Background

Disclaimer- the value proposition for Four Gate is a bit tough. The American whiskey market is pretty crowded with NDPs (non-distiller producers), and Four Gate offerings are particularly expensive - generally hovering around the $200 price point. Barrell has blends in the $80-$100 range (excluding their ever expanding premium offerings of course), and you also have groups like Lucky Seven releasing knockout 14 year old barrels with regularity. I have consistently heard great things about what Four Gate produces, but it was tough to justify the cost for sourced juice finished in creative ways. Don’t like the finish or the blend? Congrats you just spent $200 for something that will be a chore to drink. My pitch to NDPs - cut a few bottles from your releases and convert them to airplane bottles so we can try before we buy 🙃.

Because that won’t happen any time soon, I settled for the next best thing: Seelbach’s Black Friday Case Discount! Effectively, buy 6 bottles for the price of 3. Split the 6 pack with a fellow enthusiast, and you have a half off sale on Four Gate Releases. This leads me to these two bottles, Andalusia Key II Bourbon and Andalusia Key Rye. Both of these are finished in Spanish Oloroso Sherry-Dark Rum Casks. The base of the former is 7 year old Kentucky bourbon (source unknown), the latter is 7 year 95/5 MGP rye. Somewhat obvious from the title, but the finish for these is what caught my eye!

Background

It’s Spring Fling at Jack Rose and they put on a hell of a Brown Forman event to launch their new Benriach barrel- the excellently named “Friend’s with Benriach-efits”. As this tasting covered offerings from Brown Forman’s American Whiskey brands and Scotch brands, I figured why not do a simulcast review! In this edition we’ll be reviewing:

• Vintage 1970s Jack Daniels

• Woodford Reserve Five Malt Stouted Mash

• 2022 Old Forester Birthday Bourbon

Also included in the tasting was Benriach Malting Season (2nd Edition), Jack Rose’s new Benriach single barrel, and Glendronach 27 Year Cask Strength. Head on over to the scotch review here if you’re curious for the review of those three. Without further ado, let’s get to the reviews!

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Front and center, a disclaimer- this bottle was provided to me by Peerless at no cost, no obligation to review and with no strings attached. I thank them for their generosity in doing so.

Ok, with that out of the way, let’s recap how we got to round four of Peerless reviews!

• Round One: 3 Year Rye Single Barrel (Very Good - 6/10) and Double Oak Rye Master Distiller Pick (Great - 7/10). Full review here for anyone interested.

• Round Two: 5 Year Bourbon Single Barrel (Very Good to Great - 6.5/10) and Double Oak Bourbon Master Distiller Pick (Excellent - 8/10). Full review here, and also RIP to that delicious Double Oak bottle I’m sad I finished you.

• Round Three: Absinthe Finished Rye (Very Good - 6/10) and 5 Year Rye Single Barrel (Excellent - 8/10). Full review here.

And that brings us to their upcoming High Rye Bourbon release, which will launch at their distillery this Saturday, 4/15 before being distributed more widely into Kentucky, Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California. A few quick facts on this particular offering, then rolling right into the review:

• As is with all Peerless offerings, they dont disclose their mashbill but note the rye count is over two times their standard bourbon offering.

• Again consistent with their other products, this still utilizes sweet mash and everything from them is offered at barrel proof.

• This will be a regular offering from them moving forward, though I admittedly dont have details on any sort of release cadence.

Background

It’s my first formal Wilderness Trail review, and I’m honestly not sure how - I’ve unequivocally enjoyed everything I’ve had from them to date, but since it’s my first one for this distillery let’s start with some fun facts!

• Founders Shane Baker and Dr. Pat Heist met while playing in a rock band.

• They then start Ferm Solutions, a fermentation support company for distilleries. This venture allowed them to then start Wilderness Trail.

• The rye mashbill reviewed here is 56 rye/33 corn/11 malted barley.

• The barrel entry proof is “around 100 proof”. This means that, when we look at these as BiB and around 100 proof, there’s a little less post-aging proofing down then what you would have in the more commonly used 125 barrel entry proof.

• They made a cool $600 mil, $420 now (nice) and the rest in 2031 off of a recent sale to Campari. 

Prior to hopping into the review, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also note that, to date, everyone I have interacted with from Wilderness Trail has been wonderful. Their customer service team is great, and founders Shane Baker and Dr. Pat Heist are fixtures at Jack Rose’s Premier Drams. I can attest first hand they will patiently let you bombard them with questions while you’re semi drunk and they are trapped at their product booth so can't escape you. Good people. Now for the whiskey!

