Left Bank Bourbon is bottled by Left Bank Distilled Spirits LLC. What they do is purchase barrels of at least two year old Bourbon in Kentucky. They dump the whiskey and add some additional oak staves to the barrel and refill the barrel. They then place the barrels in a cargo container and ship the Bourbon to New Orleans by river barge. In New Orleans, they then dump the barrels and bottle the Bourbon. It creates a decent two year old Bourbon. I was given a bottle by my friend John Slucher the other day and Matt and I sat down to taste it. Here are our tasting notes.
Left Bank Bourbon
Proof: 105
Age: Two Years Old
Nose:
- Mike: Caramel, corn, baking spices, banana, and oak wood.
- Matt: Caramel, corn husk, lemon and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Caramel, corn, banana, cinnamon, black pepper and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the black pepper is enhanced and the caramel becomes a vanilla. Tasted with a pecan and the pepper and oak are enhanced and a note of dark chocolate comes forward.
- Matt: Caramel, dates, lemon zest and oak wood. The dried cranberry enhanced the fruit. The pecan brought out a note of butterscotch.
Finish:
- Mike: Long with oak and black pepper. The dried cranberry made the finish shorter and sweeter with lots of vanilla. The pecan made the finish long and spicy with oak tannins and lots of black pepper.
- Matt: Medium long with oak and lemon zest. The dried cranberry added some notes of dates to the finish. The pecan made the finish longer with oak and butterscotch.
I would pair this whiskey with a Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 cigar. I think the vanilla and rich tobacco notes in the smoke would pair well with the caramel and spice in the whiskey.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller