Bringing Back an OG of NDP

There are sourced brands, and there are seasoned sourced brands. Folks in the latter have been widely regarded for nearly, and in many cases the better part, of a decade. One of those brands is Resilient. Resilient wasn’t built like a traditional whiskey brand. It’s the project of Brian Ciske, a longtime spirits distributor and founder of BC Merchants, a Chicago-based company that’s been in the industry since the late ‘90s.
 
Around 2017 Ciske leveraged decades of relationships in the spirits world to build Resilient based off discovery and curation. They find themselves visiting rickhouses on a regular basis, like kids in a candy shop, wondering what this barrel and that barrel taste like. Resilient is the vehicle that allows them to bottle those barrels up and share them with friends. That passion and love for whiskey continues to grow and evolve as they meander down the whiskey trail.
 
Resilient is a culmination of their education, earned over 26 years of traveling to distilleries. They apply everything they’ve learned about selecting single barrels, blending, and finishing, while consulting with mentors and peers, creating bourbons that are both interesting and exciting. Resilient represents luxury, quality, and a boutique, craft approach, while remaining user-friendly and transparent, with all the relevant information right there on the label.
 
Resilient single barrels are hand-selected for quality. They look for barrels that are well balanced between both grain and wood. Barrels that truly shine and bring great flavor to both the nose and palate. Both of these barrels are excellent examples of that.
 
Barrel #242 is a 10yr 60/36/4 bourbon, 55.72% ABV distilled on 05/31/2015, and while familiar, carries a fragrance to the profile definitely reminiscent of the Indiana barrels of yesteryear. 
 
On the nose, vanilla cream and poached peaches sit up front with cinnamon powder and caramel toffee, as pleasant waves of oak circle beneath. On the palate, sweet vanilla cream and caramel candy intensify with peach cobbler right behind, as oak spice and toffee support. The finish is layered and pleasant with a burst of sweeter flavors giving way to baking spice before returning to lingering vanilla cream and cinnamon candy. A perfectly balanced and dynamic sipper. 
 
Barrel #10 is a  7yr 95/5 rye,  58.42% ABV distilled 12/2018, and like the bourbon, carries a bit more of the playful mint and dill profile I haven't found on as many ryes lately, but were wildly popular when the hunt was first on. 
 
On the nose, caramel coated mint candy leads with orange infuse toffee bar, as oak flavors support with baking spice. On the palate, oak flavors join dill and mint up front, as caramel candy and vanilla support, with red berry lingering. The finish is herbal and rich, with mint and dill flavors lingering alongside dried orange segments, as other sweeter flavors fade. A rye lovers rye displaying herbal flavors and citrus up front as sweeter elements support. Classic 95 - 5.