Intro

Slovenian Select is a product from The Whiskey Blendery located in Oak Point, TX. One of their premium experiences is to blend your own whiskey to create a true small batch product. You let them know ahead of time what flavor profile you are looking to create, and they will pick barrels that they believe could help you achieve that profile. We had three barrels hand selected for us and we ended up using this ratio of whiskeys:

60% 9yr MGP High Rye Bourbon

20% 8yr MGP 95/5 Rye

20% 7yr MGP 95/5 High Corn

What makes this much more unique than just a blend of MGP whiskey is that our bourbon club was fortunate enough to be able to pick a now infamous BuffTurkey single barrel several months earlier. That empty barrel was still available, and we asked about throwing our final blend into the barrel. It sat in that barrel for 6 weeks before it was fully ready. The final proof of this blended whiskey is 124.2. The name for this is homage to Luka Doncic who we miss greatly as Dallas Mavericks fans.

Nose (9)

The main note is some blend of caramel or toffee. I’m leaning caramel, but not like a homemade caramel that you might use for baked goods. More like the caramel you would find in a Milky Way candy bar. There is a slight sweet note in background that almost presents like a vanilla ice cream float. This nose is straight up dessert. 9/10

Palate (10)

There are layers to this pour and each phase of the palate brings something unique. Unlike most bourbons where sweetness is the first thing that you get, the high rye really shines and carries most of the initial flavor. The rye does not come across as mint as can happen with younger MGP rye. Instead, it is driven by baking spice herbs and an even more minor citrus note. It reminds me very briefly of Christmas time when you would put a bunch of clove sticks into an orange. This quickly transitions to more of what you get on the nose with caramel sweetness and a very slight bitter cocoa note. The final flavors you get as it transitions to the finish is sweet oak with a building spice. Because I love these flavors and because this thing is amazingly complex, this is going to score perfect on the palate.

Finish (7)

This is easily the weakest aspect of the pour, but don’t take that to mean that the finish is bad! The finish is absolutely delicious with oak driving the flavor and it does not become drying or overly tannic. The finish just doesn’t last as long as you’d like it to for cask strength whiskey. It’s medium in length and immediately leaves you wanting another sip to get the flavor train going again. That makes for a dangerous dram where you find your glass empty and needing a refill far too often.

Overall (8.8)

I am extremely proud of what we were able to blend and that we had the courage to take good juice and risk it by throwing it in a barrel from a completely different distillery. The Whiskey Blendery gave us some great barrels to work with and most of the credit goes to them. I hope that our members that were able to purchase a bottle enjoy this as much as I do.