The Ragged Branch Distillery located in Charlottesville, Virginia, is a farm-to-bottle distillery with a 500 gallon Vendome still. This means they grow all of their grain on their farm. Dave Pickerell was instrumental in setting up the distillery and developing their mash bill. This Double oaked whiskey is a wheated Bourbon aged till it is a straight, bonded Bourbon and then transferred into another new, charred oak barrel. Matt and I sat down and tasted this Bourbon and here are our tasting notes.
Ragged Branch Double Oaked Bottled-in-Bond
Proof: 100
Age: No Age Statement
Nose:
- Mike: Caramel apples, corn, and oak wood.
- Matt: Buttered corn on the cob, cardamom and lemon grass spice, and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Caramel, apple fruit, some pepper spice and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the caramel and apple flavors are enhanced. Tasted with a pecan and the corn comes out and the caramel becomes a rich French vanilla.
- Matt: Sweet corn, vanilla, lemon citrus and oak wood. The dried cranberry added a buttery corn note to the flavor. The pecan enhanced the oak and vanilla and added a cayenne pepper flavor.
Finish:
- Mike: It has a fairly short finish with oak and pepper spice. The dried cranberry made the finish a little longer and added a lingering note of sweet apple. The pecan made the finish very long with sweet corn, vanilla and oak.
- Matt: Medium long with oak, citrus and Mexican spices. The dried cranberry enhanced the citrus notes with cayenne pepper and oak wood. The pecan brought out the sweet corn in the finish.
I would pair this whiskey with a cigar that has lots of vanilla and cedar spice in the smoke. I would reach for a NUB Habano wrapper cigar.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller