Borough Bourbon Batch 2

This was the champion of my rum finished division of my barrel finished bourbon bracket. The final rankings were: 1 - Borough Batch 2 2 - Blood Oath Pact 5 3 - Jefferson’s Old Rum Cask 4 - Dovetail (not a bourbon, oops) So who is Borough? When fleshing out a rum finished bourbon bracket, they were the answer to my question: “Who the hell else makes a rum finish that I can buy online?” At $65 shipped, this bourbon hit that sweet spot of availability meeting affordability for my little experiment to make it a four-player round. But if you haven’t heard of them, because I hadn’t, here’s what I found out. (Note: they’re a bit cryptic about specifics, which is to be expected for a sourced distillate.) 1) Distilled in Bardstown 2) Aged “600 miles west” in “the Great Plains” 3) Finished in Barbados rum casks in Washington D.C. Additionally, I found out this distillery, Republic Representatives, is female-owned. This Batch 2 is not to be confused with the main entry in Distiller (not specified in the title, but it’s Batch 1) which was finished in Sauvignon Blanc casks and had a mediocre reception from the Distiller community. The tasting of Borough: The nose is mainly sour. I’m getting oak, high rye, lemon. There is melted butter there too. Very bourbon standard, well executed. Body is delicious. It’s not unique, but it’s not mainstream bourbon notes. There’s sugar, watermelon, citrus. I’d say orange. This is delicious. Tastes very much like Hotel Tango bourbon, in all the right ways. Until this body, I don’t think I fully knew how these rum finishes were impacting the bourbon, because I have yet to taste a rum finished that imprints something new into the flavor profile that a bourbon couldn’t do alone. (Compared to a sherry finish which very much does imprint something unattainable solo.) While that is still true, comparing this to a very similar tasting juice, I believe the rum finish takes that watermelon and citrus, and sweetens it, making it taste all the more tropical. Finish is a turn toward the nutty side of things. There’s salted peanuts, walnuts, cinnamon, and oak. It gives the impression of praline. Caramel now too. I’d say the peanut wins the overall flavor profile in this finish. Goes down smooth, low heat. Fantastic. I was so obsessed with this having some connection to Hotel Tango Bravo (also sourced) that I looked it up. There was no connection I could detect, as HT appears to source distillate from Middle West Spirits out of Columbus, OH. So unless someone out there knows of a recipe or yeast strain connection, what my taste buds are actually telling me is that both Hotel Tango and Republic Representatives have somehow co-found a unique and delicious bourbon flavor profile that is destined for greatness. Much like HT Bravo, this Borough Batch 2 blew me away. Bought on a whim from an online retailer out of Connecticut, this $65 bourbon won the rum-finished division of my finished bourbon bracket, beating out much more notorious and expensive whiskeys. If you’re into this sort of thing, you owe it to yourself to give this a try.