The Bardstown Bourbon Company is a distillery founded on the business plan of contract distilling whiskey for other people. That does not mean that they don’t have their own whiskeys for sale. They have created their “Discovery Series” and their “Fusion Series”, an innovative blend of whiskeys for the market. The “Collaborative Series” is whiskey that they have sourced from other distilleries and finished the whiskey in barrels from other products.
In this blog, Matt and I taste two whiskeys from the Bardstown Bourbon Company’s portfolio. The first is part of their Collaborative Series with a ten year old Straight Tennessee Bourbon finished for Twenty-two months in Plantation Rum barrels. The second whiskey is a Bourbon that consists of a blend of thirteen year old Kentucky Bourbon and a ten year old Tennessee Bourbon, finished in Chateau de Laubade Armagnac barrels for sixteen months. They are very good whiskeys and here are our tasting notes.
Bardstown Bourbon Company Collaborative with Plantation Rum
Proof: 104
Age: No Age Statement (Ten Year Old Tennessee Bourbon finished for Twenty-two Months in Plantation Rum Barrels)
Nose:
- Mike: Vanilla, rum, ripe apples and oak wood.
- Matt: Vanilla, brown sugar, cardamom spice and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Vanilla, rum, ripe apples, cardamom and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry enhances the rum flavor and makes the fruit sweet cherries. Tasted with a pecan and the spice becomes a pepper spice.
- Matt: Brown sugar with a citrus note, baking spices and oak wood. The dried cranberry brings out orange citrus, cardamom and floral pepper notes. The pecan brings out caramel and a very spicy mix of spices.
Finish:
- Mike: Lots of oak, vanilla and baking spices. The dried cranberry made the finish shorter and sweeter with rum with a little oak wood. The pecan made the finish longer with oak wood and pepper spice.
- Matt: Baking spices dominate the finish with just a hint of oak. The dried cranberry made the finish sweeter with oak, brown sugar and white pepper. The pecan made the finish longer with oak wood and a lot of hot spice.
Bardstown Bourbon Company Bourbon Finished in Chateau de Laubade Armagnac Barrels
Proof: 107
Age: No Age Statement (Ten Year Old and Thirteen Year Old Bourbons finished for Sixteen Months in Chateau de Laubade Armagnac Barrels)
Nose:
- Mike: Wine forward with golden raisins, berries, vanilla, baking spices and oak wood.
- Matt: Vanilla, toasted marshmallows, blueberries, a floral note and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Vanilla, pears, raspberries, blackberries, allspice and oak wood. The dried cranberry brought out rich caramel flavor. The pecan made the spice a black pepper and brought out notes of chocolate.
- Matt: Vanilla cream, tart blueberries, ginger snap cookies and oak wood. The dried cranberry bought out notes of ginger, cardamom and white pepper. The pecan added notes of dark chocolate and molasses.
Finish:
- Mike: Long with oak wood and baking spices with lingering berry fruit sweetness. The dried cranberry made the finish sweeter with caramel and oak. The pecan made the finish very long and peppery.
- Matt: Medium long with oak and molasses. The dried cranberry made the finish shorter but with lingering citrus with oak and ginger spice. The pecan made the finish longer with hot pepper jelly, oak and ginger.
I would pair these whiskeys with a cigar rich in vanilla and cedar spice in the smoke. I would reach for a Fuente Opus X cigar.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller