Gnaw Bone is a bonded Bourbon from the Bear Wallow Distillery in Brown County, Indiana. The distillery is a small pot still distillery with a tasting room. Matt and I visited the distillery’s tasting room after a visit to Hard Truth Distillery and I picked up some bottles after tasting them. I liked what I tasted in all of their whiskeys. This whiskey has a mash bill of 65% corn, 25% wheat and 10% malted barley and is aged in 53 gallon barrels from Kelvin Cooperage. The distillery was founded in 2014 by Susan Spagnuolo and her husband Mike. It is a family owned distillery with her son Adam as head of production and her son Jon as head of marketing. Matt and I sat down and tasted this bottle the other day and here are our tasting notes.
Gnaw Bone Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
Proof: 100
Age: No Age Statement
Nose:
- Mike: Vanilla, apples, baking spices and oak wood.
- Matt: Caramel, wild berries and oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Vanilla, apples, cinnamon, nutmeg and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry brings out black pepper spice. Tasted with a pecan and the vanilla becomes a rich caramel.
- Matt: Caramel, blackberries and oak wood. The dried cranberry enhanced the blackberry. The pecan brought out peanut butter in the taste.
Finish:
- Mike: Medium long with oak wood and cinnamon. The dried cranberry made the spice a black pepper. The pecan made the finish long with oak wood and caramel.
- Matt: Medium long with oak wood and lingering caramel. The dried cranberry enhanced the oak. The pecan made the finish long with oak wood, caramel and peanut butter.
I would pair this Bourbon with a NUB Maduro cigar. I think the vanilla and tobacco flavors in the smoke would enhance the vanilla in the Bourbon.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller