Paul and Merry Beth of MB Roland are my friends. Because I might be biased, I have decided to disclose that bias so that you can decide how much to trust the review.
My whiskey origin story.
Being originally from Wisconsin, my first alcoholic love was beer. When I was about 30, I moved to Minnesota. At the time, Minnesota was suffering under an antiquated “Blue Law” prohibiting the sale of wine, beer, or spirits on Sundays. Liquor stores were closed. You could buy lower alcohol 3.2% beer in grocery stores, but you were basically limited to versions of Bud, Miller or Coors products as they were the only ones with the production capability to make that small of a batch profitably.
After discovering this, I tried my best to always do my beer shopping on Saturday. But It didn’t always work out since all my grocery shopping was typically done on Sundays. So, of course, one hot summer Sunday afternoon I went to the fridge to grab a beer and I discovered that I was out.
Inspired by the cocktail culture that was starting to blossom in the country at that particular moment in history, I decided to turn my attention to my long-neglected liquor cabinet. I had the thought I might make myself a highball, though I didn’t know it was called that at the time. Most of the spirits in that cabinet had been there forever. I think there was a bottle of rum, a vodka, and a few super sugary, and partially crystallized liqueurs. But, out of those meager beginnings, a love of cocktails was born. And learning about cocktails meant learning about spirits. And the best way to learn about spirits is to try them.
Starting with what was in the cabinet, and quickly expanding beyond, I experimented with cocktail making and recipe creation. One of the hobbies I developed was creating infused spirits to make my own liqueurs. I worked my way through a variety of clear spirits until, while on a road trip, I happened upon a newly opened craft distiller in southern Kentucky named MB Roland.
It was that day at MB Roland where my love of whiskey first bloomed. When we walked into the gift shop, Merry Beth Tomaszewski was working. She was so warm and friendly that our visit started on a high note. I’d emailed ahead of time to get a tour so Paul Tomaszewski gave me my first distillery tour. It was a very small tour, because they were a very small distillery. But the things I learned that day sparked a yearning to learn more. You could say that, as this site is an outgrowth of my desire of learning all that I can about whiskey, that the seeds of BourbonGuy.com started that day too. I also made a couple of really good friends.
It was in the MB Roland Gift Shop, that I first tasted whiskey. I was intrigued enough to grab a few bottles to bring home. I picked up their white dog and black dog unaged products. I think I grabbed a flavored moonshine or two. And I picked up a bottle of aged whiskey. In this case, a little 375 mL bottle of the malt whiskey they were experimenting with. I really liked that bottle of malt whiskey. It was my official introduction to American whiskey and was the first thing I ever consumed neat. Needless to say, it was not the last.
Immediately upon returning home from that trip, I started learning everything I could about whiskey. One of the first things I realized was that while I had consumed whiskey before visiting MB Roland, I’d never tasted it before. Like most dumb, college-aged men I’d done way too many shots of Jack, which I really didn’t like. So much so that as I matured, I basically gave up spirits until that fateful Sunday mentioned above. But tasting is so much more than consuming. Tasting is more thoughtful than drinking, sometimes even analytical.
And that was a big realization for me. It led me to want to learn other things about whiskey. I tore through every book I could find on the subject. I visited every distillery I happened across. Hell, I planned routes on my vacations to include stops at distilleries. I read blogs and forums, anything and everything to learn more. And I didn’t just want the fantasies and marketing speak, I wanted the science and the history. I’m a history buff who reads history texts for fun and started college with the goal of becoming a scientist, so digging beyond the surface came naturally to me. As I learned more and more, I realized that I could start sharing some of this knowledge with others. And so, I started BourbonGuy.com.
That is my whiskey origin story. It all started with a bottle of Malt Whiskey and a couple of friends I met at a small craft distillery in Kentucky. And since they started making that Malt Whiskey again a few years ago, I couldn’t help but grab a bottle when I saw it on the shelf during my early December trip to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Like the distillery, the whiskey has grown up in the decade or so since I last had it. It’s the same mashbill but is now straight. They’ve upgraded their equipment, so this version is distilled on the grain like a traditional American whiskey instead of needing to have the grain strained out first. They’ve also started aging in larger barrels.
MB Roland Kentucky Straight Malt Whiskey
Purchase Info: $48.99 for a 750 mL bottle at the Party Source, Bellevue, KY
Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.27
Details: At least 2 years old. 55.5% ABV. Mash bill: 63% Malted Barley. 21% White Corn. 15% Rye. Batch 5, Bottle 22 of 185.
Nose: Nutty, cocoa powder, hints of dried grain underneath.
Mouth: Dark chocolate along with nutty and grassy notes.
Finish: Warm, sweet, and medium length. Lingering "candy bar" notes of nuts and cocoa.
Thoughts: I really like this. My wife, not as much. She isn't a "malted barley fan" though. (She'd be happier with a glass of hops than with a malt-forward beer). Ah well, more for me! I think this is a candy bar in a glass. Thick, rich, and full of nutty chocolate. Yum!
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