Tasting Notes – Historic B. Bird Straight Bourbon

This post sponsored by the Glencairn Whisky Glass

The Baker-Bird Winery and Distillery is located in Augusta, Kentucky. The back label of this bottle has a timeline showing that Johannes Becker came to America from Germany in 1761 and settled in Pennsylvania. He came to Kentucky in 1797 and started a distillery and winery in Augusta, Kentucky. In 2018, the present distillery was founded and the new distillers are using Johannes Becker’s recipe.

What they are not saying is whether the whiskey in this bottle is also using that recipe. The whiskey was made at MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana and bottled at Kentucky Artisan Distillery in Crestwood, Kentucky. There is nothing wrong with this business plan as many new distilleries are sourcing whiskey to enter the market with their brand name while they are building their distillery and producing barrels to age. It would be nice to know however, if this whiskey is standard sourced whiskey from MGP or some that MGP contract distilled for them while they were building their distillery.

I like this Bourbon. For a product of only two years of age, it has a nice complex flavor. If what the distillery is producing matches this flavor profile, they will have an excellent Bourbon in the market for years to come.

Historic B. Bird Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Proof: 100

Age: Two Years Old

Nose: Very fruity with ripe berries and dates, sweet corn, vanilla and oak wood.

Taste: Corn and ripe berries – blackberries and raspberries, a little vanilla, baking spices – cardamom and nutmeg, and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the fruit moves to the background and the spice moves forward with some cinnamon added to the spice mixture. Tasted with a pecan and a little citrus note comes out and the vanilla becomes richer and more forward.

Finish: Long with berry fruit, oak tannins and some lingering baking spices. The dried cranberry makes the finish very spicy with lots of cinnamon and cardamom and only a hint of oak. The pecan makes the finish very dry – starts with vanilla but then the oak comes out with just a hint of the baking spices.

I would pair this Bourbon with a medium-bodied cigar in order to let the flavors complement each other rather than to compete with each other. I think I would choose a Rocky Patel Winter Collection which I think has some of the same spicinesses as the Bourbon.