Stands Out

Maker’s Mark Private Select – Dekalb Bottle House 2018

/ / Bourbon, Review / ,

Maker’s Mark Private Select
Exclusive Oak Stave Selection – Dekalb Bottle House (TANSTAAFL)

55.7% ABV
$70
Website

What the Distillery Says

At Maker’s Mark, our wood-finishing series was created to explore new, unique expressions of our signature whisky. Beginning as fully matured Maker’s Mark® at cask strength, Private Select is created by adding 10 custom wood finishing staves to each barrel. It’s then aged in our limestone cellar to extract a unique, flavorful taste profile. Participants in this special barrel program get their say in the selection of these wooden staves. The finishing staves can be any combination of five flavor profiles chosen especially for this program. With 1,001 possible stave combinations, each expression of Private Select has a customized finish and taste profile that is unique, yet undeniably Maker’s®. Maker’s Mark Private Select® is available in select markets and also at our distillery.

Below are the notes on the different staves
The Maker’s 46® stave: The one that started this whole experiment. It delivers notes of dried fruit, vanilla and spice that you may be familiar with if you’ve tried Maker’s 46.
The Baked American Pure stave: Baked American Pure is American oak that’s slowly toasted. It adds notes of brown sugar, vanilla, caramel and spice.
The Seared French Cuvée stave: Seared French Cuvée is a French oak stave that’s cooked with infrared heat. It imparts toasty notes of oak and caramel.
The Roasted French Mocha stave: Roasted French Mocha is French oak cooked on high in a convection oven. It adds pleasant traces of char, maple and cacao.
The Toasted French Spice stave: Toasted French Spice is a French oak stave, cooked at both high and low temperatures in a convection oven. This stave has a flavor profile of smoke, coumarin and spice.

The finishing with the additional staves is typically 9 weeks.

This specific barrel’s stave selections were:

Seared French Cuvée: 1
Maker’s 46: 4
Roasted French Mocha: 4
Toasted French Spice: 1

What Gary Says
Nose:  Caramel, toffee, butterscotch, bits of dark chocolate, hints of anise, cinnamon, french oak.
Palate:  Sweet but spicy, caramel corn, toffee, nutmeg, dusting of pepper and cinnamon, hints of clove and vanilla.
Finish:  Moderately long with lingering baking spices.
Comments:  Like other Maker’s Mark Private Selections, this is more spicy than your typical Maker’s Mark (even the cask strength version).  I like this a lot, and this makes an outstanding Old Fashioned.  Takes a bit of water well, keeping the spice while tamping down the edges a bit.

Rating: Stands Out/Must Try

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Chattanooga Whiskey 1816 Cask Unfiltered Barrel Proof Bourbon

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Chattanooga Whiskey 1816 Cask
Unfiltered Barrel Proof Small Batch Bourbon

56.8% ABV
$37-$42
Website
Chattanooga Whiskey 1816 Cask Unfiltered Barrel Proof Bourbon

What the Producer Says

Unfiltered Barrel Proof
Proof: 113.6 (56.8% ALC/VOL)
Mash Bill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley
Age: Blend of barrels between 2 and 10 years old
Created by selecting barrels from the hottest and driest portions of the rick house – which are not only higher proof – but exhibit a bolder, sweeter, spicier, more barrel-forward character. Richness is preserved by omitting a traditional filtration step and bottling at 113.6 proof. With distinct notes of baking spices, toffee pudding and brown sugar, the result expresses whiskey in its truest form – straight from the cask.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Freshly baked fudge brownies, oak, corn flakes, caramel, subtle cinnamon and vanilla.
Palate:  A brownie topped with vanilla ice cream, oak, corn syrup, pepper spice near the back and cinnamon spice.
Finish:  Short to moderate, drying with chocolate and pepper notes.
Comments:  I was pleasantly surprised with this – hats off to the blender. I’ve had some blends of old and young bourbon where the young whiskey is too prominent, and to me is a waste of the older stock.  I get some notes from the young whiskey, but a lot of chocolate which I really enjoy in a bourbon. Fair amount of oak, but not too much – and a bit of water tamps that.

