New Year. New Beginnings. New Traditions. We came up with the idea of blending a bourbon to celebrate the New Year, and we gave ourselves free reign to develop something to capture the spirit of the season. It was the first time we blended barrels of different ages with different mashbills from different states, and we had a lot of fun doing it. To date, every release of our bourbon has been a marriage of casks produced in the same distillation season. We do this to highlight different production styles, aging techniques and age expressions. To commemorate 2017, we combined 5 to 13 year old barrels from several different states, which were distilled and aged using different techniques. We had one goal in mind, to make the most captivating, delicious bourbon we could.
Crushed stone and broiled fruit give way to wet saddle leather and generous dollops of heavy sweet cream oozing over cast iron baked cornbread. The pleasant warmth of this bourbon is tempered by the opulent, mouth-filling extended finish. Fire and smoke swirl around your palate, leaving behind bursts of sea salt, walnut liqueur, and citrus oils on your tongue. This is a highly sophisticated liquid, perfect for celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next.
Tasting Notes:
Appearance: Luxuriant 18 karat gold flecked with cinnamon red at its heart with edges of yellower gold leaf shimmering with each gentle swirl of the glass.
Nose: Wet leather and Tahitian-vanilla bean challah French toast awash in hazelnut brown butter and dark maple syrup. Sweet plum and cherry notes give way to campfire and toasted buckwheat for a simultaneously familiar and exotic aroma.
Palate: Smoldering oak underlies the ever-present heat with each slurp accentuated by salted caramel and droplets of condensed milk.
Finish: Crackling hot late season corn pudding, covered in dollops of rapidly melting sweet butter jump at you. Each sip plunges down the throat, drenched in spicy citrus marmalade and toasted grains.
With a few drops of spring water: Notes of spicy ginger beer, sarsaparilla, and birch bark rush across the palate, making way for toasted brioche topped with smoked butter and raw honey. Filtered stream water carries the strong presence of this remarkable liquid, making it sing.