Background

This is u/mothlight64‘s fault. I read his (excellent) review of Frank August Single Barrel, and decided that, despite their completely black box sourcing and pretty-yet-marketing-savvy bottle, I’d bite. As fate would have it, I walk into Boundary Stone (great DC bar, great whiskey selection, even better hot honey chicken sandwich) and there, front and center is Frank August Case Study 01: Mizunara Oak.

Despite sourcing Frank August seems content to never disclose or hint at, they actually do provide a fair bit of info on how this came to fruition on their site. This release comprises 5 barrels finished in Mizunara, they tested them every 30 days to find an ideal flavor profile. From there, they note that they found the “perfect proof that highlighted all the remarkable notes that the Mizunara had imparted on the bourbon whiskey…” Important to note this, to me, makes it clear it’s not cask strength. Not that that matters IMO, if they think this the proof the whiskey shows best that’s fine by me! Let’s get to the final result:

Background

Let’s start with the ocean’s of it all, since the “ocean aged” line of Jefferson’s has arguably become their most famous (or infamous, depending on how you feel) set of offerings. To hear Clay Risen tell it in his indispensable field guide book “Bourbon”, Jefferson’s Founder Trey Zoeller got the idea for this offering while aboard his friend’s conversation research boat. Seeing the bourbon slosh around in Trey’s glass, they decided to stash a barrel of new make on the boat for three and a half years. After the resulting whiskey came out with a powerful flavor profile, Trey decided to operationalize it. They contract with commercial shipping companies, and age existing barrels an extra 6 to 8 months. Jefferson’s even details the voyages on their website, and two of our three offerings today are Voyage 26 (Double Barrel Rye) and Voyage 27 (Jack Rose’s “Boardwalk Brittle” pick).

For this review we’re walking through everything on offer at Jack Rose’s recent Jefferson’s tasting, which was:

• Jefferson’s Very Old, Very Small Batch

• Jefferson’s Ocean Double Rye Voyage 26

• Jefferson’s Ocean Voyage 27, Jack Rose “Boardwalk Brittle” pick

• BONUS Dusty Sam Houston Batch 46 (bottled by McLain and Kyne, founded by Trey Zoeller and his father)

Background

Amburana- so hot right now. Rather than spend a ton of time regurgitating info I definitely didn't Google right before writing this, I’m going to point you to a veritable expert on the subject. JessAnn of H&A Barrel Management recently put out this incredibly informative video together with Novo Fogo (a distillery in Brazil making cachaças) to provide some context on sourcing amburana barrels.

I first encountered amburana with Boss Hog VII, which blew my mind with its baked cinnamon notes. Since that release, amburana has only trended upwards in popularity, and I’m curious to see how it influences these two particular offerings. We have two completely different base whiskies to review, one a 5 year MGP rye, and the other a 9 year MGP bourbon (99/1 mashbill). Let’s get ready to amburumble!

Background

It’s cherry blossom season here in the District so let’s celebrate with some cherry whiskey! Unfortunately, DC’s distilleries don't have anything that quite fits that bill, so I outsourced my cherry fix to Traverse City. Every year, Traverse City (the town in Michigan) holds its annual cherry fest. Traverse City (the distillery in said town), takes a set of handpicked local cherries to add to their whiskey. They then select a set of their higher age statement barrels (aged at least five years), blend them, then add the local cherries to the blend to seep for three days. Technically, that process means both of these are classified as American Whiskey. I love cherries, so I’m really excited to see how these ended up.

Background

We are in the era of American Whiskey Premiumization, Barrell’s Gold and Gray label offerings have now proliferated on store shelves. Wolves Whiskey’s Rye Project MSRPs for around $300, and it’s not just NDP releases driving this market. Heaven Hill’s Heritage Collection (starting with 17 this year) was launched as an “ultra premium” line at an MSRP of $279. Breaking Bourbon wrote an interesting piece on The Birth of $500 Bourbon and what stuck out to me is that these ultra premium offerings are of course incredibly common in Scotch, Japanese Whiskey, Tequila, Cognac, etc. American whiskey has likely avoided this fate for too long, and the market is adjusting accordingly.