Rating: Stands Out

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Knob Creek Quarter Oak

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Knob Creek Quarter Oak
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

50% ABV
$50
Website
Knob Creek Quarter Oak
We would like to thank Beam Suntory and Multiply for sending us a sample to review.

What the Distillery Says

Knob Creek® Bourbon, a leader in the Small Batch Bourbon category for more than 25 years, is excited to announce a new, limited edition bourbon in its award-winning portfolio, Knob Creek® Quarter Oak. This special, limited-time release uses a secondary finishing approach to continue the vision founding distiller Booker Noe set for Knob Creek decades ago: to craft bourbon with the fullest flavors characteristic of pre-prohibition style.

With its latest release, Knob Creek explores and deepens the influence of oak on its flagship bourbon. Knob Creek Quarter Oak takes the brand’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, crafted in the pre-prohibition style fans expect from Knob Creek, and finishes it for a minimum of four years in quarter cask, American oak barrels to increase the amount of contact between the whiskey and wood. A small amount of this unique, secondarily finished whiskey – which delivers richer notes of oak – is then mingled with Knob Creek® Kentucky Straight Bourbon to create the final product that boasts a harmonious balance of oak influence and traditional, sweeter notes.

“When Dad created Knob Creek in the early 90s, he wanted to bring back the big, bold flavors that bourbon offered before the days of Prohibition,” said Fred Noe, Booker’s son and Beam Family 7th Generation Master Distiller. “Dad loved to experiment in his quest for flavor, and I like to think we carry on that same spirit today with releases like this. Finishing our full-flavored liquid in quarter casks delivers a really nice, deepened wood flavor to the bourbon our fans enjoy.”

Knob Creek Quarter Oak is bottled with the following characteristics:

Proof: 100
Color: Dark Honey
Aroma: A nice blend of brown sweets, char and toasted oak with hints of dried fruits
Taste: Sweet, heavy oak with background notes of char, dried fruits and brown spices
Finish: Slightly sweet charred oak with a lingering dryness

What Gary Says

Nose:  Oak prominent, vanilla, burnt caramel, dark chocolate, blood orange, cigar paper with hints of dark roast coffee grounds and a bit of anise.
Palate:  Sweet to start with caramel, chocolate covered cherries, loads of baking spices – allspice, clove, a citrus-spice note, and oak.
Finish:  Moderately long, drying with cocoa and oak pepper spice.
Comments:  Compared to Knob Creek, I get more dark chocolate and spice notes throughout, along with plenty of oak. I’m not a big fan of ‘oak bombs’ – and to be clear, this isn’t that. It is definitely heavier on the oak as you’d expect, but is balanced well with some lovely spice notes. If you do like a lot of oak in your bourbon, you’ll probably love this.

Rating: Stands Out

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Cotswolds Single Malt

/ / Other Whisk(e)ys, Review /

Cotswolds Single Malt

46% ABV
$60
Website
Cotswolds Single Malt English Whisky

What the Distillery Says

The first single malt whisky ever distilled in the Cotswolds.

Carefully sourced ingredients
Malt: Odyssey. We are committed to using only barley grown in the Cotswolds, and the variety and farm on which it was grown are listed on the label of each bottle. We are one of a very small number of British whisky-makers to use 100% floor-malted barley. This comes to us from Britain’s oldest working maltings, in nearby Warminster. It is unpeated.
Yeast: Two complementary varieties – Anchor and Fermentis – to ensure good yields and excellent fruity flavours.
Water: Village water supply – filtered, softened and demineralised before use.
Wood: Premium first-fill Kentucky ex-Bourbon 200-litre barrels and reconditioned American Oak 225-litre red wine casks that have been shaved, toasted and recharred.

