ScotchingHard
Belle Meade Bourbon Cognac Cask Finish
Bourbon — (bottled in) Tennessee, USA
Reviewed
October 23, 2020 (edited October 24, 2020)
Bottled in 2016.
The folks at Belle Meade were placing bets that the consumer will arrive at one of two conclusions when having this XO Cognac finish:
Wow, there’s an interesting fruity and spicy sweetness to this bourbon that I don’t get with other bourbons. It must be the cognac influence.
Or:
Wow, this is a shit bourbon. It must be the shit bourbon they used.
I arrived at the latter conclusion, and about half of this bottle found its way into the fire for cooking. And I don’t think any food I made with this was spectacular either. This isn’t supposed to happen at $80, but all the warning signs are there:
NO AGE STATEMENT. Just put the age on the bottle. It doesn’t have to be a big font, and it doesn’t have to be a big number. No age statement whiskies just reek of trying to hide a scam.
LOW ABV. If you are NAS, at least justify a higher price by making the product cask strength or at least 50% ABV. This 45.2% is sketchy for a $50+ bourbon. Drinking strength is nonsense, lowering the ABV is only for stretching the product to make more profit. Alcohol is a drug. No cocaine dealer will try to spin their cocaine content by saying it’s brought down to snorting strength.
CASK FINISHING. This is new-age hip-hop whiskeymaking. When the marketer’s biggest point of emphasis is what they used to finish the whiskey, be suspicious. This is like a car being advertised for its chrome rims.
At best, Belle Meade Cognac Cask Finish is not undrinkable whiskey. After about a year open, I think the finish finally integrated itself, and my last few sips of this bottle was just a sweet bourbon that was about as pleasant as Angel’s Envy Port Cask Finish, which is already overpriced for what it offers at $50. This is just horribly disappointing at $80.
Score: 0 (forgettable)
How much does a bottle cost?: $60-100
How much do I think a bottle is worth?: $20
80.0
USD
per
Bottle
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Very good points @WhiskeyLonghorn. I also wouldn't be surprised if with the interest in only MGP increasing it's getting more expensive to source so they're dropping the age.
@ContemplativeFox it’s likely that Belle Meade is going through the same growing pains that High West has, transitioning from well aged MGP stock to their own distillate that still hasn’t aged very long, likely explaining the “shit whiskey” bit above. The ability to consistently source quality cognac casks may also be tricky with tariffs, pandemic, and more producers experimenting with different cask finishes.
PS in the extremely unlikely event that I ever become a cocaine dealer, I will definitely mix in some flour or other white powder and try to convince people that I'm selling it at "snorting strength" 😂
Wow, I've normally heard very good things about Belle Meade, so this is really disappointing. I like their CS, but maybe they're running out of the older MGP and trying to hide it?