I had Old Dominick Tennessee Whiskey for the first time a couple years ago. I liked it, but hadn’t felt compelled to revisit it until a couple months ago when I walked into a local liquor store that had a Single Barrel store pick that was almost sold out in less than 3 days. I tried a sample and decided to spend the $65 or so they wanted…a price I deemed way more than fair.
This Old Dominick Single Barrel Straight Tennessee Whiskey is distilled, aged, and bottled by Old Dominick Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee. It has a mash bill of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley. This barrel was aged for 8 years, went into the barrel at 110 proof, and was bottled at 136.2 proof, or 68.1% ABV. All that from the labels…I love it when whiskey brands are transparent about their products.
One of the things that made me take immediate notice of this bottle was how dark the whiskey is. It is a beautiful dark amber color with tons of red in it. Having the glass sitting beside me as I sit this, I can smell the caramel aroma without even getting near it. Giving it a good nose, the caramel is downplayed a bit as massive barrel char notes come in, alongside vanilla custard, and dark fruit.
This “not quite hazmat” Tennessee Whiskey was my first sip of the day…and it really showed off its proof, drinking pretty hot right out of the gate. Despite the heat, though, I got a really nice sweetness in the form of caramel and vanilla up front. On the second sip I savored it and held it in my mouth a bit longer; I noted that the sweetness up front was followed almost immediately by a drying oakiness. 8 years in a barrel was definitely enough for this…the oak was prominent here, but I’m afraid that much more could be offputting. It definitely got easier to sip on as my palate got acclimated to the high proof, but there was still a very spicy finish, probably owing more to proof than rye.
All in all, this was an excellent sipping whiskey. For some drinkers it might benefit from the addition of some water to tame the proof a bit, but even sipping neat, it was excellent.
