Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon

Nose - brown sugar, honey, Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Shredded Wheat, oat, vanilla cream, cherry, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, toasted almond, candied pecan, mint, moderate ethanol burn. Taste - vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, marshmallow, almond, rye spice, wheat, clove, spearmint, allspice, honey, chili pepper, cherry, moderate to high alcohol bite, finishing short with brown sugar, mint, and rye spice flavors. So I figured I’d pull myself back to reality after reviewing Taliskers, Laphroaigs, and Colonel Taylors. Indeed, one must experience the lowest of lows to more deeply appreciate the highest of highs. Well, this isn’t quite the lowest of lows, but it’s in my comfort zone of mediocrity. I purchased a Laws sampler pack a long time back and finally decided to put them on deck. The pack includes four miniatures, this four-grain bourbon, a rye, a wheat whiskey, and a malt whiskey. I’ll be reviewing the rest over the course of the week. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the nose. I’m immediately rocketed back to childhood breakfasts with large bowls of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Honey Nut Cheerios on the table. Toasted and candied nuts join the party, along with vanilla and brown sugar. A sprig of mint lingers in the background, no doubt heralding the rye component in the mash. For a young bourbon, I’m cautiously optimistic. So things take a turn with the palate. Here’s where it becomes painfully obvious that this is only “at least” two years old. The arrival isn’t so bad, albeit slightly hot, with brown sugar, vanilla, baking spices, and a hint of minty cherry right out of the gate. However, the wheels really start to come off in the development. The nice flavors quickly fade, disappointingly replaced by bright, youthful sourness. The finish is wholly unremarkable, and I won’t remark further upon it. Buy the sampler pack or order it at a bar, if you must. The $75 price tag on this is disgraceful. Don’t support this tomfoolery.

The nose starts with hair spray mixed with black shoe polish followed by slightly browning apple slices, light cereal notes that transition to nutmeg, roasted chestnuts and wet bandages with light ethanol burn. The taste is a thin mouthfeel starting with that hair spray and wet shoe polish mixture followed by Apple Jacks cereal then a medium spice that fades to burnt chestnuts and used bandages with medium ethanol burn. The finish is short with bitter melon, rubber tire mulch, clay soil and wet bandages. This is just bitter with light fruit and cereal on the nose and mid-palate, but the finish is just earthy clay, bitter melon and bandages freshly removed from a pool. Comparing this to the Henry Road Malt and Centennial Wheat, this is the worst of the three and makes some of my whiskey that I rate at a 3 taste like 5-star gems. I’m not sure how Distiller put this at an 82 or how this would hit any of the important notes. Just to put this into a better perspective, Icelandic whiskey is basically sheep turds, ice, wool with some malt and is quite frankly a world class dram compared to this one. A big thank you to @ctbeck11 for the sample.

Tasting this neat, from a 100ml minibottle for $10 in Colorado. Nose is sweet grain floral and cotton candy. Color is golden brown, with thin legs. In the mouth, saccharine sweet flash, vanilla, then oak, spice, and ethanol bite, then licorice. Thin mouthfeel. Finish draws from licorice and dry oak into light sour and grassy rye. Ice cools it down and tamps down the sweetness, maybe adding the "blending" missing in this bourbon when sipped straight. 2-3 years seems too short for aging this wheated mashbill. It's all elbows and knees--too sweet, too spicy, too licorice/sour, etc, all at the same time. No blend no flow. If you’re looking for an easy bourbon flavor profile, this isnt it. And at Laws bourbons price-points in the $80-90 range... that's a heavy lift to justify. I feel better tossing $10 for the 100ml taster. But... it IS interesting.

An elegant, grain-to-glass Straight Bourbon Whiskey by Laws Whiskey House in Denver, Colorado. It is crafted with a mash bill of 60% corn, 20% heirloom wheat, 10% heirloom rye & 10% heirloom malted barley; aged for 3 years in new 53 gallon charred oak barrels before being bottled at 47.5% ABV. It has an aromatic birth with notes of grain, fruits, flowers, wood, herbs & spices; while a rich life adds notes of orange blossom, Pekoe tea, honey, cracked pepper, orange marmalade, cinnamon & flan; that led to a warm & dry death of medium length with notes of oak tannins, sweet tobacco & rye spice. April 2023

Bright, shiny, cherry candy with some mustiness to it that is more green and bread crust with some mintiness. I get a lot of wood on the nose but it's less barrel char and more straight up lumber. Taste is first a dry, dusty cherry before the familiar bourbon barrel spices poke in. Still a bit bready, especially the crust to a soft loaf of honey wheat. Overall, the best taste comparison is an unglazed cherry-filled kolache. Pretty good, no weird spikes in the flavor. A solid bourbon, though I like "weird" things, and it doesn't necessarily jump out.

If you are looking for a traditional KY bourbon taste, this isn’t it. It’s a little less refined but I enjoyed it very much as I like to experiment with all the different varieties and variations of bourbons and whiskies. I enjoyed the grain and sweet cereal profile as well as a sweet albeit “warm” finish. If you like variation in your collection this is a great change up if your open to it.