Bainbridge Battle Point Organic Wheat Whiskey

This ever-evolving whisk(e)y journey leads me to the state of Washington and this bottle made with organic wheat sourced from & harvested by local farmers. Bainbridge Distillers is mainly known for its Yama Mizunara Cask Whiskey but looks like the Battle Point offering has a few accolades as well. Quick side tangent: the term organic is often met with a roll of the eyes as a marketing gimmick but unlike the phrase ‘all natural’ that anyone can use & means nada, the use of ‘organic’ on any labeling requires 3rd party certification & takes both time & effort to achieve. In the context of whisky, organic refers strictly to the agriculture of the raw ingredients. A farmer consciously choosing to grow his/her grains without synthetic fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides and a distillery choosing to purchase grains from that farmer. As a consumer, this type of agriculture & whisky production is interesting to me so I’m aiming for opportunities to complete the loop and spend some dollars to buy products from the distilleries who support these farmers. Win, win, win as the saying goes. Back to the bottle: there’s no denying the youth in this offering and it’s apparent on both the nose & palate, although not particularly off-putting. Honey, maple, cereal notes, and a hint of fresh cut lumber from the old sawmill on the nose, with the same notes featuring more prominently on the palate. Clean and crisp. Highly drinkable. Rating: the Distiller score of low/mid 80s is probably spot on. A solid 3.5 stars rounded up since I’m rooting for the success of this distillery. Rooting for them to continue to hone their craft. Rooting for their longevity so one day we might see 10,12,15 year offerings. Cheers everyone.

Nose - Sweet vanilla caramels, bit of raw ethanol bite, uncooked cinnamon roll dough, uncooked monkey bread, brown sugar. Taste - Sweet vanilla at first, transitions to a yeasty uncooked sweet bread dough, cinnamon heat, light ethanol bite, buttery mouthfeel, weird offputting green sapling oaky bitter. Finish - Lingering oaky bittersweet, almost splenda like sweetness, light cinnamon burn. Score - 67/100 Final Thoughts - This had an interesting nose that showed promise, but unfortunately fell flat. It smelled young, tasted young, was all over the place. Dominating flavor on the palate was if they forgot about a sweet bread dough on the counter and it started to ferment & develop a bit of alcohol. The young ethanol bite was present on the palate, and I guess what did it for me was there was this constant splenda-like sweetness throughout. I'm glad smaller distilleries are trying to get into the whiskey world, but this is an example of what not to do. Pushing out young product that was quickly aged in microbarrels (if that since they're 10 gallon). Really glad I've constantly passed on this bottle.

Aroma faintly of wheat spice. At first on the tongue pretty mellow, but then the tail slowly opens into a tingling spice that builds over the finish. Love the blossoming that happens on the tail , super cool. Oak flavor before the wheat.

Nose: wheat thins and some slight baking spices Palate: very light and smooth; wheat and grain cereals with a bit of vanilla. Quick finish with almost no burn. Very easy choice for a nightcap or entry level whiskey.

Gold color with a light mouthfeel. Maple, cinnamon roll, doughy, and young on the noise. Cinnamon, wheat thins, and green wood on the palate. Good but still needs a year or two in the barrel.

Smooth with notes of cinnamon and maple. Finishes with a molasses flavor. A sipping whiskey that is not bad but also not outstanding.