Whiskey is available at every price point and trusted blind tasted ratings. I've had a chance
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to flip through quite a few of these magazines. I don't currently have a subscription myself
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but seeing the discount price, I might have to pick that up. It's just a really great way to
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find out about new brands. They have a lot of great interviews, but what I love is just seeing
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the reviews of new releases and seeing what they think is highly rated just so I can keep an eye
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out for it as well. So to get that deal, you can go to their website, whiskeyadvocate.com. You'll
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see a link to the Black Friday sale. You can also just get one year for $10 at a discount if you
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prefer to do that versus committing to two years. Either way, you're going to save money. But it's
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definitely a good way to try it out and see if it's something you're interested in continuing a subscription for. Well, like I said, I'm gonna keep this episode short, partially because my
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throat hurts during this cold. But also, I really couldn't find too many other deals. But I want you
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guys to let me know what you found because I not subscribed to every whiskey newsletter there is So please share in the community what you think is the best Black Friday or Cyber Week deal in the world of whiskey
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All right, well, I'm not going to end this episode without trying some whiskey. So let's go ahead and get into our bite-sized review
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All right, well, this week's bite-sized review comes to us from Town Branch Distilling
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They've just announced their new Imperium release. Now this one is labeled MMXXV, which if you do the Roman numerals, that adds up to the year 2025
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meaning this is this year's release of Imperium. They say that this is a high-end, limited edition bourbon built on a 50% weeded bourbon foundation
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that's bottled at 105 proof, non-chill filtered, and offered at a retail price of $119.99
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And the kind folks over there were generous enough to send me a sample for review today
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So shout out to Town Branch. I think this is the first time I've had something from them on the channel or podcast, so I'm excited to give it a try
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Now, this is only the second release of Imperium. There was one that came out last year
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They say that this year's edition draws from Town Branch's exclusive Imperium bourbon stocks, which include only the finest barrels from three of the distillery's bourbon mash bills
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So there's a pot still Kentucky bourbon at a 72% corn, 15% rye, 13% malted barley, a column still Kentucky bourbon at the same mash bill, and another column still weeded bourbon at a 70% corn, 22% wheat, and 8% malted barley mash bill
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By the way, if you're a little confused by that math, I know I was. 50% of it is that weeded bourbon mash bill, whereas the other 50% is made up of those two different rye bourbon mash bills
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So that still stays true to the 50% weeded mash bill being used in this blend
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Now, they do go on in the press release to give you the full details of the different barrels that went into this
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It looks like there's a blend of five-year, six-month weeded bourbons along with some six-year, five-month, and eight-year, six-month Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
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So it seems like the weeded bourbon is the younger component here, and then the older bourbon tends to be that Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey or those rye mash bills that we're seeing
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So ages between five and a half to eight plus years. But now that we have the specs out of the way, let's go ahead and get this open and give it a nose
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Oh, nice. surprisingly rich. I'm getting a lot of richness there. I was expecting a bit more sweetness and a
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little bit softness from that weeded bourbon but now that we know that it's a blend of both
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weeded and rye bourbon in there I can see more of that spiciness kind of shining through here
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With that being said though there is a subtle grain quality to it that I've associated with
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other wheat whiskeys or weeded bourbons before. It's almost like a soft note. It's really hard to
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describe but it's like a little bit of like a barnyard hay like a dried out hay but not like
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sharp or anything that smells like you know fresh cut grass but with that being said there is a
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oakiness that's really surprising it has a bit of a dark molasses note combined with that oakiness
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it kind of reads more like a mature oak you know sometimes with some of these smaller distilleries
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or distilleries that I just don't have much experience with I find a bit of the oak to be a
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bit green like a bit you know youthful but this one I don't know if it's just the combination of
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the mash bills or what going on here but the oak actually is really complementary to all the other
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nosing notes I'm getting here yeah spice and oak are the big things jumping out of this one but
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there's a little bit of that uh grain quality as well overall really nice nose I like that a lot
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I'm excited to see what else comes out of it as we get into the taste so let's go and give it a try
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cheers y'all oh yeah wow 105 proof that's the highest proof thing i've had today so
