Who do you trust? For ratings that is.

[Boudie]

George Dickel BIB distilled in Fall of 2005 is rated by Whiskey Advocate as the #1 Whiskey of the year with a 94 ! The site I read when considering a new purchase is Distiller.com. They rate the same whiskey an 89/100 with a user rating of 3.85 out of a possible 5. Quite a difference of opinion. My experience with Dickel products would make me tend toward the lower Distiller.com scores


Where do you fall? Have you ever tasted this expression, good or not so good I'm sure it will be harder to find if you did want to try it.

 

[Tennessee Dave]

After many years of tasting bourbon, Irish and Scotch I have learned what flavor profiles I like and which ones I don't. I tend to seek libations that fit those flavor profiles rather than how they score.

 

[CVAC085]

I'm far from a connoisseur, I'm an amateur but from what I've tasted or enjoyed has been from buying a bottle and trying it myself, a huge gamble. Usually I'm reading and chatting here with everyone and seeing how they might perceive the libation and I take it from there. I've never really paid any attention to the whiskey advocate and others ratings plus I'm sure that drives up their sales for the bottles too. I use an app called Distilled I believe it's called and I record my own tastings (and can share with others) similar to the beer one, Untappd.

 

[gurgalunas]

For some reason, I thought I heard this was a very specific batch of that product. In other words, may have been off profile for the on-the-shelf bottle. I'll try to track down where I heard that to confirm...

EDIT: Yeah, it was refered to as "a specific vintage-based release so impossible to duplicate" in a thread on StraightBourbon.com

I've had some good well-aged Dickel bourbons, but dont trust the product in general, as there are a lot of Dickel products I dont care for...

 

[Boudie]

From what I read the Distiller.com review was based on the same distilling period Fall of 2005 as the Whiskey Advocate review. Hard to imagine that the bottles can be that different.

Maybe like cigars you have to find a reviewer that has a palate similar to yours to make a review helpful. I do know that I will drive over an hour and pay a bit more to purchase a barrel select because I appreciate the owner's palate.