Review #: 524
Description: Remus Gatsby Reserve
Spirit: Bourbon
Background: 30 for 30: Day 18. Long known as Midwestern Grain Product/Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana, fairly recently they have started bottling their own product under the Remus line. With the change, they have now started referring to it as “Ross and Squibb” distillery. One would assume they have held onto some well aged product, and this Remus Reserve comes in at 15 years old. It is named after the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. High age and a fairly low cask strength, it carries a $200 price tag.
Distillery – MGP
Bottler – MGP
Brand – Remus
Selection – N/A
ABV – 48.9%
Age – 15 Years
Nose – Can smell the richness of the oak, cocoa, chocolate caramel, peanut brittle, ripe cherry, tobacco, there’s a real nice barrel spice in the background
Taste – Light vanilla, overripe cherry, oak is very present and has a pretty strong bitterness. Maybe some peanut but the oak really borders on being acidic
Finish – Oak, tobacco, dark chocolate, tart apple, the bitterness actually tones down and works better on the finish
Score: 5
Would I buy a bottle? No
Thoughts: A little disappointed with this one. I had heard legends of the 10+ year, under 50% bottles from back in the day from the likes of Smooth Ambler, so I had high hopes for this despite the difference in price. I just feel like this was too much wood. It wasn’t even a dryness, but went straight to bitter that wasn’t that great (but not awful). Stinks too because the nose was heavenly and up there with the GTS and WLW in terms of smell.