Which brings us to a flagship example of premiumization: Whistlepig’s Boss Hog series. Retailing at $500 since 2017, WhistlePig makes five promises (well three-ish are promises, two are marketing) for this series:

• Single barrel

• Bottled at proof

• Distinctly unique from anything they’ve done before

• “Powerfully complex”

• “It will be stupendous”

How about we vet those last two? Today we’re looking at Boss Hog VII (Magellan’s Atlantic) and VIII (Lapulapu’s Pacific). The former is finished in Spanish Oak and South American Teakwood, the latter in Philippine Rum casks.

Background

First off, a big thanks to Cinder BBQ in DC for continuing to enable me, as it was there that I was able to taste both of these. Weller Single Barrel launched in June 2020, and closing in on three years later I finally had a chance to taste it! I’ll be honest, I have very conflicted feelings on the main Weller line (the consistently exceptional WLW excluded). For me, especially when you take into account scarcity, it is basically a good Weller Full Proof pick or bust. I’m curious then to see if Weller Single Barrel breaks that mold.

There’s not a lot to say about William Larue Weller that hasn’t been said already honestly. The full fact sheet for the 2022 is available here on Buffalo Trace’s website, but this 12 year release clocks in at 127.4 proof. Rather than rehash familiar ground there, let’s get on to the reviews!

Background

Had the privilege recently of attending a Yellowstone Tasting/Pick Release put on by J St Whiskey in DC. Quick disclaimer, this is a group (and the Yellowstone pick in particular) I’m involved with- so I will not be reviewing the group’s Yellowstone pick offered at the tasting as that would not be particularly objective! The Limited Editions, on the other hand, were sourced by us for the tasting and we were lucky enough to have Master Distiller Stephen Beam (yes, that Beam family) and legendary Brand Ambassador Stephen Fante joined via Zoom to walk us through. Each limited release is unique, so I’ve provided some details on the release specifics alongside notes below!

Background

Eight whiskeys entered, five went home with various members of our tasting panel as “eh, I guess I’ll find a way to use it” souvenirs, one went down the drain, and we’re left with Blackened vs Brother’s Bond a class of the titans decent whiskeys.

This brings us to our final!

Background

A quick first round recap!

• Part One: Bradshaw Bourbon bested Drake’s Virginia Black Dumpster Runoff. Then Longbranch beat out Digits, meaning Scottie Pippen will not be adding another title to his 6 rings.

• Part Two: Brother’s Bond (from the two Vampire Diaries guys from the who apparently are very IG famous) triumphs over Sweeten’s Cove (RIP Peyton Manning and Andy Roddick). Then our tasting panel split our votes on Heaven’s Door vs Blackened and decided to just knock out Bradshaw because it’s not very good.

This brings us to our final four! Let’s matchup our contestants and see who advances to the finals.

Background

Happy first day of games! It’s time for the second part of our celebrity bourbon bracket, part one is here but to recap quick we put a bunch of vanity projects in a bracket, seeded them by IG followers, tasted two matchups and then poured Drake’s whiskey down the drain! Now onto the second half of our first round:

Background

In honor of March Madness, I would like to introduce the Celebrity Bourbon* Bracket! Ok, one is American Whiskey- more on that in a little. Ever see Terry Bradshaw’s bourbon in a liquor store, laugh at it and say “No way that’s good.” Well, let’s taste through every “wait, the two guys from Vampire Diaries have a bourbon?!” celebrity offering! Which will be the least bad? Who knows, I’ve never had any of these before, but I am excited to find out. Quick notes on the format:

• I tried to select the base product for each brand where applicable. Yes, something like Blackened x Willett is awesome, but that’s not really what we’re going for here.

• A group of 6 of us tasted each matchup, and we did them blind each time. The reviews below are predominantly my notes with added color from our panel.

• The seeding was done by number of Instagram followers, because it is a celebrity bracket after all. I’ll roll out bracket updates periodically, tackling two matchups per post (first round in two posts, second round in one, championship in the final update).

