It's a bit cliché. The only thing I could think about for this blend was "curating complexity." As our Private Reserve grows, so does our arsenal of barrels and flavors to pull from. There's a group of Indiana barrels I've had in Florida for almost 3 years that I loved. There's something about aged MGP in Kelvin barrels that is special. These barrels were dark, rich, and delicious. The extra aging rounded out some of this sweetness with dried fruit and a bit of tobacco spice. I wanted to elevate this one even further. Back in August, we added a 9-year 2-month bourbon blend to French Oak barrels. I started playing around with different ratios of the two blends to create something new.
Once I found the ratio I liked I took it to a blind tasting. No one knew I had been playing around with this blend except for me. It was a bit nerve racking to sit quietly while our team tasted through these samples. The results speak for themself! We were able to amplify this batch to hang with some heavy hitters. While I know ultra-high-proof 'hazmat' blends tend to steal the spotlight, I wouldn't skip on this bottle if you've enjoyed our other Private Release 9-years. This may be my favorite release yet—one that truly showcases the evolution of our Private Reserve.
Here's the final breakdown of batch 004:
84% - 74/21/4 Indiana bourbon; Aged 6-year 3-months in Indiana & 2-years 9-months in Florida
16% - 74/21/4 Indiana bourbon; Aged 9-year 2-months in Indiana; Blended and added to new French Oak for an additional 5-months in Florida
Tasting Notes:
The nose is plush with tons of maple, vanilla, bruleed sugars, cedar box, and ground baking spices. It’s toasty, but has brighter notes of red fruits. Not quite jammy, but definitely raspberry cordial and cherry syrup inviting. The longer it rests in the glass, the more creamy, dense, and fruit-lined it grows - almost more like a dessert wine.
The palate is deep, and continues rich with those ground baking spices, maple, and raw honey found on the nose. There’s cherry hard candy and peppered melon notes filling the mid palate before a beautiful toasted marshmallow transitioning to well-toasted oak. The texture from front palate to the back of the palate is what’s most alluring with this one.
The finish is plump and chewy - rounding the darker cherry notes but still finishing with a toasted, creamy marshmallow note and plenty of developed oak continuing long and trailing.
