Peerless Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon

Single Barrel store pick from the North Carolina Bourbon Society. My first Peerless experience. Subtle spice. Solid drinker.

Nutty hints as well as orange and cherries. Oak flavor as well. Nice burn on finish. Not as complex as I would have wanted but a good bourbon.

A generous sample from dthom as part of the "whiskey transfer program". Very excited to get in to this as I tried it at Whiskeyfest SF but it was probably my 25th sample and I don't recall a whole lot other than that I enjoyed it. Nose: Butterscotch up front with dark wood notes, toasted pine nuts, a hint of spearmint, vanilla, and a musty note like old library (I like books). Flavor: Sweet vanilla and dark sugars with some toasted coconut and dried dates. Fairly strong herbal rye notes but not overpowering and playing very nicely with the sweeter notes. A fairly thick mouthfeel. Finish: Medium long with rye spice and more herbal notes transitioning in to a lightly drying toasted oaky finish with some clove, cinnamon, and cardamom and then a cedar note to finish. I like this and it's super complex but I didn't love it as much as I did during the fest. Admittedly the flavors then were playing with a lot of other samples I'd had as well as my somewhat inebriated state at that point. At $50-$60 this is a solid deal. More I'd probably pass.

I got a sample of this from a friend and I’m kinda glad I didn’t buy it for myself. The nose was overpowered by ethanol leaving very little else to detect, the palate is boring and the finish evaporated. Given current bourbon trends and hipster lingo, I’d call this a minimalist bourbon... minimum age, minimum flavor complexity and minimum value for price. I hope they left some of this in the barrel for future years. It’ll probably have some potential once it graduates high school, but for now... it’s a kind of an annoying little 6th grader that just wants your money.

I’ve tried their rye which was ok and looked like the cork was rotting (some white residue and floaters in bottle) I’m noticing this one also has a discolored cork, but not as bad. Anyway, onto the tasting... The nose has brown sugar, slight vanilla, some cinnamon and baking spices and some leather. It has a nice amber color. The palate has some oiliness to it. I get some baking spices, a little rye, ever so slight leather. The mouth gets a little dried out on this one. The finish is long. A little spice comes back here that is pleasant. All in all, very solid. I would not pay the reta lil price tag. I found a 200ml bottle for $20 to try it out. I would spend more like $50-60 for a full bottle.

I was really hoping for more complexity and more richness with this one... The color is a light amber. The nose is sweet with a whiff of ethanol and dried fruit. Sweetness really predominates here, there doesn’t seem to be much of any space or oak on the nose. The initial sip comes across much the same way. There’s a slight burn from the ethanol and predominant sweet flavors. And the vanilla is strong. The finish is also relatively short and again largely vanilla with just a slight bit of spice and heat. I wouldn’t call this is a bad whiskey, but for $75 I’ll admit I was a little disappointed. The concept of starting the mash from scratch every time is interesting, but I miss a little bit of the sour quality from the carryover mash. Will I enjoy drinking the bottle? I believe the answer is yes but chances are when it’s gone I will be unlikely to purchase another. It’s not that this is bad, there are simply just too many good bourbons a lower price point. ———— 1 year update - I spent some time with this one and it has more layers than initially able to appreciate. Much more wood on the nose and less ethanol. Palate isn’t as sweet as it was at first and now is predominated with spice and maybe nuts, chocolate and apples. Still a stretch to say it’s worth more than $50-60 but to each their own. I appreciate that these guys started from scratch and some of the single barrels have gotten great marks, that might be the one to grab.

Appearance - copper hue, a quick swirl coats the side of the glass, leaving plentiful legs. Nose - Leads with notes of caramel, peanuts, cinnamon, and a bit of oak. But there's also ethanol, and that grainy note and wet cardboard funk you get in young craft bourbons. Palate - fairly thick mouthfeel, it definitely coats your tongue. The first thing I get is peanut brittle. There are also some baking spices. Sweet notes linger on the finish, along with some funky /grainy notes that unfortunately bring the finish down. Overall it's decent, probably about as good as you can expect in a four year bourbon. They're doing a lot of stuff right from a quality perspective (sweet mash, low entry proof, NCF, etc), but for me there's just no getting around the fact that bourbon needs more than 4 years of age to be really good.