Category: Below $30

Josh Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon Review (2022)

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ Although we only do things whiskey at The Whiskey Reviewer, that bailiwick is widened somewhat by doing all things whiskey. That includes beer and wine aged in old whiskey barrels, such as Josh Cellars bourbon barrel aged cabernet sauvignon. For this expression, Josh takes their standard “cab sav” and gives …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Josh Bourbon Barrel Cabernet Sauvignon
(Credit: Josh Cellars)

Although we only do things whiskey at The Whiskey Reviewer, that bailiwick is widened somewhat by doing all things whiskey. That includes beer and wine aged in old whiskey barrels, such as Josh Cellars bourbon barrel aged cabernet sauvignon. For this expression, Josh takes their standard “cab sav” and gives it two months of secondary maturation in old bourbon barrels. The wine at the end has an ABV of 14.5%.

The Wine
I found it very fruit forward for a cabernet sauvignon, being a full-on blackberry and currant bomb. The expected tannic current was stuffed very much into the background, with a modest run of vanilla sitting in between. Basically, it’s much fruiter, and consequently less spicy and woody, than the expected flavor profile, which has the end result of making the bourbon-granted vanilla note most welcome.

The Price
The 2022 release should cost you $22 or $23.

Bourbonola Bourbon & Cherry Cola Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Bourbonola is a nod to the long history of the Lexington Brewing Company. By that, I don’t mean the modern company, which was established in 1999 and is very much a creation of the late period of the Craft Beer 1.0 era. There is an earlier Lexington Brewing Company, one …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A-

Bourbonola, a high strength bourbon and cola mixer
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Bourbonola is a nod to the long history of the Lexington Brewing Company. By that, I don’t mean the modern company, which was established in 1999 and is very much a creation of the late period of the Craft Beer 1.0 era.

There is an earlier Lexington Brewing Company, one that got its start in the 1890s. Like many breweries around the country, the company struggled to survive Prohibition. As part of its efforts, they introduced a cola called “Bourbonola.” One can see the ads painted on the sides of buildings in old timey photographs of early 20th Century Lexington, Kentucky. There was no actual bourbon in the old Bourbonola, of course. It was Prohibition. But it was an effort to produce an alternate, non-alcoholic product intertwined with Kentucky’s sometimes boozy culture.

The modern, Alltech-owned Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company has revived Bourbonola as an RTD mixer. They’ve taken a blend of cherry and vanilla colas, and mixed in enough Town Branch Bourbon (I’m told it is the cask strength version, although that isn’t in the official materials) to raise the ABV to 12%. That is double the norm for RTD mixers and on par with a glass of wine. As you’ll soon learn, that makes all the difference.

The Mixer
This is the best RTD mixer I’ve ever had, flat out. It’s simply not that hard to do a mixer, so convenience can in no way make up for simply putting Coca Cola and a tiny amount of Jack Daniel’s in a can, for example. The other day I did a mixer of a crafty ginger ale (I forget which one; see the bourbon chosen for mixing) with Elijah Craigh Barrel Proof. I did this on the fly, taking a swig from the bottle and then refilling it with the cask strength bourbon. The result was better than half the RTD mixers I’ve had: in my improvised, parking lot concoction, the soft drink wasn’t boring and bourbon strong enough to make its presence felt.

Bourbonola is different. The choice of cherry and vanilla colas is perfect, because the cherry flavor adds a twist, while the vanilla enhances the bourbon. The latter is strong enough to make its presence felt and packs more of a wallop than most beer, and that is what any sane person should want from a mixer.

Get a four-pack and try it out this summer. If the roots of this mixer are your bag, you won’t regret it.

The Price
A four-pack goes for $14.99.

Lexington Brewing Kentucky Old Fashioned Ale Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: A- Although Lexington Brewing occupies a clear place in my heart, their place in the beer world is not quite as easily summed up. On the one hand, the company is owned by Alltech, not a big drinks conglomerate. Although Alltech is a substantial company, their base is in animal feed, …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A-

Kentucky Old Fashioned Ale
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Although Lexington Brewing occupies a clear place in my heart, their place in the beer world is not quite as easily summed up. On the one hand, the company is owned by Alltech, not a big drinks conglomerate. Although Alltech is a substantial company, their base is in animal feed, with brewing and distilling being an adjunct that draws on their existing yeast expertise. On the other, their output and national distribution footprint puts them outside what almost everyone thinks of when they speak of “craft beer.” They fit in the tiny class of mid-sized brewers aren’t part of Big Booze.

