Friday Just Got A Lot Better
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We have three new bottles available to Bourbonr Pro members today. One of these barrels has been a year in the making. We also have another incredible Four Square rum bottled by Rolling Fork Rum. To round it all out there's a new release from Four Gate. More details about each release are included below.
BREAK DOWN OF THE BLEND:
60% - Oloroso Sherry: 6 & 12-year Kentucky Straight Bourbon
40% - Dark Rum Cask: 6, 9 & 12-year Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
Each age is from a different distillery.
Four Gate Whiskey is releasing its 9th bottling, a batch of Kentucky Straight Bourbon finished in Oloroso Sherry and Dark Rum Casks, and will be, for the first time, distributing products to the state of Georgia.
After releasing unfinished whiskeys for batches 7 and 8, Four Gate Whiskey Company went back to its roots, blending 3 different Kentucky Straight bourbons and aging them in dark rum casks from the Florida Keys and blending two Kentucky Straight bourbons and finishing them in Oloroso Sherry casks from the Andalusia region of Spain. The resulting whiskeys were then combined to create Andalusia Key.
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Proof: 110.9 proof
Age: 4-years 9-months
Finishing Barrel: Nocino
Tasting Notes: Oak and Panella brown sugar. There's clove and black pepper. The nose and taste work nicely together. The initial notes of sweetness fade to baking spice and fruit cake. The foundation bourbon adds hints of pecan, currants, and anise. The nocino just amps everything up with the addition of dried dates and spice. The finish adds to the dry notes with cocoa and cinnamon.
This is a project that has been a year in the making. It came from a conversation with my friend, Aaron Goldfarb. We were brainstorming some barrel finishes from his book "Hacking Whiskey". He mentioned that Watershed Distillery did a barrel-aged Nocino. The sweetened walnut liqueur with spices seemed like the perfect back bourbon to finish a bourbon.
In September of 2019, Watershed started to send monthly samples of a 4-year bourbon dumped into a Nocino barrel. Initially, I thought this would be a 30-60 day finish. It ended up taking 9-months before the bourbon started hit the flavor profile I was chasing. It's been a long process but the finished product made it all worth it! I'm grateful that the Watershed team was will to work with us on this experiment.
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Source: Four Square Rum
Age: 12-years-old
Proof: 125 proof
Tasting Notes: Dark cherry and toffee. The nose is full of candied almonds and fruit. That taste has great depth. There are salted caramel and more of dark cherry notes. It bounces between burnt sugar and fruit. Then there's a nice orange peel note. The finish brings a nice spice and punch of dried coconut.
This barrel is one I've been dreaming of. I found Four Square Rum about four years ago. Like most, I thought of sweetened and cheap bottles when I thought about rum. Then I learned about traditional rums thanks to Fred Minnick's book "Rum Curious". I was hooked! A Four Square private barrel quickly became a goal. However, Four Square releases very few single or private barrels. Thankfully, Rolling Fork Rum was able to acquire a few barrels from the distillery and make them available to us. This rum is a "bourbon drinker" rum. It's high proof with heavy notes of Caramel, roasted candied almonds and dark cherry syrup BOMB.
