The Dickel "vitamin note" really is a thing

[squire]

I was thinking the oxidative effects of aging for years.

Historical query: When George Dickel first started retailing Cascade whisky it was sold by the barrel. Was it also unaged fresh from the distillery?

[Paddy]

I too believe it's the yeast, but I can't help but think of my late grandmother when I taste it. My grandparents had two wells, and the water from each did not taste the same due to variances in their mineral content. I could never fool her...

[beasled]

I get the vitamin taste on GD12, but I rather like it...

[Gillman]

Some years ago, Jeff Yeast (that's his name) first commented about this flavor, using that metaphor I mean. It's one of the great sensory contributions to discussions of the bourbon palate, as he was exactly right.

I had two bottles of Dickel Black from the 70's once, found on a shelf of one of those small corner stores in San Francisco. It had just a hint of the taste, and IMO the taste has deepened in the last 30 years and not to the benefit of the whiskey.

I once had a taste from someone's "powder horn" bottle from the early 60's, the original, and it had none of the taste.  My sense is, a particular secondary constituent - one of the non-ethanol congeners thrown off by fermentation - produces this taste as part of the aging. If as Joe says it's not in the white whiskey, the oxidation working on that congener(s) probably does it.

The brand has been remarkably consistent over the last 12 years or so, so I give them that, but it's not a taste I find attractive.

 

Gary Gillman

www.beeretseq.com

[KyleCBreese]

I've had a bottle of Dickel 9-year Barrel Select that I thought was undrinkable at first. The Flintstone vitamin taste was overpowering. I thought of throwing it out. Then tonight, I had a blind pour from the cabinet and it was the Dickel 9. I couldn't recognize it. This bottle has changed so much over time. It has been open for about a year and I actually enjoyed it. The vitamin is still slightly there on the nose, but not so much on the taste. I've never had a bottle change this much.

[Harry in WashDC]

I had a pint I bought just to try.  It took me about a year to finish it off.  It never did lose that vitamin note.  I don't think I'll buy any more until you all tell me the note is gone.