Pensive Distilling Co. Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (80 proof)

Batch number: 10 Bottle number: 198 The only reason I ended up at Pensive Distilling a few weeks ago was because I was looking for a distillery or even a nice bar that would break up the road trip back home from Lexington, and Pensive certainly seemed like both, at least from a Google Maps perspective. I booked a tour and had one of the best burgers I've ever had for lunch, and was blown away by the service and atmosphere I experienced the whole way through. Special shout out to Jeff Cole, who led one of the best distillery tours I've ever been on, and spoke with my wife and I for what seemed like hours about spirits and was generally one of the best professional personalities I've had the pleasure of meeting. I won't give too much away regarding the theme and flow of the tour, but I'll definitely advise that you take a look around the restaurant before you tour, as you may need to know some key knowledge before the tour begins. We ended up purchasing this product and the 100 proof variant (the ages of which are different, but I can't remember the exact age statement Jeff told me), and although the cask strength variant (with an even higher, unknown age statement) was fantastic, the price was far too high for the volume received, so it couldn't be justified. Although this 80 proof, young bourbon was honestly very weak and watery for me, my wife liked it, and we were happy to support a local distillery with a great spirit and theme to boot, even if they only have a single, simple mash bill of a sourced product. This may be one of the lightest colors of American whiskey, let alone bourbon, that I have ever seen. Not quite as light as most European whiskies, but still somewhere between sherry and a light copper. The legs are very thin and whispy, but the nose is shocking, with notes of apple peels, milk chocolate, mushroom, and mineral water (and I hate being so specific), while the ethanol is actually approachable, but with a curious burn behind it. The flavor takes away some of the above mushroom notes and supplements some honey or even brandy in it's place, but the apple and chocolate are still very present, although everything remains quite balanced. The minerality is also still present, being tasted as a slight bitterness and giving a final product flavor like that of a European malt whiskey combined with a stronger, sweeter bourbon. The finish is fairly dry, yet also surprisingly hotter than expected, and there are notes of some grassy cinnamon as well as a touch of lemon oil if you're willing to dig a little for it. Given that this mash bill (70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley) is well approachable and has fairly common ratios, I was actually really surprised at the flavor notes found here. The barley comes through way more than bourbons that use a more traditional ~5% blend, but with only a few more percentage points added, it's not likely that this is the actual contributer of the unique flavor. Instead, I would argue that this tastes like a lot of Kentucky Artisan Distillery's (from whom this is sourced) lower proof/aged whiskeys. I recall actually very much disliking this when tasting it at the distillery, but given that it's finishing much hotter now (compared to how I remembered), and with quite a unique, if not abnormal or even too specific of a set of tasting notes, I can appreciate this now as a refreshing and bold take for this distillery and their flagship product. Although I don't remember the exact price, I know that all of their bourbon products were simply too high to be economical and to bring in the common enjoyer, but that isn't to say that this particular variant can't live up to it's namesake.