Parker's Heritage 11 Barrel Finished Orange Curacao Review
I acquired a bottle of this a while back and after hearing some reviews from trusted friends I did a slick deal and traded it for something else I was more familiar with. Basically I had heard it was an orange bomb of death, wrapped it oranges and sprayed with Orange Glo completely covering up any trace of bourbon. SOUNDS LIKE A MF CHALLENGE!
Parker's Heritage releases an annual bottle, like this, in the fall but this is only the second one to feature a "finish". The first was the 5th release finished in Cognac barrels. I'm not really sure how they settled on this - the only plausible scenario is they spun a wheel and one of the master distillers mashed their wiener (they all bros) on it and it landed on Orange Curacao. Don't bother fact checking. This was aged 7ish years in oak, because berbin rulez, and finished for four additional months in the Orange latrines.
So as I mentioned all I heard was this was an orange peel in some whiskey. I was anticipating this in a wincing manner as if I was about to get a root canal. So in da nose I got the whole standard vanilla and cinnamon thing but I did get a very present note of toffee. In da mouf...drumrollllllll...I didn't get as much orange as everyone said. As I aerated it through my mouth, via my damn gap ass teef, the orange swerve came out a little bit more but mostly I got corn liquid and maybe some marshmallow. I was pleasantly surprised by the the bold mouthfeel, even at 110 proof, but then it just tapered off into this standard bourbon liquid. The finish was an absolute let down after starting so HEY I'M IN YOUR MOUTH, BRUH!
This is a real womp womp from the previous Parker's Heritage releases and normally I whore out so hard for Heaven Hill but yeah. Missed it on this one, guys. If you get the chance to try it at a friends house do that otherwise don't waste the $90.