Cooper’s Craft Barrel Reserve 100 Proof begins with a very, very light new oak aroma. You really have to work to get something out of the nose of this bourbon. Typically, when you open a bottle of bourbon, you get a strong aroma of something. However, this was a very different experience. There was not much on the nose.
On the nose, you can discern white pepper and very mild traditional bourbon notes like caramel and vanilla if you work hard enough. But you have to work at it. Even after letting it sit in the glass for a minute or so, there was not much on the nose. I expected a little more charred oak since this is a Brown-Forman product.
The palate is almost a nutty brown sugar that wants to be sweet, but it’s not. There’s a tiny bit of viscosity, but there is not much there beyond the woody oak notes and extremely mild traditional bourbon notes. This is a boring pour for my palate.
I tasted this along with Old Forester 86 and 100 proof bourbons and it was interesting seeing the difference between the different bourbons.
There is little to no finish.