Kentucky Owl Bourbon (Batch #10)

Nose: cherry and spice. Very thick/full nose. Some type of sweet bread is also there. Kind reminds me of eagle rare on the nose. Obviously there’s a price difference. Palate: full and creamy and lots of spice on first sip. Definitely 120 proof. Great coating though. Almost WLW like at first. Second sip: more fruit forward but just as viscous. Finish: pretty lengthy finish on this one. Vanilla til the end. Overall: as always with this one the price point is the first thing brought up. I told myself I wouldn’t buy this and several months later I got a different job with much more income and so I saw it again and said why not give it a go. This bourbon is good. For being a high proofer i think it probably ranks with the best somewhere. The difference is that price. I still stand by that if bourbon msrp keeps going up I won’t be into bourbon as much as I am currently. This bottle will last me a very long time but I don’t think I’d ever buy backups or try to get the other batches. If I finish this one and have a little bit of funds to get another I will buy it if I see it, otherwise I wouldn’t think about it. If this bottle was $75-150 I’d probably take a different view. I’ll give this a good rating only because it’s about the juice not how I feel on the price of it. But if I included price in my judgement it’d be a 1 out of 5. If you haven’t had this you’re not missing out really. Find yourself a Stagg jr and you’ll be much happier.

Very cherry, much wood. Dust? Bottle 8058/14030. Hardly feels exclusive. Let’s see where this fits into my track record of poor choice, NDP splurges. I’ve never tried KY owl before. When I could have picked up a batch 3 or 4 of their bourbon at $150-180 I scoffed and passed in my fleeting youth. Then this batch pops up everywhere around town. And it sits. And it sits. And I wonder... Probably because this now commands a $300 ticket to ride. When I randomly see it for $230 my feeble mind thinks “What a bargain!” And now we pour, either to celebrate or forget - we will find out soon. The color is nice - a bit of a rusty orange or even light copper. The nose right out of the freshly opened bottle is somewhat robust with cherries, candies fruit, baking spices, vanilla and wood. Fairly classic. As it rests a bit of earthy, dusty funk comes out and something like an old leather couch. Still, the nose is predominantly sweet but suggests an entertaining balance. This is not bad. Medium bodied at first and like a winding country road - it takes you around a few bends before an oily, long finish sets in. Let’s apply throttle and carve again. Butter cake, vanilla, brown sugar, dried pineapple, marzipan, tobacco on the nose. This lands so nicely with a balance of brown sugar, butter, nutmeg, clove and then cherry, marzipan and then the oily walnut and oak turn until we start to fade into bananas foster, cinnamon and brown, dry tobacco finish. Ok, so I’m impressed. As in really happy with this. It takes me places. Few pours do that these days. All of this from an initial pour. It just checks my boxes. So now we turn to the question of financial regret. At $230 this is one of the most expensive bottles I’ve purchased. Garrison Bro. Cowboy is there too. If I had to pick? Don’t make me do that... the Cowboy might win but might lose depending on the day. The finish on this is just so classic, so lasting. That said, how far off is a $60 bottle of ECBP, an $80 bottle of Remus III/IV or a unicorn $75 ($699) bottle of Weller Full Proof? Well, truth be told it is more complex with a better finish but only slightly. It’s like when Car and Driver posts 0-60 times and you see a 2.9 instead of a 3.6 and think holy smokes!! And then you realize both are more than what most could handle. Neither are practical on the daily. They both will cost you. And frankly a 4.1 second launch will still thrill. And with that I say adieu. Not often will I praise a NDP, but this is an exception. I would like ~$50 back but whatever, I’ve done worse.

Smooth, oily, balanced...what it should be.