Redemption Wheated Bourbon

Smooth with tastes of fruit (aprocot maybe). Not many other flavors come out.

Sharp, hot nose. Vanilla, charred oak.

A light, Straight Bourbon Whiskey by Redemption Distillery in Indiana made with a mash bill of 51% corn, 45% winter wheat, and 4% malted barley; aged for 4 years in new oak barrels. It has an aromatic birth with notes of brittle toffee, stewed pears, bay leaf & ginger; while a bold life adds notes of Nutella, espresso, smoked toffee, pepper, roasted cereal grain, oak, coffee bean, hazelnut & a hint of mint; that leads to a long & warm death with hints of green leaves & spices. July 2020 / August / December 2022 / August 2023

As a wheated bourbon, this uses wheat instead of rye as the secondary grain - and it's a high wheat mash bill. It's 51% corn, 45% wheat, and 4% sprouted barley. In the glass it's copper colored, it's 96 proof, and according to the label it's aged at least 4 years. A fifth cost me $46.99 at the Total Wine in Uptown. NOSE: The first thing I get is smoky wood, and then some spice. After I began sipping I also got a note that seemed to be either grain or vegetal, or perhaps both, and then a musty earth note. MOUTHFEEL: Creamy. TASTE: Cinnamon and butter are the first notes to strike me. With more testing I also get honey, and a slight generic fruitiness. FINISH: Short, beginning with some gentle spice, which then turns to honey water and ends with a little red pepper. SUMMARY: This is a barely legal bourbon - just one percentage point down in the corn would've made it not a bourbon at all - and it shows. This doesn't present itself like any other bourbon I've ever had. It's gentle and mild, without the assertiveness of a higher corn mash bill. But it's more definite than the lightness of Scottish or Irish whisky, and I like it. RATING: My hick scale rates it at 6, Fine, which is near the top since my scale starts at the bottom with 1. This is 3.75 stars, 75/100, or 7.5/10.