Ok without further ado, an intro to the contestants and their seeds, then onto the first two matchups. Worth noting, I’ll provide more info on each as they are bounced from the tournament as sort of a eulogy to these mighty fallen vanity projects. We’ll be tasting:

1. Virginia Black (Drake) - 133M IG Followers

2. Brother’s Bond (Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder) - 24.1M

3. Blackened (Metallica) - 9.6M

4. Wild Turkey Longbranch (Matthew McConaughey) - 7.3M

5. Digits (Scottie Pippen) - 1.9M

6. Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan) - 884k

7. Sweeten’s Cove (Andy Roddick and Peyton Manning) - 521k

8. Bradshaw (Terry Bradshaw) - 91.1k

Background

As always, big thanks to Cinder BBQ for enabling my 2022 BTAC journey! Let’s get right to the notes for the 2022 Thomas H Handy release!

Thomas H Handy (6 Years, 130.9 Proof)

Nose: Orange candies, fruit punch, hints of mint and fennel

Palate: More citrus, caramel, grapefruit lead the sip into a spice forward rye bread and natural cinnamon.

Finish: Pumpernickel, nutmeg, lemon, oak, spices. There’s almost a numbing quality it leaves behind I cant quite pinpoint. It's also a little too dry.

7.5/10

Overall: As a pour, it’s still really good. But judging against the standards of other THH releases, it’s a bit unbalanced. The spice hits hard at the back of the palate and into the finish. It sadly fails to hit the fruit forward highs of the 2020 THH release.

Background

Ready for the longest named whiskey I can remember? Enter: Bardstown Bourbon Company West Virginia Great Barrel Company Blended Rye Whiskey Finished in Infrared Toasted Cherry Oak Barrels.

Who’s still with me? Ok, let’s explain what all that means!

• Bardstown Bourbon Company: Notable NDPs/Contract Distillers, soon to release their own distillate.

• West Virginia Great Barrel Company: Innovative cooperage based in, you guessed it, West Virginia. We’ll get to why they are innovative in a second.

• Blended Rye Whiskey: Blended, because this is 6 year 95/5 MGP rye blended with 12 year 100% corn Canadian Whiskey. Bardstown does not disclose the exact percentage of the blend.

• Infrared Toasted Cherry Oak Barrels: Ok here’s where it gets interesting. West Virginia Barrel Company uses Infrared Heat to toast their barrels, as opposed to a more traditional wood chip fire. They claim infrared heat penetrates deeper into the barrel to draw out more sugars and vanillin.

Now, why stacked up against THH? Pretty simply, a buddy poured this for me and we both noted that it tasted THH-esque in how fruit forward it is. The immortal Alex @ thewhiskeyshelf.com also named checked THH in his review of this new Bardstown release, so let’s put them side by side and compare!

Background

Peerless is a distillery I’m becoming increasingly enamored with. My last two Peerless reviews have covered Double Oak Bourbon and Double Oak Rye picks from their Master Distiller, Caleb Kilburn, alongside bourbon and rye single barrel picks, respectively. All of these offerings have ranged from “Very Good” to “Excellent” in my estimation, and it’s clear their older stocks are starting to matriculate into their picks and baseline products.

We’re taking a look at two more offerings from them today. First up is their Absinthe Barrel Finished Rye, and the other is a 5 year rye pick from DC’s Cinder BBQ. The 3 year rye was already a rock solid pour, so I’m curious to review this 5 year iteration.

Background

Notes below for this delicious Barrell Craft Spirits pick (dubbed “Breaking Barrell”) from Seelbachs & Breaking Bourbon. 15% 5 year, 5% 10 year, 50% 14 year and 30% 16 year juice in the mix.

Barrell Bourbon Seelbachs and Breaking Bourbon Pick (5 Years, 112.72 Proof)

Nose: Raspberry and generally berry jam. Occasionally caramel apple. Palate is peanut butter and grape jelly with a bit of honey. The finish is leathery, Red Hot candies.

Palate: Peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time. But seriously slight nutty notes and that persistent jam from the nose.

Finish: Bit of heat comes through here, leather, slight berry remnants and cinnamon red hot candies.

7/10

Overall: Really fun blend here! Good amount of flavor while still being approachable, finish brings a fun late heat that’s a bit unexpected but not off putting.

Background

Last year, I reviewed the inaugural batch of A Smith Bowman Cask Strength and assessed it’s potential as a Stagg slayer/replacement for the missing ‘21 GTS.

Here we are again, one year later. George T Stagg is back on the market (at 138+ proof, no less) and Bowman Cask Strength has upped the ante on their first hazmat release with batch two clocking in at a jaw dropping 144.5 proof. GTS took the first round, so can this iteration of Bowman Cask Strength triumph over its high proof, Sazerac owned brethren?