Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7 year old

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing a review sample with no strings attached.

I tend to grade on a curve when it comes to whiskey. Not here on BourbonGuy. Here I just tell you if I like it or not. But in my buying habits, I certainly grade on a curve. And that curve is based entirely on price.

See, I am a freelancer and a dog-sitter by profession. Neither of these are the most lucrative of career choices. Don’t get me wrong, I love both of my jobs, it just means that I need to be frugal in my non-BourbonGuy whiskey spending (and in my BourbonGuy spending to be fair, but here I have an incentive to try new things and maybe stretch the budget now and then).

To that end, my wife and I have come up with a few “Tiers” to help us decide what we spend our money on. They aren’t official, but they really do describe how we judge bourbons and decide which bourbons to purchase again. For example, if a Tier I bourbon were to jump up to a Tier II or III price range, I’d certainly judge that bourbon more harshly than I had previously. It’s just human nature.

Tier I: “Cocktail Bourbon” Sub $25 I do not buy bourbons that I would not want to drink neat, not even for cocktails. Well not on purpose, at least. These are the bourbons that I feel comfortable using to make bitters or to cook with. Those that if I need to use 8 to 16 fluid ounces, I don’t feel too bad about it. Of course, I am also happy to use these in cocktails or just have a glass of.

Tier II: “Everyday Drinker” $25-$40 These are the bourbons I buy most often. Mostly because this is the price point that many bourbons fall in. These are the bourbons that I can grab on a whim. Any day that I want a pour of these, I am happy to do so. I might even have a second pour without thinking too hard about it if the mood arises.

Tier III: “Special Shelf” $40-$85 These are the bourbons that I keep on a secondary shelf where I won’t think to grab them all the time. These are the ones that I need to think a little harder about if I want to buy them. And if I decide to buy them, these are the ones I want to last a little longer.

Tier IV: “Second Opinion” $85-$135 These are the bourbons that I call my wife to get a second opinion as to whether we should buy it. She is also the accountant of the family so she can also tell me if that large a purchase is in the budget for a particular week.

Tier V: “Special Circumstance” Above $135 Anything over my Personal Price Ceiling™ is a “Special Circumstance” purchase. We might be on vacation. It might be a limited release from a producer that we trust isn’t going to put out a turd. It goes without saying that these are ones we save up for and need a unanimous decision on. These are the most harshly judged bourbons we buy. If I don’t really, really like it, I feel a little burned by the purchase. And a little less likely to spend that much money from a particular producer again.

So that brings me to tonight’s Bourbon. It is the recently released Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7-year-old. We are all aware that I used to sing the praises of the now discontinued Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 6-year-old Bourbon. It was one of my favorite value bourbons. It was almost the very definition of a Tier I bourbon. It competed very well with bourbons such as Wild Turkey 101 and Buffalo Trace on both price and taste. I loved cooking with it and was always happy to toss it in a cocktail. Hell, I’d bring it home by the case whenever I went to Kentucky for just those reasons. But to the dismay of many, in 2018 the 6-year-old Bonded Heaven Hill was discontinued.

In June of 2019, Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7-year-old was announced. It will be initially available in California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, South Carolina, and Colorado. It looks like if you live in one of those markets that you should start to see it in October. The suggested price for the new release is $39.99.

Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond 7-year-old Bourbon

Purchase Info: This sample bottle was graciously provided by Heaven Hill for review purposes. Suggested Retail price is $39.99 for a 750mL bottle.

Price Per Drink (50ml): $2.67

Details: 50% ABV. 7 year age statement. Distilled at D.S.P.-KY-1. Bottled at D.S.P.-KY-31.

Nose: mint, vanilla, cardamom, cotton candy.

Mouth: mint, vanilla, caramel, cinnamon.

Finish: on the short end of medium length. Notes of cinnamon, cardamom and oak

like-vector.png

Thoughts: There isn't much to say on this one. It’s fine. I like it. It is minty, with a bit of spice. I think I like Elijah Craig better, but this is fine too. I like it, but I don't think it holds up to other $40 Bourbons. In this market, $35-45 will get you Four Roses Single Barrel, the 1792 specialty bourbons, New Riff Bourbon, George Remus, Knob Creek Single Barrel, or Wild Turkey Rare Breed. All of which I like better than this.

But I'm assuming that you are looking to see how it compares to the discontinued Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond 6-year-old, aren't you? Anticipating that, I pulled a bottle of my 6-year-old from the closet. And well, these are pretty similar. The six-year is a bit sweeter than the new seven-year. The seven-year is much mintier. Both have a nice hit of oak on the finish. If you loved the six-year, you should love this too as they are pretty similar with only minor differences... at least until you get to the checkout.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products and bourbon-related craft supplies I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. And don’t forget we are still taking submissions for our Oscar Getz Giveaway. Enter now.

Four Gate Whiskey Company: Release 2, Outer Loop Orbit

I’d like to thank Four Gate Whiskey Company for providing a review sample with no strings attached.

Hey everyone! My tastebuds are back! And just as importantly, so are my wife’s. And since we put off tonight’s tasting until the very last minute in order to allow us both maximum time to recover, I decided to spring an interesting one on her to celebrate our newly recovered tastebuds.

That’s right, unlike normal, you are getting the raw unfiltered impressions of this one with no time to think about it in between tasting and writing. Of course, that also means that I didn’t really have a lot of time to come up with an intro so…cut me a little slack on that front. Ok?

Great.

So I first became aware of Four Gate Whiskey Company on social media. It turns out one of the folks involved and I followed each other. And so he reached out to me to see if I would like a sample of their batch 1. Unfortunately for him, he asked on twitter just after I essentially left the platform as an active user and I never saw the message he sent to me until about a month later. I apologized and told him to keep me in mind for the future.

Fast forward a few months and all of a sudden a sample that I wasn’t expecting showed up. And this one sounded super interesting, though maybe a little scary. It was a bourbon that was finished in a barrel that had originally held Orange Curaçao and then held gin. Here’s what the distillery has to say:

When we met at Kelvin Cooperage to discuss our second batch, William Hornaday told us about some very interesting barrels in his warehouse that he wanted us to check out. Originally Orange Curaçao barrels, a local distiller then used them to finish a batch of gin. That’s right, gin. We had no idea what to expect, but when we smelled these barrels, they blew us away. The sticky sweetness of Orange Curaçao was tamed somewhat by the sharpness of the botanical gin, creating an aroma that smelled straight out of the 80s and harkened to a rather popular powdered orange drink made famous on the 1962 Mercury Mission when astronaut John Glenn took it to outer space. The tangy-orange notes of the barrels were screaming out for bourbon, and we listened.

Four Gate Whiskey Company: Release 2, Outer Loop Orbit

Purchase Info: This sample was graciously provided for review purposes by the distillery. It was available for purchase in Kentucky and Tennessee starting in September for a suggested retail price of $199.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price Per Drink (50ml): $13.33

Details: Blend of 5-year bourbon (mash bill: 78% Corn, 10% Rye, 12% Malted Barley) and 12-year bourbon (mash bill: 74% Corn, 18% Rye, 8% Malted Barley). Non-chill filtered. Finished in a cask that previously held Orange Curaçao and then Gin. 60.15% ABV.

Nose: spearmint, orange, almond, pine, and caramel undertones.

Mouth: Pine, orange, almond, baking spice

Finish: warm and medium/long. Lingering notes of almond, cinnamon, and pine-

Thoughts: Goodness, this is weird! Initially, the orange and gin notes overwhelm the nose and palate. After subsequent sips, more bourbon notes appear providing a little more balance.

meh-vector.png

I’m of two minds about this one. (I told you that you were getting real-time thoughts on this one.) First I’ll say that this is a certainly a drink for the adventurous bourbon drinker. Traditionalists need not apply. And even so, maybe try this one in a bar if you see it before you commit to a bottle. When I first tasted this in a Glencairn, I really didn’t like it. It just didn’t seem to come together for me. But once I poured it into one of the small rocks glasses that I would usually use to drink bourbon, I didn’t mind it at all. It almost reminded me of the herbal notes that an MGP 95% Rye would get. Not exactly, but reminiscent. As I said, I’m of two minds. I’ve had two separate 1 ounce pours tonight and I still can’t decide if I like it or not. I think I’m going to throw this down as a meh as there is nothing wrong with it, but based on tonight’s experience I don’t think it is for me. That said, I really applaud the experimentation and if you are an adventurous bourbon drinker, it is certainly worth a try as it is super interesting.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products and bourbon-related craft supplies I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. And don’t forget we are still taking submissions for our Oscar Getz Giveaway. Enter now.

MB Roland Kentucky Straight Wheat Whiskey

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.

It had been five years since I last visited my friends Paul and Merry Beth at their distillery. We’d met up in Bardstown a few times during the Kentucky Bourbon Festival where we hung out and had a lot of conversations (and on a few occasions a lot of drinks). But it had been too long since I went to visit them at their place. I was excited to see what had changed and learn about how things were going.

I met Paul and Merry Beth just as I was starting to explore distilled spirits. I hadn’t even started my bourbon journey yet as I was still playing with cocktails using inexpensive clear spirits. I was more interested in the flavors you could add to alcohol and how they worked together at that point than I was those flavors that were already there. As an example, I had a small refrigerator filled with tinctures (infused vodkas) of everything from fruit and fruit peels to herbs to spices. I even had a black pepper tincture at one point.

It was in this setting that I tasted my first bottle of whiskey. Not drank my first bottle, tasted. I mean, I did go to college after all. The flavors were amazing. And yes it was from MB Roland. Sure, it was a young whiskey, but I didn’t know better. I was just amazed that you could get all this flavor from a barrel. At that point I determined that I was extremely interested in whiskey. (In fact, it wasn’t until I started making my own house-made bitters for my whiskey cocktails that I remembered my interest in the flavors you could add to a spirit and that helped rekindle my love of cocktails.)

So since I made the trip to visit them, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab a few of their products that had come out since the last time I’d been down there. And there were a lot. The first one I opened was a straight wheat whiskey. Since I am taking the time to review it, you already know that I like it, but I should probably share my notes as well.

MB Roland Kentucky Straight Wheat Whiskey

Purchase Price: $54.99 for a 750 mL bottle at the distillery gift shop.

Details: Mashbill: 69% red winter wheat, 26% white corn, 5% malt. Barrel: New with a #4 char level. Batch 5, 55.8% ABV.

Nose: Clean hay, cooked cereal

Mouth: Cinnamon, Milky Way candy bar (milk chocolate, caramel, and nougat)

Finish: Medium length and heat. Lingering cinnamon and Milky Ways.

like-vector.png

Thoughts: I really like this one. The Milky Way candy bar notes make this just like liquid candy. As to be expected with a two-year-old whiskey this does have a few "young" notes but they are mostly on the nose and tend to be pushed into the background of the mouth and finish by the high proof.

Lux Row Double Barrel Bourbon

I’d like to thank Common Ground PR and Luxco for providing a review sample to me with no strings attached.

It was a the week before I was scheduled to drive to Kentucky for my annual shopping trip disguised as a Festival when I received a press release about a new bourbon out of Lux Row Distillery in Bardstown, Ky. It was to be a twelve-year-old, cask-strength bourbon and it was being released to celebrate the one year anniversary of the official opening of the Lux Row Distillery.

Sometimes you just get a feeling that a bourbon is going to be good. And a double digit age statement and a cask strength proof is a good start when looking at a bourbon’s spec sheet. So, because I’ve had a very high opinion of high-end Luxco bourbons lately, I decided to reach out and see if there were going to be samples available. Of course I also added a bottle to my “Kentucky Shopping List” just on the off chance that I happened across one. And then I promptly forgot about all of it because my active memory really only has space for about three things in it at any one time.

