Nose: Toasted oak, caramel, vanilla Palate: Vanilla, caramel with some fruits and baking spices towards the end Finish: Short, lingering sweetness and some tannic notes Backbone's core offering is interesting. Its current batch is a combination of straight bourbon at various ages, straight rye, and a hint of 16-year-old light whiskey. All components are distilled at MGP. After opening up it is a serviceable dram with a classic bourbon profile despite all the different ingredients. The majority of the blend is from 3-4 old distillate so I give it props for achieving a drinkable pour through blending. Its youth only shows slightly at the finish. At $35 it represents a decent value. It has the profile and proof to be an OK whiskey but just like others at this price don't expect anything complex.
About this bottle
This brand new small-batch blended bourbon (104 proof) features bold, deep flavors. Its blend includes a mix of different aged straight-bourbons and a touch of young rye inspired by the distillery’s first batch of Backbone Bourbon Uncut released years ago.
How it tastes
Measured across 14 flavor axes. Tap a note to find other bottles that lead with it.
Reviews
Showing the most detailed of 12 parsed reviews.
Spicy start, thick mouthfeel, no big Kentucky Hug despite the higher proof. The taste and burn linger on the tip of the tongue and the back roof of the mouth. There's an underlying sweetness and some vanilla. Not a bad offering at all and definitely one I'll keep in the liquor cabinet as something a little different than my normal bottles. I'm definitely interested in trying their other offerings now!
A lovely sweet/spicy scent that gives you a great insight into some barrel flavor to come. The taste is hot spice up front, and the entire mix will bring out the oils of the barrel if moved around the mouth. The finish takes a while to come down off the spice, but it's a great rounded choice.
Not as good as the 10 year, but still very good! This app doesn’t have the 10 year. Maybe the best bourbon I’ve ever had.
Full bodied, lots of vanilla on the nose. Not too sweet -more caramel and brown sugar-, with a spicy finish.
Very underrated bourbon. Spicy initially but with a pleasant finish.
6 more reviews were collected for this bottle. The longest ones are shown first.
Tastes like this
Closest flavor profiles across the whole catalog.