Well folks, it’s Monday again which means we’ve got another mystery dram to solve.

As I mentioned in the last mystery dram post, I’ve decided to make this a wee bit more interesting by sending out a mystery dram to the correct guesser of the week’s mystery dram or, if there has been no correct guess, the sample goes to a commenter (randomly chosen).  Last week, Gal of Whisky Israel won the mystery dram.  Details on how to win a mystery dram sample (which will be Scotch or American whisk(e)y, your choice) are listed below, after the review.

For previous “Rick’s Mystery Dram” entries :

Here’s Mystery Dram #1 (which ended up being Parker’s Heritage First Edition)

Here’s Mystery Dram #2 (which ended up being Parker’s Heritage Golden Anniversary)

Here’s Mystery Dram #3 (which ended up being Evan Williams Single Barrel, 2000 vintage, barrel # 234)

Review time!

On the nose – It’s quite obvious that Rick is trying to throw me for a loop here.  The first three drams were whiskeys.  American Whiskeys.  He decided to go south of the border this time and secretly switched my whisk(e)y with Tequila.  Based on the deep color, I’d say it’s an Anejo but, from the very first sniff all I could smell was agave and oak.

This is a sweet nose, but not seemingly as juicy as the Don Julio Anejo I reviewed a few months back during Passover.

Toasted wood and chocolate notes (strange, never got chocolate notes in a tequila before…) pop as does some marijuana (Man, this brings back memories.  Break out your double LP of “Frampton Comes Alive”), spicy notes and a good bit of agave for sure.  Sandalwood and Nag Champa incense.

On the mouth – Light and watery tequila (is this even 40% ABV?).  This is a nice sipping tequila for those nervous about the stuff (or remembers the headaches from college).  Chocolate notes return and some nice ruby red grapefruity notes appear.  Not as sweet as the nose but oh, so drinkable.  I was hoping for a whisk(e)y dram but, this is a welcome change.

I change my mind, it’s got an oily mouth feel but it’s as if it’s been watered down a bit.  Strange – insanely smooth.

Finish – Short to medium length.  Nothing too-too special but not disappointing in any way.

In sum – Rick, you did it again.  You’ve managed to fool me but, I’d say that you may have fooled my readers as I’m guessing not many of them know a whole heck of a lot about tequila.

Then again, I could be totally wrong.

Clues –

• Low ABV (I’d be surprised if it were more that 40%)
• Very woody (my guessing from the extra aging to make it an Anejo)
• Chocolate, marijuana and sandalwood notes
• Produced in Mexico 🙂

JMSWS antes up!

For those who attempt to guess – each week I will be sending out one mystery dram (a small 5cl bottle) and the first person guesses correctly wins the dram.  Actually, if there are no correct guesses for the week then a winner will be chosen at random.  You win whether your right or not (like a weatherperson – right or not, s/he still has a job)!

So again, I will be awarding a free whisk(e)y sample every week to one lucky winner (whether you guess correctly or not).

How do I enter to win you ask?

Easy, comment on this post with what you think the mystery dram of the week may be.  It’s that simple.

I will let you choose the type of mystery dram — Scotch or American Whiskey (though that’s all you’ll know about it).  And if you’d like, you can send me your tasting notes and I’ll post them for my readers to guess at.  If you’d prefer the blind tasting to be between just you and me… that’s cool too.