Distillery: Hotel Tango Distillery
Proof: 90
Age: 6 Years
Mashbill: 74% corn, 22% rye, & 4% malted barley
BACKGROUND: Hotel Tango was started by Marine Veteran, Travis Barnes, who served in 3 tours in Iraq. While on his third tour, Barnes was struck with multiple IEDs & diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury along with PTSD. Following his honorable discharge, he went to law school & started making homemade whiskey with his wife, Hilary. Hotel Tango prides themselves on the community aspect of their business, always giving back, and helping veterans, whether that be supplying commissaries or hiring other veterans. The 002 is the second of a limited release of the distillery. Since opening, Hotel Tango has only grown, announcing a second tasting room and expanding their customer reach past Indiana.
NOSE: The nose opens with a spicy rye bite followed up with notes of citrus, banana, and charred oak. As the pour opens up more floral notes with more brown sugar. (22/25)
PALATE: 002 has a thick mouthfeel that immediately coats your mouth with warm flavors of molasses and brown sugar that turns to a dark chocolate, malted barley and charred oak that play back and forth. (33/40)
FINISH: The finish is medium in length leaving light notes of clove with a tingle comparable to rye spice on the sides of your tongue. Notes of oak and vanilla play peek-a-boo coming ang going. (21/25)
VALUE: For $60 series 002 is a great purchase, very enjoyable neat, and would definitely make a fantastic cocktail for those who like a bite. (7/10)
Overall: 80/100
FINAL THOUGHTS: Hotel Tango series 002 as an absolute flavor bomb warming your mouth and heating your chest with the right abount of oak and rye, while not being too spicy or oaky. After trying this I will most definitely be purchasing the upcoming limited releases.
Slightly Better Whiskey: Henry Mckenna 10 year
Equal Whiskey: 1792 BiB
Slightly Worse Whiskey: Jim Beam Bonded
Scoring Legend:
96-100: The perfect dram, juice of the gods
90-95: Near perfect, truly incredible whiskey
85-89: Amazing whiskey, will always try to keep a backup bottle of this
80-84: Very good, some minor flaws here or there
75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink, Will try and keep a bottle on the shelf
70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get this
60-69: Decent, would offer this up to non whiskey drinkers
50-59: Not my cup of tea
Below 50: Give away
