Dreaming-of-Islay
St. Augustine Double Cask Bourbon
Bourbon — Florida, USA
Reviewed
January 15, 2018 (edited October 21, 2024)
My wife and I visited St. Augustine Distillery over MLK weekend, so I had a chance to try the distillery's two whiskies, their standard Double Cask Bourbon and a limited edition Port Finished Bourbon.
Look, this is a classic craft spirit: honestly made, and surprisingly high in quality for its youth, but with a lot of rough edges remaining. I'm not sure what the future holds for St. Augustine, and I'd certainly expect this bourbon will prove to be a viable competitor for other high-quality wheated bourbons with time. Interestingly, it sounds like a small percentage of the blend is also aged in port, to lend it some additional sweetness, which speaks to the fact that the bourbon standing alone probably is a little too bitter. The dominant notes that I get from this are young spirit notes, along with a mellow corn sweetness and a lot of raw grain notes. It is surprisingly smooth, and holds up very well in an Old Fashioned due to its lower level of sweetness. I've seen some reviewers describe a pine-like taste to this bourbon, which is dead on. In a way, some of the flavors here remind me of the distillery's gin, which is a legitimate heavy hitter.
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I beg to differ..... Florida is and will continue to make a respectable Bourbon... just give us a little time.
It's as if oranges, beaches, cigars and rum aren't enough. Florida has to have bourbon-whisky too. Sorry, we have that covered here in Kentucky and Tenn. Nothing out of FL is likely to actually pass for "bourbon" any time soon, based on the hooch coming from this one and others w/ the eagle on the bottle cork, these guys are simply wasting their time hoping to glam on to the "designer" bourbon craze. Thanks but NOE thanks.