Bardstown Bourbon Co. Phifer Pavitt Reserve Finish

Have you ever tried a new whiskey and thought: okay... there goes my whiskey budget for the next month. For me, Bardstown Phifer Pavitt does this for two reasons. Up front, you’re going to drop around $125 on this bottle. But then, after first taste, you realize that eventually you’re going to have to try all those little bastards now. At $125+ retail each, this whiskey and its brothers are aligning themselves with some of the bourbon greats. Think Four Roses SBLE, Old Forrester Birthday, Blanton’s SFTB, Wild Turkey Masters Keep... strong peers. Even with an appropriate level of respect for that list, I must say, holy hell, this little guy delivers. He delivers and thanks you, even if you tip poorly. This was the blind taste-test champion in my red wine division of my barrel finished bourbon bracket. Final rankings here were: 1-Bardstown Phifer Pavitt 2-Hooker’s House 7/21 3-Jefferson’s Reserve Pritchard Hill 4-Slaughterhouse Straight Edge My next step is to find a true favorite barrel-finished bourbon by somehow comparing 5 champions from red wine, white wine, rum, port, and sherry finished brackets. This is going to be one tasty April. About this whiskey: You could read this anywhere, but you’re reading this here, right now, aren’t you? So let me drop a statomic bomb for ya. Juice: TN Straight Bourbon Whiskey Age: 9 year Mashbill: 84 corn, 8 rye, 8 malted barley Initial Proof: 110.2 Finish: Phifer Pavitt Cabernet Sauvignon Finish Duration: 19 months Finished Proof: 107** **That’s right. There’s enough red wine left to actually reduce the proof, despite being in a barrel for 19 months. Think about that... —- The tasting of Bardstown Phifer Pavitt: This smells old. There’s sour notes as if from a high oak exposure, and I get honey, citrus, almond, and tart cherry. I really like this nose. Body certainly delivers on that oak, and the mouth feel is not shy on the heat. If you get past those two barriers, there’s honey, orange, cherry, cane sugar, caramel apples, browned butter, brown sugar, chocolate, almond, cinnamon... basically you name it, it’s there, and it’s delicious. I don’t usually rattle off a billion things like that, but I can’t help it because each sip is bringing something new. This body is fantastically complex, though it is spicy in feel for sure. Finish is sour in mouth feel with a fading sugar and cinnamon note. I could see toffee, cinnamon buns, cinnamon powdered donuts, or any other cinnamon-themed desert. It’s pleasant and leaves you wanting more. —- This whiskey rocked my world. It really is that good. What impressed me most from a technical aspect was that this doesn’t taste like a bourbon that is necessarily cask finished. You can get all those flavors from virgin oak, and since the red wine influence doesn’t strike you over the head at any given point, with no context this could make your pallet think it’s just a standard bourbon whiskey that somehow became complex as hell. They married the native juice to a wine profile perfectly, and they made magic here. What concerns me most is standard bourbon snobbery stuff. It’s hot, even for 107 proof. It’s high oak, in a way that I wouldn’t expect from just 9 years. These things can be off putting, but if you look past those factors, the flavors are nuts. At $125 would I buy another? Wrong question. Correct question is how many can I get away with buying before my wife leaves me. If y’all create a divorce-date pool, I get 10%.

