Isaac Bowman Straight Bourbon Finished in Port Barrels

Gotta strong start with oak and oily wine barrel / leather. Some bitter notes with spicy pepper. Overall not too bad a pour. It tends to grow on you.

It’s ok. Def port spice and a little vanilla on the nose and port on the palate. Can taste wood vanilla and some spice. Not a strong bourbon taste.

Port like nose. Really easy drinker

Smooth

I'm a huge fan of the John J Bowman single barrel and I also LOVE port finished scotch. As a result was quite excited to try this port finished Bowman bourbon, which based on industry talk is essentially port finished, triple distilled Buffalo Trace for $36. The nose has a very clear port touch to it, with hints of berries/plum layered over what smells like a very young bourbon base. On the palate you can definitely discern the port versus the bourbon, and the port starts to reveal itself as wine-y and tannic. The finish starts to fall apart and is astringent and sharp. The seams show all over the place on this, and the result is what I feared - it tastes like inexpensive port was used to cover young whisky. They needed to either age the whisky longer or find some better port pipes. Unfortunately I am pretty disappointed by this offering, although at $36 it isn't exactly a tragedy. But I think the price point is a big tell here. Bowman has excellent whisky as demonstrated by their John J Bowman single barrel. I haven't had the small batch but I bet that is pretty good as well. I get the feeling this is the leftover stuff from the extremes of the warehouse that they pull pretty young and then try to cover with some inexpensive port pipes for people who like sweet whisky. When you can get $50 a bottle for your single barrel, there is no way they're pulling the same stuff at remotely the same age AND re-barreling it in good port pipes for $36. It doesn't make economic sense. Too bad.

Light cherry and cinnamon up front on the nose, the palate is pretty light with berries and a dry finish