New Southern Revival Bourbon
From High Wire: New Southern Revival Brand is a celebration of the diverse agricultural traditions of our region. We work with farms in the South to source only the highest quality, heirloom grains. Distilled from a mash of heirloom white corn, red winter wheat, malted barley, and Carolina Gold rice bran, this Bourbon Whiskey reveals its many intricate layers sip by delicious sip.
Charleston, South Carolina ($50 Retail)
Whoa nelly! We can’t wait to introduce you to this South Carolina winner! We all agree this is one the most interesting and highest quality bourbons we have tried!
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Vanilla
Aroma: Heavy butter scotch
Taste: Smooth - if this was a chardonnay it would be a big buttery California version
Finish: Powerful with a bite down the throat
Bottle: Eye catching bottle with great wrapper on top
Label: A bold, stand-out label
Price: Definitel a good value for this quality of bourbon
Overall Rating: “Absolutely!”
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Caramel
Aroma: Buttery and sweet
Taste: Smooth on the taster with sharpness across the tongue
Finish: Sharp when straight but smooth on ice
Bottle: Very unique - looks like a moonshine bottle
Label: Sharp with nice extra touches
Price: Worth it! Stands up to bourbons twice the price
Overall Rating: Absolutely!
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Caramely vanilla
Aroma: Sweet and buttery
Taste: smooth and unique but hard to label - a sultry and mysterious tipple with high complexity - superb neat or on the rocks!
Finish: Big and robust at the end with a flavor that lingers on
Bottle: Stout and handsome
Label: Pops with a flash of red and a great cream color - really stands out!
Price: A deal if I’ve seen one
Overall Rating: “Absofreakinglutely” with a “yes”, “yes”, “yes” thrown in for good measure!
Jefferson’s Chef’s Collaboration
From Jefferson’s: A few years ago, Trey was out with a few friends and Chef Edward Lee. As they began to order some different dishes for dinner, he and Edward started talking about the pairing of bourbon and food, specifically spicier dishes like his Korean Fried Chicken. The group started tasting bourbons together with food and realized that they really liked the notes that were brought out in each one. They knew they had a good idea. Over the next 9 months, Trey and Edward would get together and try his food along with a number of different bourbon recipes, trying to marry them together to get the right flavors for the recipe. They couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for until Trey picked up a bottle of Jefferson’s Rye and decided to mix it with one of our straight bourbon offerings. The combination of bourbon and rye became a perfect combination of fruit flavors up front and the spice of the rye at the end. It’s a great pairing whiskey for big, spicy food.
Crestwood, Kentucky ($45 Retail)
Hey, we have to bring you an occasional Kentucky bourbon review!
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Almond
Aroma: Spicy, aromatic and herbal
Taste: A spicy, bold start that smooth out along the way for an after dinner flavor
Finish: Very smooth
Bottle: Classic Jefferson
Label: Cool visual embossed style
Price: Good
Overall Rating: “Yup”
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Almond
Aroma: Sharp and distinct smell
Taste: A bit of burn on the lips but mellows across the tongue
Finish: Smooth
Bottle: Traditional
Label: Not interesting
Price: Overall good buy
Overall Rating: “Yup!”
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Almondy
Aroma: Nutty hard candy with honey and simple syrup
Taste: Smooth, smooth, smooth - spicy up front with lightness down the back
Finish: Light and airy
Bottle: All the same
Label: Simple and descriptive
Price: About right
Overall Rating: “Maybe?” as I think there are better Jefferson options out there
Isaac Bowman Port Barrel Finish Bourbon
From Issac Bowman: This Bourbon is aged in charred white oak barrels, then finished in port barrels, many of which come from Virginia wineries. This combination of finishing barrels produces flavors of jam with caramel and spice notes.
Fredericksburg, VA ($50 Retail)
It would be hard to find a better start for our thoughts on Virginia Bourbon:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: New Oak
Aroma: Port! (I wonder why?!)
