Dexter Three Wood Straight Bourbon

The corn tastes a little young up front but it is followed by very balanced and mature rye spice and incredibly smooth finish with the maple and toasted staves making for a fairly complex pour, and better than many bottles I’ve had at much higher price points. Many other Kentuckians like to joke, it ain’t bourbon if it ain’t from KY but this is definitely a straight bourbon whiskey that may change your mind, and Brain Brew deserves its accolades for this release🙏🏻

A nice vanilla forward nose with fragrances of baked apple crumble, maple sugar, and cherry cola. The flavors explode in an array of honeycomb, caramel cream and baking spices. Quite peppery and tantalizing on the tongue. The finish is medium length ending with a touch of cracked peppercorn. All in all, and really friendly and approachable whiskey that has a nice portfolio of woods.

This is pretty bad, not sure what awards they claim, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was JD Power whiskey of the year.

On the rocks, enjoyable and tasty

Neat. Neck pour. Took a flyer on this today. 100 proof finished high-rye MGP for $50 by a company not to far from my house. Why not? On the nose, surprised by the lack of the typical MGP youth. Young MGP can be a turn off for me with a lot of grass or heavy hay about it. I generically describe it as “too green” when less than 5 years. Whatever they did to finish this beat those notes down. I instead get fried dough, like an elephant ear without the powdered sugar, covered in a cherry cough syrup instead. Next to the cherry is a layer of furniture varnish and vanilla extract. The MGP eventually emerges with honey and rye spice. If I have a fault in this, it’s that the cherry note has an artificial quality to it. On the taste, it’s creamy enough to coat nicely. Cinnamon, powder sugar and cherry cough syrup up front. The young MGP high rye really comes in mid palate with a hint of that green note, honey and fried dough. What is different than typical MGP is the sweetness and cherry on the finish. This is the sweetest MGP I have had among the younger MGP I have tried. So I have had three sips of this tonight thus far. No idea why I am so intrigued by it. As I really sit down with it, the cherry coming off as more artificial is the main draw back. Cherry cough syrup is typically not a good note for me, but I like it here. The 100 proof helps it a lot as well. I would drink this over a few 4 year MGP single barrels I have. I think I might drink this over Boone County Small Batch and maybe even Smoke Wagon Straight (thinking about other MGP in this price range). Not calling it a hitter but a solid “I am bringing a flask into the movie theater and want some MGP”.

This will be a Hail Mary if it works, but from what I understand this company (Brain Brew custom whiskey vs. WoodCraft bourbon blender... not sure what the parent company really is) is based out of Newtown, OH and sources (young) whiskey from MGP. What happens next is the gamble - they use some sort of new-found wood finishing process. While details are sparse I imagine something like wood chips + whiskey + pressure cooker, or possibly something like running MGP through an espresso machine in place of water using oak shavings/chunks in place of espresso powder. This was not clear based on reading the label... Anyway, NAS MGP "finished" separately via exposure to 200 year old oak, maple and cherry woods. You can actually buy a tasting kit to sample each of these individually but this bottle is a blend of undisclosed proportions. I was fascinated to see what the different barrel elements could bring out. The color is a nice medium amber. The nose? Seems like young, high-corn, sweet notes + sawdust at first. There's a bit of cola and cherry juice. Prominent ethanol. Somewhere in there is a bit of rye spice but nothing like I'd hoped for coming from MGP. No big cedar, dill, tobacco, ginger, etc. Dang. With time a bit more fruit (apple?) and tobacco comes out but that's about it. Not a complex nose. Ooh that is a bit syrupy. Very little burn. Low probability of offending anyone. Nice enough palate with more corn-forward (literally candy-corn) sweetness. More sawdust than any any individual wood notes. Light caramel. Green apple. Tiny bit of MGP dill. Maybe a splash of cherry cough syrup? Short finish. Bummer. You win some, you lose some. I wish I would have tried at a bar and saved myself $50-60. I didn't do my homework before purchasing and imagine that if this was finished in actual barrels, even for 6-18 months, that the unique wood notes would come through. Whatever process they are using, and or cheap/young MGP just doesn't cut it. This is at best a $25-30 bottle. I should have known based on the "95 point" sticker affixed to the neck - as it likely pertains to a category such as "unconventional whiskey innovations" where a score of 99 would clock in around a score of 72 for a conventionally aged, blended whiskey. Chances are that I try to blend this or give it away. It's not a drain pour but, sadly, my recommendation is to avoid.