Castle & Key The Woolgatherer Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Finished in Vino de Naranja Barrels

VITALS:

- $75

- 115.4 Proof

- NAS

- Kentucky

On my most recent trip to Kentucky I made it a point to do the tour at Castle & Key. I had never been, and I was certainly eager to check out the grounds of the old E.H. Taylor distillery, and, of course, the castle itself.  I will say, that tour exceeded my expectations! The distillery and the grounds are absolutely beautiful!  They did an incredible job restoring that property!  And the history of the property is compelling and made for a really enjoyable tour!

Of course, at the end of the tour we took part in a tasting, and, oddly enough, I found I really liked their gin. But afterwards we perused the gift shop, and I saw this bottle on the shelf. Our tour guide saw me looking at it, and she offered to bring me back into the tasting room to try a sample. Needless to say, I was impressed not only with the flavor but the uniqueness of this whiskey, and a bottle made its way back to Illinois with me. 

This is not a super-high rye at 63%, so some of the sweeter notes were allowed to come through, and that was definitely the case with the nose. Right up front I got sweet notes of brown sugar and, not surprisingly, orange. It definitely had a bit of an old fashioned aroma to it, but with some vanilla added as well. I did not get "orange creamsicle," as the back label suggested, but it definitely had a nice nose.

Quite frankly, I didn't get the "orange creamsicle" in the flavor either, which was just fine by me, as I tend to avoid overly sweet whiskeys. And, quite frankly, initially my reaction to this whiskey was that it was just okay. But, this was one of those bottles that seemed to just get better with every pour.

Despite it not being a high-rye whiskey, it nonetheless had a healthy dose of cinnamon spice, both on the front end and the back end. That cinnamon spice was paired with a rich, brown sugar sweetness to keep it from ever getting either too spicy or too sweet.

Of course the orange was there, but again, not the sweet, artificial orange flavor, but rather bright and even slightly bitter orange peel, and even a bit of burnt orange. It definitely had that old fashioned quality to it, and it did, in fact, make for a pretty tasty old fashioned, leaning right into the Angostura bitters.

On the finish, the cinnamon spice certainly came through, and that burnt orange note lingered as well. But it was here that, while I don't believe this is a very aged whiskey, it provided some oak notes, a bit of earthiness and bitterness to continually balance the orange and brown sugar notes. 

I don't know that I'll come across this again, but this was a fun bottle to enjoy.  It was not only something different and unique, but it was really good! And by the time I got to the end of the bottle, I was a bit disappointed that it was over.

Grade: B+ 

Starlight Distillery Huber's Rickhouse Select Gift Shop Exclusive Single Barrel Indiana Straight Bourbon

VITALS:

- $60

- 114.6 Proof

- 4.5 years

- Barrel No. 16121

- Indiana

I certainly consider myself a fan of Starlight Distillery. I was introduced to them about four years ago, back when they had an ugly and very unassuming label, one that had never attracted my attention. But, on recommendation, I gave one of their single barrel ryes a try and thought it was absolutely delicious! Now they have all sorts of SKUs on the shelves and a pretty robust private barrel program out of which have come some absolutely incredible bottles of whiskey.

So, when I finally got the chance to visit the distillery and Huber's farm on my way back from Louisville a couple Summers ago, I went with the intention of buying whatever gift shop exclusive single barrels they had available. This is the last of what I purchased, sadly. But, on the brighter side, it gives me reason to make my way back there soon!

The nose was certainly more traditional, in that I got notes of vanilla and caramel or even burnt sugar right up front. It did have a bit of a cinnamon spice, perhaps at times more of a black pepper spice. There was also a bit of a wood note, but not really that deep oak note. It was more like the smell of fresh cut wood.

The flavor was good, albeit not very complex. It was caramel forward, but also had a significant amount of that burnt sugar flavor I got off the nose. There was a certain nutty quality to it as well, kind of like walnut, even with the slightly bitter parts from the shell.

On the finish the black pepper seemed to come through more, overtaking any cinnamon spice. I wouldn't have described this as a "spicy" bourbon until I got to that finish. It also had a good amount of brown sugar on the finish, as well as a light walnut note that lingered for a bit.

All the flavors were good, but it just came across as somewhat simple. I would have loved for the vanilla I got on the nose to come through in the flavor, or for some fruit-forward notes. But, I still enjoyed what was there, and once I opened it the bottle still wasn't long for this world.

Grade: B

Evan Williams Master Blend Kentucky Straight Bourbon (Gift Shop Exclusive)

VITALS:

- $60

- 90 Proof

- NAS

- Kentucky

Whenever I go to Kentucky, I always feel like I have to come back with something special, something that I can't get in Illinois. Of course, it's always easy to go the route of a local store pick, but it's the stuff that's only available at the distillery gift shops that I really want to try to bring home. Luckily for me, during my last trip to Louisville I had a brief moment to swing through the Evan Williams Experience, and I was able to snag a couple bottles of this Master Blend (I passed on the over-priced Evan Williams 12-year).

This is a blend of five different Evan Williams products, including their Signature Black, the Bottled-in-Bond, 1783 and Evan Williams Single Barrel, as well as some of the 23-year-old! Of course, how much of the 23-year-old is in this blend is not disclosed, but I think it's a fair assumption that it represents a very small percentage of the blend. Nonetheless, this came highly recommended to me, and I was eager to give it a try.

The nose came across as sweet but earthy. My first note was sweet tea. It had that honey sweetness to it, but also a light bitter and dry note from the tea leaves. I also got some sweet oak as well. In that sense the nose was interesting in that it had a balance of bitter and sweet, though it did lean a bit more to the sweeter end, so perhaps "balance" wasn't the correct word.

Despite the lower proof, there was a certain unexpected richness to this whiskey. It still had that sweet wood note I got off the nose, but it was more of a mix of dark molasses and rich oak notes. The combination worked fairly well.  

There was also a bright and bitter note, kind of like an orange peel note, that I really enjoyed. It seemed to cut through the rich notes while adding further depth of flavor. It also had the tea leaf note from the nose, but it didn't come across so much as a sweet tea. Rather, the unsweetened tea note seemed to stand on its own.

On the finish I got a nice cinnamon spice that seemed to almost appear out of nowhere.  That was a pleasant surprise. That and the orange peel note seemed to stick around the longest, while the oak and molasses notes seemed to fade away a bit. The finish wasn't very long and it didn't exactly coat my mouth, but that's to be expected given the proof.

If you're in Kentucky and are looking to bring something back that you can't get in your home state, this is a good grab. At $60, it's far more accessible than many other gift shop exclusives (though, for Evan Williams products, a bit on the higher end), and it was quite tasty.

Grade: B