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that definitely hit but it hit in a really good way i'm definitely getting a lot more sweetness
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in the palette than i was doing on the nose but it's kind of well blended with some of those
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darker notes i was getting on the nose while i get a bit of a cherry like a chocolate covered
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cherry note on the palette it's like a dark chocolate versus like a sweet milk chocolate
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it kind of just got that richness and um just depth to it that dark chocolate brings The sun is milk chocolate lacks So definitely dark chocolate covered cherries Typical notes of vanilla and caramel A little bit darker caramel
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though. It's not as not as sweet as like something I've had in the past. It's like a creamy caramel
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It's a little bit more dark. I said molasses on the nose. I wouldn't say it's quite molasses. I'm
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not quite getting that but it's almost more of like a darker like you know cooked down caramel
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I will say, you know, after another sip, the oak is quite tannic. It definitely reads more like a cedar than an oak, which of course we know it's oak
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but it kind of has that bitterness that I associate with like a cedar. It's not to the point where it's overwhelming though, because you can still get those sweeter
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fruitier caramel characteristics after the fact. It's just you're hit up front with that tannin that's a little bit sharp
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Finish wise, I would say this has a medium finish. It's nothing too crazy
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Definitely is enough to get that flavor kind of just hanging out in the back of your palate you know kind of lingering in a good way but it doesn't linger too long it doesn't overstay its
13:10
welcome I will say the most flavor that is lingering is that bit of tannic oak there just a
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bit that's kind of what's hanging on maybe a little bit with that cherry as well which isn't a bad
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combination it just kind of makes it taste more like a sour cherry than I was getting at the
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beginning of the palate overall you know I think this is a quality bourbon now I think it's time to
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give this whiskey a rating and this one's going to be tough for me because I do really enjoy it for
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what it is. I think the flavors are working really well. It's a bit different than anything I think
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I've had. It's something that I would happily drink on any given occasion. I think it's a great flavor
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profile. I think the price is the only thing holding me back because 120 is up there for a
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five to eight year old bourbon 105 proof. Not to say it's a bad bourbon at all. That's just the only
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thing that's going to kind of hold me back from giving it a higher score because I really enjoy
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what I'm drinking here. So all things considered, price, proof, age, I like to bundle it all up into
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one score. I'm going to have to give this a 7 out of 10. It makes me excited to try more of their
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core lineup that might be at a lower price. I think the only thing holding this back from a higher
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score, which, you know, it's not really even a low score, is one, I think the proof. I think 105
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it tastes good and it's a solid proof for this bourbon the way it tastes. But if you're going to
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have a limited edition release at 120. I would like to see it at cast strength. Maybe that's just
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me personally. If you prefer to release it at a lower proof, maybe some more age on it. You know
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something like that might help this be more of a recommendation in my book. But Seven Outlets In
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is solid. I am so glad I had a chance to try it. Huge shout out to the folks at Town Branch for
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seeing this sample for review. Like I said, I'm excited to try more of their core lineup. I think
14:53
the flavors here work really well and I think trying something at a lower price maybe a little
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lower proof or lower age I might enjoy even more than this but I am so thankful for a chance to try
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it if you guys want to see more Town Branch on the channel please let me know I can reach out to
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them and maybe we do a flight or an interview with this being my first impression of Town Branch
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it's a solid one and I hope to try more of their stuff in the future all right well that does it
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for this week's episode. Thank you for bearing with me for a shorter episode. I'm just trying
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to rest my voice a bit because I'm really getting a sore throat the longer I go through the day
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But I appreciate you guys listening. Thank you for tuning in. Obviously, there's not going to be a live stream this Thursday night because it's Thanksgiving
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and I know people have other plans. I'm actually driving down to San Diego for the long weekend
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and hopefully seeing Alfonso, who is one of the Bourbon Bite Patreon supporters of the channel
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Yeah, hope you guys, like I said, have a wonderful Thanksgiving season. whether you are still celebrating or you are out doing all your shopping
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Let me know if any of these deals caught your eye and you bought anything. Would love to know what you picked up
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But with that, this has been the Bourbon Vites podcast, a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist
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Cheers. I'm Clifton and I'll talk to you guys next episode
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