ASW Fiddler Syncopation Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Pour this one neat on a weeknight and it makes sense immediately. Caramel and vanilla come through soft and sweet, the kind of easy bourbon sweetness that doesn't need coaxing, while dark fruit sits underneath and gives the whiskey some weight. Toasted grain runs through it all, a reminder that bourbon is a grain spirit before it is anything else.

An oak cask finish rounds the edges and leaves baking spice and oak on the close, warm rather than sharp. That spice makes it a good candidate for an old fashioned, where the sugar and bitters have something real to hold onto.

Fiddler Syncopation is a straight bourbon made in Georgia, part of the growing Southern whiskey scene outside the traditional Kentucky corridor. It comes in a 750 mL bottle and drinks well enough to keep on the shelf rather than save for an occasion.