From: The Whiskey Wash

Blood Oath, the nation's most elaborately-marketed independent bottling, is back for a third round with Blood Oath Pact No. 3.

Pact No. 3 continues the wine-finished trend, blending a seven-year-old rye finished in California cabernet sauvignon barrels with seven- and 12-year-old bourbon. It's bottled at 98.6 proof, like the previous two releases. The company labels it "a fateful affair between Kentucky and California," and gives the following tasting notes:

APPEARANCE: Deep dark amber with long legs.

AROMA: Caramel, vanilla, stone fruit, cocoa, oak.

PALATE: Caramel, vanilla, creamy smooth from the barrel finish, toasted oak, apricots, higher spice than the previous pacts but still ultra-smooth for the proof.

FINISH: Long lingering spice, balanced and surprisingly-smooth at this high proof, with lasting caramel and oak.

Tasting Notes: Blood Oath Pact No. 3

Appearance: Deep copper

Nose: I get a big hit of fresh apricot and cherry at first, followed by caramel and vanilla, then dusty wood and cardboard. I see an image of fruity red wine in a stale cardboard box.

Palate: Vanilla and caramel open the palate, with major juicy red fruit and burnt sugar on the back of the tongue. There's quite a lot of warm allspice, especially with a few drops of water added, and some heat. Fruit and wood close it out, with oak lingering in the mouth. Tongue-coating, but not quite drying.