Penelope Bourbon is the creation of Mike Paladini and his wife Kerry. It is named for their daughter, Penelope. They teamed up with Danny Polise to create the company in 2018. MGP bought Penelope through its Luxco subsidiary in 2023 and are creating some fine bottles of whiskey. I tasted some of their whiskeys at the St. Louis Bourbon Festival in 2023 and was impressed, so the other day, I saw a bottle of their Toasted Bourbon in the liquor store and picked it up for review. Matt and I liked it so much, we decided to make it our Whiskey of the Month for March 2025. Here are our tasting notes.

Penelope Toasted Oak Bourbon

Proof: 100

Age: Five Years Old

Nose:

  • Mike: Caramel toffee, milk chocolate, a hint of fruit and spice, oak wood.
  • Matt: Caramel, golden delicious apples, rosewater, nutmeg and oak wood.

Taste:

  • Mike: Caramel, apples, pears, nutmeg and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the apple is enhanced and milk chocolate comes out in the taste. Tasted with a pecan and a rich French Vanilla comes out with wild berries and oak wood.
  • Matt: Caramel, golden delicious apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger spices and oak wood. The dried cranberry enhanced the caramel and apple.  The pecan enhanced the cinnamon and ginger spice and oak wood.

Finish:

  • Mike: Medium long with oak and caramel. The dried cranberry added some lingering apple notes to the finish. The pecan made the finish very long with oak wood, caramel and lingering wild berry notes.
  • Matt: Medium long with oak wood and sweet apples. The dried cranberry added lingering caramel to the finish. The pecan made the finish very long with oak wood and caramel.

I would pair this fine whiskey with a Rocky Patel Vintage 1990 cigar. The vanilla and cedar spice of the smoke would pair well with the caramel and spice in the Whiskey.

a bottle of penelope toasted bourbon next to a glencairn glass of bourbon next to a bobblehead of mike veach

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller