The other day, I attended a ZOOM tasting led by Heather Greene of Milam & Greene’s latest release, Unabridged Volume 3 Bourbon. There were whiskey writers and bloggers from all over the country in this tasting. Heather explained how they are working hard to overcome the reputation of Texas whiskeys. There are distributors that will not even talk with her because she is a Texas distilling company. This is a shame because there are several Texas whiskey distillers making very good whiskey and Milam & Greene is one of them. She has blended, as Master Blender for Milam & Greene, a very good Bourbon. It is only three and a half year old Bourbon because the age statement has to be that of the youngest whiskey in the bottle, but this whiskey has a lot of older whiskey in the bottle. It consists of Bourbon made in Texas and Bourbon contract distilled in Kentucky. There are 4 barrels of 10 year old Kentucky Bourbon, 13 barrels of 9 year old Kentucky Bourbon, 7 barrels of 6 year old Kentucky Bourbon, 5 barrels of 4 year old Texas Bourbon with rye malt, 5 barrels of 4 year old Tennessee Bourbon and 15 barrels of Kentucky Bourbon with rye malt. The rye malt is the Milam & Greene recipe and we will be seeing more of it in the future. They sent me a bottle for the tasting and Matt and I sat down to taste it together the other day and here are our tasting notes.
Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 3 Bourbon
Proof: 118
Age: Three and a Half Years Old
Nose:
- Mike: Caramel, chocolate, apples, pears, baking spices and oak wood.
- Matt: Caramel, blackberries, firewood smoke and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Caramel, chocolate, apples, cinnamon, cardamom and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the apples and cinnamon are enhanced. Tasted with a pecan and the chocolate, caramel and apples are enhanced.
- Matt: Caramel, blackberries, warm biscuits, toast and oak wood. The dried cranberry enhanced the caramel and blackberries. The pecan brought out notes of chocolate and enhanced the caramel.
Finish:
- Mike: Medium long with oak wood, cinnamon and lingering chocolate. The dried cranberry made the finish long and spicy with lots of cinnamon red hot candy. The pecan made the finish very long with oak wood, chocolate and lingering apple fruit.
- Matt: Medium long with oak wood and toast. The dried cranberry made the finish longer with oak and warm biscuits. The pecan made the finish very long with oak and toast.
I would pair this fine Bourbon with a cigar that has lots of vanilla, chocolate and caramel in the smoke. I would reach for a My Father The Judge cigar.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller