Reviews

A strong Texas story, but a very young bourbon

Barrel Proof Notes | Honest Scores for Your Pours Fortuna Kentucky Straight Bourbon Selected & Bottled by Rare Character 102 Proof | Batch 1C | Bottled September 2022 | Aged 6 Years Some bottles are purchased for what’s inside the glass. Others are purchased because they tell a story worth preserving. Fortuna is both. Long…

Mash Bill BW2 — 69% Corn, 19% Wheat, 12% Malted Barley, Batch Size 50 Barrels, Brown County, Indiana Bottled in Bond doesn’t leave a distillery anywhere to hide. One distillery. One season. One proof — always 100. Hard Truth brought a wheated mash bill to that standard. That’s the interesting part. The Distillery Story Hard…

The Bourbon Sings, Then the Rye Crashes In When 13th Colony first announced Barrel Symphony: Composition No. 1, Whiskey Nerd wrote about it as a curiosity piece. At that time, Symphony had not even been released. We only had the specs, the concept, and the promise. We were told by the folks at 13th Colony…

Barrel Proof Notes | Honest Scores for Your Pours Some rye whiskeys announce themselves with a sharp blast of spice. Others lean heavily into herbal notes or black pepper. Then there are the rare ones that manage to balance maturity, sweetness, spice, and proof into something that feels complete. Hurst Knoll Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey…

Some bourbons announce themselves with age, proof, and pedigree. This Old Elk Wheated Bourbon walks in with all three: 7 years old, 118.1 proof, and part of the 2022 series from barrel #8287. On paper, that sounds like a bottle with plenty of depth, power, and soft wheated sweetness. In the glass, though, this one…

Batch #15, 126.16 Proof Some bourbons taste like they were built in a rickhouse.This one tastes like it started in the dirt, which is AWESOME when you are a Farm to Bottle distiller. Frey Ranch Farm Strength Uncut Bourbon comes from Fallon, Nevada, where Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers has built its identity around a…

Barrel Symphony — What happens when Bourbon and Rye stop competing and start playing together There are whiskey releases that feel like a line extension, and then there are releases that feel like a distillery planting a flag. 13th Colony’s Barrel Symphony: Composition No. 1 seems to be a new flag from this great Georgia…

In-Bottle Finished, Oak-Driven, and Built to Prove a Point Some bottles make you curious before you ever pull the cork. Oak & Eden Spire Select Wheat & Spire is one of those. There is literally an oak spiral inside the bottle. That is not a marketing note hiding in fine print. That is the whole…

Born in Kentucky, Raised in Memphis, Finished with Soul The label on Blue Note’s Wheated Bourbon gives it a strong identity right away: “Born in Kentucky, Raised in Memphis, Finished with Soul.” That is a great line. It tells you exactly what the brand wants this bourbon to be, Kentucky bourbon character shaped by Memphis…