Frey Ranch Straight Bourbon

The 4 grain mash brings in 4 simplely well done layers to combine into a classicly well done complex wheaty flavor

Earthy flavor for sure, pretty smooth going down with a mild heat. Overall pretty tasty

New wood, light flavor, unripe banana, unsweetened dried coconut, orange bitters

Pretty sweet with some oak/nutty flavor to balance. A little thin. Overall pretty good but not great.

Some good flavor but tastes light and young. Not much for the finish and little mouth feel.

This is the heaviest bottle, with the heaviest cork, that I've ever come across. It feels like I'm lifting weights when I pick the bottle up, and I always nearly drop the cork when I pull it because I automatically expect the standard weight. But it's a right pretty bottle, and I love the fact that the Frey family puts the exact mash bill on the bottle. I just wish they put an age statement too - it's a straight bourbon, without an age statement, so it has to be at least four years old, but I'd like to know exactly. This bottle was $48.99 at Total Wine, and in the glass it's a dark copper color, like an old penny. The mash bill is 66.6% corn, 10% wheat, 11.4% rye, and 12% barley, so it's a four grain bourbon - and all the grain comes from the Frey family farm. 𝗡𝗼𝘀𝗲: On the nose the first and dominant note I get is yellow apples. It reminds me of the first sip I ever took of Clyde May's bourbon, but this note is still clear on the third glass, while May's apple note weakens as the whisky interacts with the air. I then got an undifferentiated grain note, honey, something earthy but pleasant, and finally a corn note separated itself out. 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹: Smooth. 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲: I think that perhaps I didn't get the fullness of the palate - though the fan was on the side of me from the glass, it still cooled the whisky down noticeably. I got honey, cinnamon, yellow apples, and brown sugar. Without the fan's cooling I might have gotten more, though I always get less on the palate than I do on the nose. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵: The finish began with a little oak, which turned into cinnamon briefly before more oak came in. That last note remained for a long time. 𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: Even taking into account the cooling effect of the fan, which muted the flavors, I'm not sure that this whisky is worth $49. But it is good stuff. The palate didn't live up to the promise of the glorious nose, and again taking the fan into consideration, and knowing that my palate always picks up less than my nose, I think the taste isn't up to the nose. I think, though, that with more proof it would have more intense and discernible flavor; tempering proof also waters down congeners. But don't think I dislike this whisky - I in fact do like it. I just might buy another bottle, even at that price, after I finish this one. 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: I dithered over the rating. On the one hand I'm not sure that the whisky is worth the price. But on the one hand, taking other factors into consideration, I think it's better than I was able to detect. I finally wound up giving it a 6 on my hick scale, which I call Fine (the highest level is 8). This translates to 3.75 stars, 7.5/10, or 75/100.