There is some synergy between Alltech’s brewery and its various distilleries, especially when it comes to barrel stock. Their latest creation takes full advantage of this, and is the sort of thing that I wonder why nobody thought of it before, certainly once Ready To Drink (RTD) canned and bottled cocktails came into vogue during the Pandemic: Kentucky Old Fashioned Ale. What they’ve done is taken their classic Kentucky Ale (now the Kentucky Irish Red Ale) and brewed it up with cherries and orange peels, then aged it in freshly dumped bourbon barrels. That is a key advantage of running a brewstilling operation: you can get the freshest of freshly dumped bourbon barrels.

The Ale
As you can see from my photo, this is a deep brown ale with red highlights, too dark to be anything like amber. The head off my pour was minimal, and what I did get faded fast.

The name is exactly what you get: it is an ale that leans very heavily into Old Fashioned territory. In particular, that Old Fashioned is one that has tripled down on the orange, as if the bitters chosen were orange, the simple syrup had an orange zest infusion, and the cocktail was served with two peels instead of one. This isn’t to say its orange ale, however: the bourbon vanilla is very present, and the accents of red berry and cookie spice round the picture out.

This is a must-have for anyone who likes their beer interesting and their cocktails classic. I fully intend to go get a four-pack the next time around.

The Price
A four-pack is listed online for $16.

Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops Bourbon Barrel Stout Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ A major league connection between bourbon and beer comes to us through the Japanese brewing company Kirin, but not in the most predictable way. Many bourbon fans already know Kirin bought and revived Four Roses some twenty years ago. However, Kirin isn’t using Four Roses bourbon barrels to age Kirin …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Brooklyn Brewing Black Ops Bourbon Barrel Stout
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

A major league connection between bourbon and beer comes to us through the Japanese brewing company Kirin, but not in the most predictable way. Many bourbon fans already know Kirin bought and revived Four Roses some twenty years ago. However, Kirin isn’t using Four Roses bourbon barrels to age Kirin beers (although they are using them to age certain Japanese whiskies). Instead, Kirin acquired some American craft brewers, including Bell’s, New Belgium and Brooklyn Brewing. The latter is where the Four Roses bourbon barrels went.

Black Ops is a Four Roses barrel-aged imperial stout, made with Goldings and Sorachi Ace hops. The stint in the barrels lasted for several months, and after all that was said and done, it came out at 11.5% ABV.

The Beer
This pours as a pitch black, velvety brew, with a quite modest head. The flavor has the roasted malts, deep vanilla, cocoa powder and hints of coffee that I would expect from any stout of this kind, but also a strong current of tart red berries. The stout is too heavy for truly casual drinking, but it is quite yummy. The fruit dimension makes it a good choice for a dessert beer or a moody pour for indulging a boozy sweet tooth.

The Price
Black Ops comes in four-packs of 16 oz cans. Expect to pay about $20 for one, which is pretty reasonable compared to what a pint at the bar costs nowadays.

Glyph Spice Spirit Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: C- As the craft whiskey boom really took off in the early 2010s, many small producers were on the look out for techniques to reduce maturation time or bypass it all together. The classic was to age in small or tiny barrels. The best examples of this tailored their production process …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C-

Glyph Spice
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

As the craft whiskey boom really took off in the early 2010s, many small producers were on the look out for techniques to reduce maturation time or bypass it all together. The classic was to age in small or tiny barrels. The best examples of this tailored their production process to make a better new make, something that would be drinkable after a mere several months in a cask that was 10 gallons or less. Many did not, giving rise to the whole “craft whiskey sucks” meme that is still kicking around to this day. Others used the small barrel concept and took it a step further, such as Defiant using spiral oak cuts (maximizing surface area) and dropping those into the whiskey, with decidedly mixed results.

The most interesting have been attempts to take a more high-tech approach, such as the ultrasonic TerrePure process. Again, when one takes in the gambit of these more laboratory-oriented methods, some achieve results worth further exploration and others come as as being mere gimmicks. Cleveland Whiskey attempted to circumvent maturation by using pressurization, with notoriously bad results. Yet some, like Bespoken Spirits, show some promise.

