Whiskey Advent Calendar Tasting: Smooth Ambler Old Scout American Whiskey

This is part of my series on tasting notes from the 2021 Drinks By The Dram Bourbon Advent Calendar.

Whiskey for December 4th, 2021: Smooth Ambler Old Scout American Whiskey

The distillery

Smooth Ambler is a new-ish distillery, founded in 2009 in Greenbriar County, West Virginia by TAG Galyean and John Little. They position themselves as a craft brewer that seems to focus on bourbon and rye with some small batch varietals of such thrown around. West Virginia is not a state I usually associate with whiskey, so it'll be interesting to see how they do.

The whiskey

Smooth Ambler no longer lists an Old Scout American Whiskey on their web page but I could find online retailers like Caskers still carrying it.

Caskers has a some information:

Old Scout American Whiskey is a blend of two whiskeys distilled from bourbon mash bills. One 9+ YO 36% rye bourbon whiskey aged in new oak barrels, and a 5+ YO whiskey distilled from a bourbon mash and aged in re-charred “rejuvenated barrels”.

The 36% rye matches the Smooth Ambler Old Scout Bourbon, but that's only a 5-year-old spirit, so we've got our hands on something a little special here.

Look

This whiskey has a lovely sunny yellow tone to it. It swirls well and leaves a thin layer of glycerine the evolves into legs with real staying power.

Nose

Lots of lovely bright citrus on the nose. Orange and lemon are right up in the foreground. Hiding in the background is a little rye and oak, hanging out and being slightly peppery and woody. Some very mild sweet sugary smells running through it all.

Taste

A strong hit of peppery rye spice from beginning to end. It compliments the mild alcohol burn to leave a trail of warmth from the tip of your tongue to your stomach. There's just a little sweetness coming through. The finish is long, spicy and smokey, with strong leather notes. There's very little fruit in the taste, which is a nice change up from the previous two whiskeys.

This feels like a fine example of an "old fashioned" bourbon, even if it can't be called that, in the sense that it burns a little, but not too much, and goes easy on the sweetness and fruit.

After water

In a surprising twist the nose turns fruity and sweet with a little water added. I can start to pick out cherry mixed in with the citrus, which becomes a little softer and more lemony.

The taste stays strong and similar to the pre-dilution state, which is very impressive. The spiciness and alcohol burn a muted slightly, but still front and center as the main pillar of the palate. I think I get a little more vanilla showing up and that makes the butterscotch sweetness more prominent. The finish stays basically the same.

Summary

A lovely throwback "bourbon" that I would happily buy, although it seems like it's probably not going to be on sale for much longer. You can pick up a bottle at Caskers for 46 bucks and that seems like a solid price for what you're getting. This is excellent on its own and the strong spiciness would absolutely stand up to being in a cocktail, though it might overwhelm some other flavors.