Lovingly crafted
We use traditional production processes and equipment to produce our Cotswolds Single Malt. Locally-grown malted barley is milled and then mashed in our 0.5-tonne mash tun, mixing the milled grain with hot water to produce worts. Yeasts are then added. We run the fermentation for more than 90 hours in order to generate plenty of fruity flavour compounds alongside the alcohol produced.
Then the distillations begin. First, in the wash still (Mary), and the second in Janis, our spirit still. In the spirit run, we only select a small section – the heart cut – which is taken unusually early in the distillation to capture the fruity notes and avoid the heavier, rougher elements that appear at the end of the run. The end result is a light, colourless, fruity new-make spirit. This is diluted to 63.5% ABV and put into casks to mature. This release has been aged for just over three years, and is bottled non-chill filtered, with no added colouring, at 46% ABV.

Tasting notes
Nose: Notes of honey and butterscotch layered with light fruits (peaches & apricots), a hint of marzipan.
Palate: Strong notes of tannin-rich malt, oils and dark sugar with lots of spice, caramelised Seville orange marmalade.
Finish: Long and resinous, with dark red fruits and a hint of treacle.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Honey, subtle fruit notes of peaches and pears with a dusting of nutmeg, a bit of a winey note with malted barley.
Palate:  Honeyed malt, a touch of molasses, stewed peaches with vanilla, slight pepper bite with overly ripe bananas.
Finish:  Short to moderate in length, drying with spice and oak.
Comments:  I loved visiting the Cotswolds a few years back, and hadn’t ever had an English whisky. While this is young, it is a nice enough pour; lightly fruity, not objectionable. I’d say it punches above its weight for its age, although maybe not for the price. If they were in the U.S., I’d refer to them as a ‘craft distillery’, although unlike most in that category they’re using full sized barrels which makes a huge difference. I’d love to try this with some age on it.

Rating: Stands Out

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Yellowstone 2019 Limited Edition

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Yellowstone 2019 Limited Edition
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

50.5% ABV
$100
Website
Yellowstone 2019 Limited Edition
We would like to thank Limestone Branch and Common Ground PR for sending us samples to review.

What the Producer Says

Limestone Branch Distillery introduces the 2019 variety of Yellowstone® Limited Edition Kentucky Straight Bourbon, set to hit the market in August. This year’s edition includes a hand-picked selection of the most unique barrels – those hidden gems in the rick house – including barrels of extra-aged nine-year and 12-year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.

“I tasted many quality, mature Kentucky Straight Bourbons in order to find the right two ages for this year’s release – I had a certain taste profile in mind and I sought those barrels that matched it,” says Steve Beam, head distiller at Limestone Branch Distillery. “The barrels I chose were in different parts of the rick house and each barrel’s unique location contributed to the taste profile and complexity of this bourbon. When combined, these extra-aged bourbons create a mature and complex bourbon with robust spice and oaky undertones.”

Yellowstone has been one of Kentucky’s favorites since 1872. This year’s edition brings cinnamon notes with toffee, dried fruit and a hint of citrus to the palate, followed by a dry finish of brown sugar and oak. Using Beam’s expertise and honed palate, only the finest barrels were chosen for this year’s release.

Bottled at 101 proof and available in 750ml bottles nestled in commemorative tubes, the 2019 Yellowstone Limited Edition continues to honor the long-standing tradition. Approximately 12,500 bottles of this bourbon are being produced at Limestone Branch Distillery, and the suggested retail price is $99.99.

What Gary Says

Nose:  Lovely caramel, oak, vanilla wafers, cinnamon, allspice, and toasted orange zest.
Palate:  Rich caramel and vanilla buttercream frosting, oak with a spicy bite of clove and citrus spice mid-way through the palate before bringing out some milk chocolate.
Finish:  Moderately long, drying with some pepper spice and cinnamon.
Comments:  This is a solid bourbon with a spicy edge to it.  Some might call it ‘brash’ (which to me isn’t a bad thing; Stagg is ‘brash’ and I’d never turn down a pour of it!). I don’t think it is too sharp or spicy, and it has those sweet notes you’d expect in a bourbon. If you’re a fan of ‘sweet & mellow’ bourbon, this might be outside your comfort zone. For those that like a spicier pour (like Wild Turkey or Old Forester), this is likely right up your alley. A bit of water doesn’t hurt it, but I didn’t find it needed it either.

Rating: Stands Out

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