Taste: Extremely smooth and warm with slight bite
Finish: End to end smooth
Bottle: Distinctive and artistic bottle
Label: Good story
Price: Fair
Overall Rating: “Absolutely”
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: New oak
Aroma: Super smooth with portly hint
Taste: Tingles the tongue
Finish: Smooth and easy going down
Bottle: Unique with a cool wood stopper
Label: Front label - meh! Back story - nice!
Price: Worth it!
Overall Rating: “Yup!”
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: New oak dark
Aroma: Sweet port
Taste: Smooth tongue tingler with a warming trend of portly origin
Finish: Smooth as a babies…
Bottle: Black beauty horseshoe
Label: Good story but average label
Price: Spot on!
Overall Rating: “Absolutely!!!!”
R.M. Rose Straight Bourbon
Dillard, GA ($40 Retail)
Some thoughts on a historical Georgia bourbon from right up the road:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Corn
Aroma: Caramel like
Taste: Medium spicy
Finish: Medium with a bit of burn
Bottle: Not very original
Label: iInteresting rose color with black
Price: Reasonable
Overall Rating: “Maybe?”
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Corn
Aroma: Medium with a hint of caramel from white oak
Taste: A bitey burn initially but smooth going down
Finish: Full
Bottle: JD Copycat
Label: Rose color lettering is cool
Price: Good not great
Overall Rating: I’ll say “Maybe?”
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Corn
Aroma: Cypress sweet
Taste: Thick and sweet with a mid-tongue bite
Finish: Smooth with a slight bitterness
Bottle: Bought the overstock on Jack Daniels glass
Label: Like the black and rose tone with a good story
Price: Fair to midland
Overall Rating: It’s a “Maybe?” on this one
Redemption Rye
From Redemption: “Beautiful flavored rye spice with light floral and citrus notes. While federal law states that a whiskey must be 51% rye grain to be classified as a rye, we chose to push our grain content to 95%.”
Lawrenceburg, IN ($25-30 Retail)
Our thoughts on an inexpensive little rye from Indiana:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Malt with a vanilla shade
Aroma: Sweet with molasses…light on nose at first sniff
Taste: Very light with spice and a bit of bite at the finish
Finish: A bit rough at finish with a mild bite
Bottle: Unassuming - a bit like old-style bottle with raised lettering on the glass
Label: Not especially visual
Price: decent
Overall Rating: “Maybe?” as a mixer for cocktails
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Light malt
Aroma: smells like vanilla coke
Taste: Light on the side but a bite on the tip of the tongue
Finish: A bit rough going down
Bottle: A medicine bottle from the 1800’s
Label: Looks like I printed it on my Epson!
Price: Good value for using as a mixer
Overall Rating: I’ll say “Maybe?” as an inexpensive mixer
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Malty
Aroma: Has a distinct cola smell - sweet and light
Taste: Spicy and light weight
Finish: Slightly choppy with a bite
Bottle: Snake oil medicine bottle
Label: Can anyone say, “dot matrix”?!
Price: Fairly inexpensive
Overall Rating: It’s a “Maybe?” for your mixology
Fiddler Georgia Heartwood
From ASW: “Fiddler GA Heartwood is a high-wheat mash bill finished on Georgia white oak heartwood staves that we hand-charred and placed in the barrels. In addition to the wheat lending a soft, silky texture and salted caramel, the Georgia staves lend maple, sandalwood, oak, a rounder mouthfeel, and a textured complexity rarely seen in a bourbon whiskey.”
Atlanta, Georgia ($68-70 Retail)
Our thoughts on a bourbon from one of the most unique distilleries in Georgia:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Almond blending into walnut
Aroma: Invigorating with black currant, an earthy quality and oakiness
Taste: Tangy and full all the way through, Super smooth and builds from the front of the mouth all the way to the swallow
Finish: Smooth operator!
Bottle: Looks like a wine bottle
Label: Intriguing and engaging
Price: relatively pricy for a Georgia bourbon
Overall Rating: It’s an “Absolutely” for me!
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Almond to Walnut
Aroma: No sweetness with a bit of an oaky sting to the nose
Taste: A full taste from beginning to end
Finish: A long-ass finish that stays with you - complete and satisfying!