This has nothing to do with getting old. Shut up.

So, I was killing time in Bardstown between KBF events when I decided to stop in to the Lux Row Distillery gift shop. Honestly, I was on the lookout for a bottle of Old Ezra Barrel Proof and was hoping that if anybody had one, it would be them. When we got there, I also remembered the new bourbon that they were putting out. Mostly because it was sitting there right on the shelf, looking oh so pretty.

So I bought both. Yes. I blasted through my personal price ceiling without a second thought. Sometimes you just get a feeling that a bourbon’s going to be good.

Lux Row Double Barrel Bourbon

Purchase Info: $150 for a 750 mL bottle at the Lux Row Distillery. I also received a 200mL review sample (because I forgot to tell them that I’d purchased one until I saw the FedEx notification that it was on it’s way).

Details: 59.2% ABV. 12-year-old bourbon. Batched from 2 barrels (numbers 5154523 and 5154524)

Nose: Brown Sugar, cinnamon, clove, anise, and oak

Mouth: Cinnamon red hots, leather from a well-worn baseball glove, cherry, and caramel

Finish: Warm and long. Lingering chocolate, cherry, baking spices and leather.

Love-vector.png

Thoughts: Very warm and spicy. The cherry notes play nicely off of the leather and spices. This is a delicious Bourbon. Very rich. I'm very happy I picked up a bottle while I was in Kentucky. For $150 though, this will go on the special shelf where I am less likely to empty it quite so fast.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products and bourbon-related craft supplies I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. And hey, if you are an iOS user, look for Bourbon Guy in Apple News. Thanks!

Four Roses 2019 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon

I’d like to thank the folks at Four Roses for providing this review sample to me with no strings attached.

If you’ve been reading for a while now, you’ll know that every year I travel to Bardstown, Kentucky to attend the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. For years, one of the highlights of my trip to the Festival had been my first taste of that year’s Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch at one of the events hosted by Four Roses during the Festival. This year, Four Roses was nice enough the send my first taste to me ahead of the Festival again. So instead of reviewing it long after any hope of standing in line to get a bottle has passed, I get to let you know my thoughts ahead of its release while you still have a hope (however small) of trying to procure a bottle for yourself.

Here is what the company had to say about their new release:

The 2019 Limited Edition Small Batch marks the first Four Roses limited-quantity bottling to feature a 21-year-old Bourbon from the distillery’s OBSV recipe. This release will also feature a 15-year-old OESK, 15-year-old OESV and 11-year-old OESV. … Four Roses will distribute approximately 13,440 hand-numbered bottles of the 2019 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon that will be sold in the United States with a suggested retail price of $140.

This product is non-chill filtered and will be available for sale in limited quantities at the Four Roses Distillery and Cox’s Creek Visitor Center on Saturday, September 21 beginning at 9 am. And will roll out to retailers in the following weeks.

2019 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch

Purchase Info: This sample was graciously provided by Four Roses for review purposes. Suggested retail price is $140.

Details: 56.3% ABV, OESV- 11 year old, OESV-15 year old, OESK-15 year old, OBSV-21 year old

Nose: Caramel, apricot, mint, cinnamon, cocoa, and a nuttiness like toasted grains.

Mouth: Oak, caramel, spicy cinnamon, apricot, vanilla

Finish: Long and warm with lingering cocoa, and cinnamon red hots.

like-vector.png

Thoughts: This is a very good Bourbon. I like how the cocoa and nutty notes play with the spicy cinnamon. The caramel and the fruity undercurrent add a nice depth to the product. Water dampens the fruitiness and accentuates the oak without compromising the spiciness. I like this one without water personally, but the proof is high enough that I’ll be drinking the rest of this sample in small pours because of that.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products and bourbon-related craft supplies I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. And hey, if you are an iOS user, look for Bourbon Guy in Apple News. Thanks!