Glyph Spirits says they “[craft whiskey] ‘note by note’ in less than 24 hours using flavor and aroma molecules extracted from more efficient sources in nature.” By that, they mean they extract flavors directly from “plants and yeasts” and then add this to neutral grain alcohol (corn vodka, basically).

That is all very interesting, but the label is somewhat more substantive, because it must be approved by the TTB and meet certain legal requirements. Glyph Spice is a “spirit whiskey with natural flavors,” and spirits whiskey is a blend of the aforementioned neutral spirits with 5% to 20% whiskey. Spirit whiskey was a creation of the Great Whiskey Bust of the 1970s, as big distillers scrambled to create lighter products that they felt the vodka, wine and lite beer drinking Boomers of the day wanted. So, this is a little actually whiskey of some kind, corn vodka and added flavoring. Glyph is also keen on calling attention to how environmentally friendly their process is, using less water and energy than traditional distilling.

The Whiskey
The pour has a dull copper look to it, and a nose that is light, but has a slight bite to it, despite being only 40% ABV. The scents are of pine needles and canned fruit medley. The flavor delivers more pine attached to allspice. This is a simple enough drink, and it might make for a good mixer in the right company.

The Price
One thing Glyph Spice has going for it is that it is pretty cheap. I’ve seen it listed with online retailers in the $16 to $22 range.

Isle of Skye 12 Year Old Scotch Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: Isle of Skye blended whiskies weren’t exactly unknown in American prior to this year. A quick Googling reveals US-based whiskey bloggers writing about it a decade ago. However, those reviews were based on special imports or something that the writer brought home with them from a trip to the UK. Now …

By Richard Thomas

Rating:

Isle of Skye 12 Year Old Scotch Whisky
(Credit: Ian Macleod Distillers)

Isle of Skye blended whiskies weren’t exactly unknown in American prior to this year. A quick Googling reveals US-based whiskey bloggers writing about it a decade ago. However, those reviews were based on special imports or something that the writer brought home with them from a trip to the UK. Now all the expressions of this wide line-up are on American shelves, and the lower tiers are much more available (and probably cheaper to boot).

The 12 Year Old entry in the line really does take things up a notch compared to the 8 Year Old. Yet like its younger sibling, the whisky is a blend of Speyside and Island stocks. The difference shows both in the 50% increase in maturation, and one suspects that a higher proportion of Sherry-aged stock was drawn upon as well.

The Scotch
The pour has a golden coloring, and a scent that carries cream and honey coupled to heather and hay, with a dash of cilantro for good measure. Against that nose, which really has some character, the palate has a lighter character. The honey and heather/hay field flavors are still there, of course, with a seasoning of Bigelow Constant Comment tea and hints of vanilla and peat. That last note, the peat, is very faint indeed. I missed it on my first go-around. The finish runs light, with a little spice and an even smaller dose of smoke.

The Price
Officially, this bottle now fetches $27.99. I see it listed at a similar price point in the UK and Europe. Frankly, if you can snag a bottle for under $30, you’ve got a very good buy on your hands.

Isle of Skye 8 Year Old Scotch Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: C+ Isle of Skye is a blended Scotch whisky, created by Ian Macleod Distillers. Here at The Whiskey Reviewer, we are familiar with their work through Tamdhu, Sheep Dip, Pig’s Nose and Glengoyne. When it comes to whisky, the islands most often thought of are Talisker, Islay, the Orkneys and Jura. …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C+

Isle of Skye is a blended Scotch whisky, created by Ian Macleod Distillers. Here at The Whiskey Reviewer, we are familiar with their work through Tamdhu, Sheep Dip, Pig’s Nose and Glengoyne.

When it comes to whisky, the islands most often thought of are Talisker, Islay, the Orkneys and Jura. For the rest of the world, however, the first Scots island that comes to mind is the Isle of Skye. It is the largest of the Inner Hebrides, and a major tourist magnet for northwestern Scotland. Thus, it makes sense to name a whisky brand for the island, even if the island isn’t particularly well-known for its whisky.

Isle of Skye is based on malts from the Islands and Speyside. This one is the entry-level run in the range, bottled at 40% ABV. Although it’s been around for many years, the line was only recently brought to the United States in its entirety.