Rating: 16/23 I just tried Bardstown's Château De Laubade finish and it blew me away, so I'm excited to be trying this one! I'm usually pretty skeptical of red wine finishes, but that last one had a nice flavor that made me think of cabernet sauvignon and I'm hopeful to find more of it here since this was actually finished in cabernet sauvignon casks. N: Oh, this is interesting. It's restrained, but I get something like red currants and blueberries covered in frost. There is some funky, musty, tannic barrel that definitely seems like French oak. The bourbon isn't super bold, but I do get some restrained caramel, tangerine, vanilla, and spice - notes that kind of give me an impression somewhere in the vicinity of Buffalo Trace. A touch of youthful meat, but not too much. Some bitter vanilla as well. Overall, this is a kind of odd nose, but in a good way. It keeps me wanting to come back to it. Not the most balanced, but I like it. P: A touch oily with a moderate mouthfeel. The wine fruit (cherry and blackberry - though some tangerine too) comes out more than I'd like, as does some funky terroir. There are still some nice tannins and barrel spices (starring cinnamon), but the funk is kind of throwing them off too. I'm definitely getting some bitterness from the tannins, but it's kind of flat. F: Kind of sweet red fruit from the wine with bits of terroir funk and some bitter barrels. Licorice and vanilla as well. It's not great, but it's pretty enjoyable. - Conclusion - Wild Turkey Rare Breed (18/23) is fuller with more of a nice traditional bourbon flavor than this has, even though the Wild Turkey is kind of challengingly funky on its own. Coming back to this, I am getting some more mellow bourbon flavors from it, but there's this sort of tacked-on red wine character. I just am not really sure how well the two go together. This is kind of in the range of the Wild Turkey. It's more complex and less brash, but it's also more out of whack. Eh, I don't know: this might be growing on me. My palate might actually be a little bit toast after the bold armagnac finishes I tried before this. Russell's Reserve 10 (15-16/23) is a bit lighter than this, but it has a more typical profile, whereas this is pretty funky. I kind of prefer the direction that the Russell's is going, but this does fill in some gaps that it has. Although I do enjoy this, it's quite clear to me that the Bardstown Laubade is much better. This is further evidence that brandy finishes are good for bourbon, whereas red wine finishes don't do as well. Coming back to this, I'm inclined to place it below the Wild Turkey. It's more in the Russell's range, though I might lean slightly higher. This isn't my final sip, but if I had to choose right now, I'd go with a 16. Thanks, @Milliardo , for sharing this fun dram!

Looks like some people are trying to manipulate the scores on this one. Maybe I've just never seen someone give 5+ tastes on a whisky that's had one batch with no review and all the same score. Nose - There's a dusty and musty note. Some oak. There's a clear red wine note. I get a bit of vanilla. The caramel I think is all mixed up with the red wine. There's a bit of spices (not great with spice notes). Taste - Intense, the abv is just perfect for this expression. The red wine perfectly mixes with the sweetness of the barrels. I don't get up front bourbon or wine, instead I get something new and unique. Sweet, fruity, not overly citrus, not overly dry, yet not so sweet that it is over the top. It's really what you'd most want if you wanted the wine barrels to really come front and center but not remove the feel and nature of bourbon. Following that you get the oak and the vanilla and a hint of caramel from a bourbon. Swallowing really brings back in some bourbon and the finish even lets some nutty bourbon character come through. I'm awful with red wine notes but trust me when I say we're really getting the best of these wine casks here. I so often feel that bourbon is the perfect spirit to be finished on secondary casks and for far too long bourbon makers have ignored this. It's a serious shame, especially today when prices are sky rocketing, bourbons are getting younger, quality is going down, and simple finishing can help these under aged spirits that we're seeing sold for excessive prices and help justify paying higher premiums. One of the most enjoyable bourbons not from MGP or buffalo trace I've had in some time. I think if they could have used some older bourbon and I know this is their thing but a bit higher abv wouldn't hurt this one at all. This is worth a splurge and a great example of what bourbon should be moving towards at least for my tastes.

Some musty barrel notes on the nose, that I tend to get with wine finishes. Herbal, clove honey notes, nice spiciness. Musty dark fruit that lingers. Long finish, with a hint of chocolate. Another solid offering from Bardstown. 9/2/19

My guess is someone out there really likes this and is trying to drive down the rating so no one finds out about how good this one really is with that said the Fusion is my new favorite

Great nose; almond, and spice. But even better on the tongue: butter, cream cheese, and a hint of cinnamon. Super smooth, and a finish that’s long and pleasant.