Bourbon Paddy

Suddenly the government became guarantor for the authenticity, quality, and traceability of any spirits labelled as ‘Bottled-in-Bond’, consumers were protected from rectified spirits, and distilleries received a tax incentive for producing bonded whiskies as taxes Tax strips were also helpful as they provided consumers with an approximate age of the whiskey within a 6 month period as each distilling season was 6 months long  (spring season covering January to June, fall covering July to December) and distillers were required to state the distilling season and year that the whiskey was made and bottled on the tax strip. Examples where age statements were being left off from labels of whiskies less than 4 years old, producers deceiving consumers as to the source of their whiskies, misleading labels aimed to confuse consumers as to the true age and background history of a whiskey, and whiskies with added flavourings being passed off as bourbon, have all been seen in recent years and have begun to tarnish the reputation of honest whiskies yet again. Sure, I’d also like to see more producers join the growing trend of stating what distilling season the whiskey was distilled and bottled in, such as with Heaven Hill’s popular Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond series, however, as the popularity of Bottled-in-Bond continues growing due to consumer demand

Named in honour of its Irish founder, the Henry McKenna brand dates back to 1855 when Irish immigrant Henry McKenna started a small distillery to make use of waste coming from his grain mill which he operated in Fairfield, KY. Today it is one of the many brands produced with distinction by the Heaven Hill Distillery and has in recent years rose to notoriety after winning numerous prestigious awards and achieved very high review ratings for the 10 y.o. Made using the standard Heaven Hill high-rye mashbill, the ‘brown label’ Henry McKenna is an 80 proof straight bourbon that comes in at about 3 y.o., whereas the 10 y.o. is Heaven Hill’s oldest continuously-released Bottled-in-Bond whiskey and again honours McKenna’s love of producing the very mature whiskies through extensive ageing, which made his brand famous. Henry McKenna Single Barrel Bottled-in-Bond (Barrel #1968 Barrelled on 4/4/2005)

The distillery also has the largest number of Bottled in Bond whiskies on the market and is the only heritage distiller that features every major category of American whiskey in their 5 distinct mashbills producing traditional bourbon, wheated bourbon, rye whiskey, corn whiskey, and wheat whiskey. Beginning its journey as the traditional Heaven Hill high-rye bourbon recipe, the fully mature bourbon earmarked for Elijah Craig is first dumped before being re-entered into custom toasted barrels at barrel proof and being finished for a period of approximately 2-3 months. For reference, here’s what a standard Elijah Craig bourbon barrel stave (left) with a Level 3 char looks like compared to a heavily toasted no char stave (middle), and finally the heavy toast stave following a Level 1 char that was used to finish this bourbon (right). Compared to the toasted stave (middle) and the flash charred toasted stave (right), the darkening of the wood from the custom toasting is clear in both and shows that the whiskey didn’t have to travel very deep into the second barrel’s staves to interact with the concentrated wood sugar and attain the target flavour profile.

Still ageing for approximately 2 years in 10 gallon deep-charred white oak barrels their range of offerings now include a small batch bourbon and rye, a single barrel bourbon and rye, a small batch American whiskey, two different new-make whiskey products, a 4 grain bourbon, a high-rye bourbon, and their very famous Experimental E series of whiskies. First released in December 2019, Distillery 291 Small Batch Colorado Rye is the first bottling of a small batch rye whiskey from a distillery which had previously solely produced single barrel offerings. As with their single barrel rye this product uses 291’s standard rye mashbill of 61% rye and 39% corn, that’s milled on site, fermented in open-top fermenters, and triple distilled in their copper pot stills before being aged for just over a year in heavily charred 10 gallon new oak barrels. I would also argue that (from what I’ve tasted to date) Distillery 291’s rye whiskies are far superior to their bourbon whiskies because this combination of rye and citrussy hops makes for a flavour balance that works very well together and gives a beautifully round flavour profile that has both bold flavour depth and yet is also lightly fruity.