The Scotch
The color of the whisky is light amber, close enough to bourbon that I suspect (legal) coloring was added. The scent is cream and vanilla, with a hint of smoke backing it. On the palate, it’s malty honey with hints of apple and pie spice, plus a fainter hint of creosote. The finish runs light, short, and faintly caramelized.

The Price
A survey of online retailers produced an average of $30 for a bottle of this whisky.

Shady Mile Wheat Bourbon Review

By Douglas Fraser Rating: B- Shady Mile is said to be made (sourced) from the tenth oldest distillery in the state of Kentucky, and named after a point in the country roads where bootleggers met to conduct business and have a sip of whiskey. The whiskey is known to come from Owensboro, and Green River …

By Douglas Fraser

Rating: B-

Shady Mile is said to be made (sourced) from the tenth oldest distillery in the state of Kentucky, and named after a point in the country roads where bootleggers met to conduct business and have a sip of whiskey. The whiskey is known to come from Owensboro, and Green River Distillery is licensed as DSP-KY-10, so that is probably where the “10th oldest” claim comes from. If that connection of the dots isn’t the right answer, then it would be very interesting to see what they mean by that.

The Bourbon
The mashbill consists of 70% corn, 21% wheat, and 9% malted barley. The wheated bourbon is aged in new charred oak barrels, entering the barrel at 120 proof and bottled at 90 proof/45% ABV. It should be considered wheat lover’s dream, however it does seem to be a bit off balance. This could be from the age, as it does not appear to be refined.

Color: Gold

The nose starts with sweet corn up front then fades to notes of coffee cake, wheat bread, vanilla, red berries, granola, and tobacco. The palate is rather nutty and tannic with mellow notes of brown sugar, cereal, angel food cake, corn bread, and some hints of citrus fruits. The finish is long and lingering together with fading fruitiness, with notes of almonds and tobacco.

The Price
Shady Mile Wheat Bourbon can be found for $30.

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Tennessee Whiskey Review

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Back in 2018, Jack Daniel’s introduced a Bottled in Bond version of their Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. This was a travel retail expression, and as such they put it in a larger 1-liter bottle (that is an extra five shots, for those of you who are interested in the …

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Jack Daniel’s Bonded Tennessee Whiskey
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Back in 2018, Jack Daniel’s introduced a Bottled in Bond version of their Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey. This was a travel retail expression, and as such they put it in a larger 1-liter bottle (that is an extra five shots, for those of you who are interested in the math). Fast forward 2 1/2 years, and Jack Daniel’s has introduced a new, permanent brand extension in its new Bonded Series. For now, this has two expressions: Jack Daniel’s Bonded and Jack Daniel’s Triple Mash.

The first thing to cross my mind as I took in a pour of Jack Daniel’s Bonded was what, if anything, made the liquid itself distinct from the previous Bottled in Bond expression of 2018. The answer, as you shall see below, is it’s not. Comparing what I had in my glass to what I had in my notes, I decided the differences were so small as to be discrete and debatable.

The real distinctions are practical. First, the 2018 Bottled in Bond was available only in airports (at least officially). This new Bonded Tennessee Whiskey is in regular distribution. Also, it is an example of Jack Daniel’s taking advantage of the 2020 change in Federal Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) rules allowing American liquor companies to use European-friendly 70 cl bottles (that is one shot less than the American standard 750 ml bottle). I have heard they are continuing with the 1-liter bottle as well, but I have not actually seen one as of yet.

The Whiskey
In the glass, JD Bonded has a solid, mid-amber coloring. The scent is solidly Jack Daniel’s: brown sugar and caramel sweet, a touch spicy, a touch nutty, plus a touch of char. It’s a mellow, subdued scent, although here it is noticeably stronger than is usually the case with classic Jack Daniel’s.

The flavor holds with the brown sugar, caramel and nuttiness, but to this adds a little creamy, banana milkshake. The finish turns a bit spicy and a bit woody, and lingers for a spell.

This is one of those Jack Daniel’s expressions that takes the core flavor profile of classic JD and builds on it, rather than taking it to different places. It is a modest step up in flavor, due in large part to the increased in proof, but also to barrel selection.

The Price
The 70cl bottle of JD Bonded is priced at $30. In tandem with the modest step up in quality, it is also a modest step up in price. Even with the smaller bottle size, it’s a better buy than Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7.