Extra goodies are incoming from Yellowstone, together with the annual launch of its 101 proof Restricted Version plus a brand new expertise for these extra all for immersing themselves within the craft of creating bourbon.
Yellowstone Toasted is the primary in a brand new line referred to as the Particular Finishes Assortment, which will likely be full-time, everlasting releases that target, nicely, particular finishes. These finishes are much like the Maker’s Mark Personal Choice program, with varied additional staves dunked into the barrels as they’re finishing the growing older course of. This bottle is very fascinating as a result of it contains small samples of the 5 picket staves used to complete the whiskey — generally known as excessive toast, American oak double toast, excessive vanilla, rickhouse, and spicerack — so you possibly can nostril every sliver of oak after which style the whiskey to see in the event you can suss out how the completed product was impacted by it. Enjoyable stuff.
Let’s style each.
Yellowstone Bourbon Particular Finishes Assortment – Toasted – The very first thing I discovered with this whiskey (4 years outdated, by the by) is that you simply don’t get very far nosing small samples of dry wooden. The 5 stave samples on this equipment all scent pleasant, however they’re all variations on a theme — toasty-oaky, with various components of chocolate, espresso, and vanilla. Imagining how one would influence a completed whiskey is tough sufficient. All 5? I couldn’t probably guess. Properly, I suppose I don’t must guess, as a result of the top product is true right here in entrance of me. Yellowstone Toasted presents a fairly candy nostril, melding generalized oak tones with heavy notes of maple and vanilla syrup, ultimately meandering right into a creamy caramel high quality. The palate, happily, isn’t so overblown with sweetness (although it’s nonetheless fairly sugary), taking a extra conventional method that leans into buttery peanuts, toasted corn, milk chocolate, and delicate notes of cinnamon. A spicy however fleeting tobacco observe perks up with time in glass, however the total impression is surprisingly delicate, the end providing notes of well-sweetened peach tea and honey-roasted peanuts. Actually, I don’t thoughts this whiskey in any respect, however the sweetness overwhelms the expertise, washing away any subtleties beneath. 100 proof. B+ / $50
Yellowstone Restricted Version Kentucky Straight Bourbon 2023 – That is our seventh evaluate of Yellowstone LE, and as standard it’s a wildly totally different expression than we’ve seen earlier than. This one’s a mix of 7-, 13-, and 16-year-old bourbons that’s completed in Tokaji wine casks, the Hungarian candy wine that appears to be making a stunning run on the whiskey world of late. The sweetness of the Tokaji comes by on the nostril right here, if indistinctly, providing notes of spiced plums, raisins in crimson wine, and a few camphor, lending the aromatics a slight medicinal high quality. The palate has a daring spice to it — someplace between cloves and ginger, arduous to put, with a peppery bent. Darkish crimson fruit notes hold issues full of life, with a mulled wine high quality rising, turning chocolatey with time in glass, nodding at roasted chestnuts and Port (or, extra to the purpose, considerably associated Tokaji wine). The end has a sharpness to it, centered on cherries and oak, maybe essentially the most conventional a part of the expertise, evoking the peppery barrel char of a classically structured bourbon. Enjoyable stuff, and sufficient off the overwhelmed path to advantage in search of out. Evaluate to releases from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. 101 proof. A- / $130 [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]
Yellowstone Restricted Version Kentucky Straight Bourbon 2023
$130
