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Bourbon Review: Idle Hands 5-Year-Old Straight Bourbon

We review Idle Hands 5-year-old Straight Bourbon. It commemorates an edgy New York City bar that was all about beer, bourbon, and rock and roll.

OVERALL RATING

7
$55.00
  • Scott Bernard Nelson is a writer, actor, and whiskey reviewer.
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Idle Hands Five Year Straight Bourbon

Tasting Notes

About:

Appearance:
Amber, almost the color of a darker piece of Citrine quartz. Decent legs on the side of the glass.
Nose:
There’s honey and brown sugar, but the rye spice is definitely apparent, also. It smells, in fact, pretty much the way you’d expect a “heavy-rye bourbon” to smell. The oak-heavy traditional bourbon is in there, but you can’t miss the spice. It hits you as soon as your nose gets close to the glass.
Palate:
This is a dark and rich whiskey, bringing to mind molasses and maple syrup. As with the nose, though, you can’t miss the spiciness and grassiness reminiscent of a rye. The finish is long and honeyed.
Finish:
Comments:
The first Idle Hands, in 2019, amounted to a total of 180 bottles. It was rare from the outset – more of a novelty item. This 2021 Idle Hands includes a production run of about 6,000 bottles, so you actually stand a chance of finding one in a liquor store in your state. That, it turns out, is a good thing. Idle Hands has an interesting backstory and, at $55, is a good bourbon for the price.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Scott Bernard Nelson

Scott Bernard Nelson is a writer, actor, and whiskey reviewer based in Portland, Oregon. While currently working in higher education, he previously dedicated 22 years to journalism, covering impactful events such as 9/11 in Manhattan, crossing into Iraq with U.S. Marines, and contributing to The Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of abuse in the Catholic Church, which inspired the film "Spotlight." Since 2019, Scott has shared his insights as a whiskey reviewer for The Whiskey Wash.  

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