Review #263: Orphan Barrel Night Sage, 25yr Blended Canadian Whisky

COUNTRY: Canada

ABV: 45%

AGE: 25 yr

COST: $250 for 750mL bottle

It’s funny how easy it is to say you’re going to pass on a particular bottle but then when presented with an opportunity to buy it, how easy it is to succumb to temptation. Ah…story of my life.

I’ve always been a fan of Orphan Barrel because they can offer up some unique whiskey and I enjoy doing the research to try and narrow down where their expressions of undisclosed origin come from (for what it’s worth, I tried with this release but came up short other than highly likely some high age whiskey from Gimli here). When Night Sage was first announced, I was intrigued, but in the back of my mind I was hesitant due to it being high aged Canadian whiskey. There’s nothing wrong with that, but my home bar currently has a pretty good selection of high aged Canadian whiskey via Found North, so I figured this might be one I would pass on (though I was smitten by the label). I then read David Thomas Tao’s review of it and he basically validated almost exactly what was in my head – it might be good, but there’s a lot of high aged Canadian whiskey in the market right now that you can get for a better price. That was that! I wasn’t planning on investing in the Night Sage bottle.

Fast forward 3 months and I walked into my favorite local liquor store and on the top shelf behind the counter was a bottle of Night Sage… “I’m not getting it,” I thought to myself…I already committed myself to that. So, I take a stroll down the bourbon aisle.

As I’m wandering, I sent a picture of a couple bottles to a buddy of mine. I then let him know about the bottle of Night Sage, which I knew he was interested in. At the very least, he gets it and I get to bum a pour off him, right? He remained as disciplined as I was and decided to pass since we had a Bardstown trip coming up.

Well, this buddy and I sometimes split the price of bottles and we each take a half of the bottle. This helps relieve some of the financial burden as well as not filling up the bar too much. (There’s something about a 750mL bottle that seems to stick around for significantly longer than a 375mL bottle…) I should have left it where it was…but instead, I asked him, “want to split it?”

When he sent back, “Split. Yes.” I didn’t give him enough time to back out before I had purchased the bottle and was headed out the door.

Like I stated in the beginning, it’s funny how easy it is to commit to not purchasing a particular bottle when it’s not in front of you, but then all of a sudden when it’s physically available and you have the opportunity…well, that’s the universe saying it must happen, not you giving up on your commitment… 🙃 Let’s check out the 25th release from Orphan Barrel: Night Sage.

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Honey colored (0.7), with thin, fast legs.

NOSE: Sweet with a sharp spice. Big vanilla right away with confectionary notes of caramel, butterscotch, and brulee. A blend of almond and orange extracts add to the sweetness while bringing a sharp bite. White pepper adds some spice. A touch of lemon oil and varnished oak provide a tingle. The more I sip, notes of figs and dried nuts start to form as well.

PALATE: A medium viscosity mouthfeel. The label hints at figs by showing a branch of figs tucked under the wings of a snow owl, and notes of fig immediately pop off for me. A mix of butterscotch, Nilla Wafers, and burnt white sugar dance around on the back of the palate while I get little bites of numbing pepper on the front of my tongue. Sweet oak continues to build the longer it sits on the palate. While what I’m getting is good and well balanced, it is a mild profile and the notes aren’t particularly robust, but they are clear.

FINISH: Shmedium length finish. Varnished oak, thinned caramel sauce, and occasional pops of fig preserves. After a while the sweeter notes fade, and I’m left with a mild bed of tannic oak and white pepper.

RATING: 7.1/10

OVERALL: While the blend of this release isn’t disclosed, I’m guessing it’s a higher corn content than rye, but still enough rye to make its presence known with the peppery spice found throughout. The whiskey itself was barreled in once used and multi-use barrels. This showed up in the very mild oak presence for a 25-year whiskey, but it was still undeniably there. It was honestly the perfect touch of oak. My biggest complaint (as it is with most Orphan Barrel releases) is how mild the flavors were. I would have loved to see this 10 proof points higher and really let those notes on the palate make a statement. When they’re all toned down, it can be hard to dissect the notes. While this is an artifact of the proof, I also understand it’s a 25-year whiskey from a limited number of barrels. So, it’s thinned down to make sure it’s not too tannic as well as stretch the bottle run to give people a reasonable chance to try it if they desire.

All that said, while it is a good whiskey, it’s just not as robust as some of the other Canadian whiskey I have in my bar. Perhaps that’s not fair since most of it is Found North, but c’est la vie. While none of what I have on hand has a 25-year age statement, most of it has components that are knocking on 25 years. To compare them, I took a pour from Found North Hover Hawk (picked because the grain ratio had a decent rye component) and proofed it down to probably 70-80 proof and then compared it to Night Sage. They had surprisingly similar noses, but the palate of the Hover Hawk was still significantly more robust than the Night Sage.

While Night Sage is a good whiskey, I think David was spot on when he said the current market just has too many options for high aged Canadian whiskey to settle on Night Sage if that’s all that is pulling you.

1 | Disgusting | see my 1/10 ratings

2 | Poor | see my 2/10 ratings

3 | Bad | see my 3/10 ratings

4 | Sub-par | see my 4/10 ratings

5 | Good | see my 5/10 ratings

6 | Very Good | see my 6/10 ratings

7 | Great | see my 7/10 ratings

8 | Excellent | see my 8/10 ratings

9 | Incredible | see my 9/10 ratings

10 | Perfect | see my 10/10 ratings