Holladay 6 Year Soft Red Wheat Rickhouse Proof Bourbon

Soft red wheated straight bourbon. Distilled 2018, aged 6 years in charred new oak barrels stored in Rickhouse B floor 4 (47%) and Rickhouse C floor 3 (17%) and floor 5 (36%). Bottled in October 2024 at rickhouse proof (60.75% ABV, 121.5 proof).Tasted neat. Nose is spicy with warm oak underlying a sweet grain profile. In the mouth, sweet honey, cherry, spicy baking spices, then dry oak tannins and an ethanol bloom. Mouthfeel is thin at first but grows into the finish, which is grassy and spicy, and dry char oak tannins, overlaying a white sugar sweet (and lightly sour cherry) aftertaste of average length. Holladay is doing all the right things--making and patiently-aging (6 years!) their own distillate from Missouri grains, putting it into nice embossed bottles with metal screw caps (yeah!) with vintage-style labels, tracking the rickhouse and floor of the barrels in each bottle, and issuing it either BIB or rickhouse proof. I tried the BIB soft red wheated bourbon previously and think this higher proof version is similar but more interesting. Look forward to trying the regular Holladay bourbons.

This is a *warm* bourbon. Right from the getgo you feel a ton of baking spices, warmth, and smoothness despite the higher proof. Some vegetal and grassy notes on the exhale, but all around tasty.