Bottle: Looks like a wine bottle, but it’s all bourbon
Label: A unique label that draws your attention with an easy font
Price: On the high side for Georgia bourbon but worth the extra coin!
Overall Rating: It’s an “Absolutely!” for me. Buy this to impress a bourbon friend!
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Walmond
Aroma: Earthy tones with a complex and subtle hint of sweetness. Also a slap you in the face oakiness with a faint salty finish
Taste: An exceptional and smooth mouth feel. A fantasticly smooth and pleasant taste!
Finish: Oh yeah! This is a longboard finish that takes you across the entire wave of flavor!
Bottle: I’m guessing they got a discount on some wine bottles
Label: Superb design and presentation! The colors and graphics are interesting and pop off the label
Price: Expensive for a Georgia bourbon, but worth the high maintenance cost
Overall Rating: It’s an “Absofreakinglutely!” for me!
Burnside Goose Hollow RSV Bourbon
From Eastside: “Burnside Goose Hollow Reserve is a small batch expression of straight bourbon whiskies that are meticulously blended then aged for 45 days in Garryana Casks for a South meets West Bourbon unlike any other. Glorious Oregon Oak!”
Portland, Oregon ($34-36 Retail)
Check out our first review of an Oregon bourbon:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Walnut
Aroma: Butter scotch and smooth
Taste: Immediate sweet and salty taste
Finish: Do I detect some weak sauce?
Bottle: Kind of non-descript.
Label: Colorful and draws the eye
Price: $35 is reasonable but not compelling
Overall Rating: It’s a “Maybe?” for me!
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Walnut
Aroma: Smooth with no bite
Taste: A bit of a bite on the front of tongue, but not much toward the middle or back.
Finish: weak
Bottle: Nothing unique about this bottle
Label: Definitely draws the eye!
Price: Reasonable but nothing special
Overall Rating: It’s a “Nope!” for me.
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Walnut
Aroma: Buttery toffee and well rounded
Taste: Starts sweet and smooth with a bit of a mid-tongue bite
Finish: Eh! Does a disappearing act down the throat.
Bottle: Yup, it’s a glass bottle…
Label: Love the colors and the band at the neck! I’d buy it for the label but not the taste.
Price: Fair to mid-land on the price
Overall Rating: It’s a “Nope!” for me.
Thirteenth Colony Southern Bourbon Whiskey
From Thirteenth Colony: “Crafted from hand selected barrels, this traditional bourbon is produced from a mash bill of predominantly corn along with rye and malted barley, then meticulously aged for 4 years in custom charred American oak barrels.”
Americus, Georgia ($36-38 retail)
Here’s our take on this bourbon from the first distillery in Georgia since prohibition:
Wild Bill’s Thinking
Appearance: Rye
Aroma: Sweet like a simple syrup
Taste: It has a sweetness to it like a simple syrup and has the notes of armagnac and cognac. An ideal after dinner sipper!
Finish: Long and tangy
Bottle: A unique and more artistic presentation. This bottle’s a keeper for me!
Label: Average and non-descript.
Price: Worth the pricepoint at $36
Overall Rating: It’s a “Yup” for me!
Davey Boy’s Musing
Appearance: Rye/Corn
Aroma: My smeller ain’t too good!
Taste: Has a bit of a bitter kick to it and notes similar to a cognac
Finish: Good long finish with a tad of bitter at the end.
Bottle: A unique design that sets it apart from a standard bourbon bottle.
Label: A leather look but somewhat bland.
Price: A solid value at $36
Overall Rating: It’s a “Maybe?” for me.
El Pastor’s Counsel
Appearance: Corn/Wheat
Aroma: Got some sweet tea and honey in this one!
Taste: It’s smooth with a bit of sweetness like simple syrup.
Finish: I found this a medium finish with a bit of a bitter ending.
Bottle: An interesting bottle with a good design. No Picasso here, but much better than paint by numbers!
Label: On the average side.
Price: I would have liked to have seen this in a lower $30’s pricepoint - $36 was just a tad high for me
Overall Rating: A lower pricepoint would be a “Yup”, but at this price, it’s a “Maybe?”