Jefferson's Reserve Pritchard Hill Cabernet Cask Finish

This is Jefferson’s replacement to the Groth Cask Reserve. I love that one. It’s one of the better bourbons I’ve had and one of the great bourbon-wine cask marriages of all-time. Let’s see how this stacks up. This is from Batch A-450. Bottle Number 43. Nose: Red grape, newspaper, and cola. Gala apple. Date, fig, raisin, and cranberry. Watermelon Jolly Rancher. Nougat. Wintergreen. Cocoa, black tea, and black pepper. Toasted oak. Palate: Red grape, newspaper, and cranberry. Dried apricot. Honeydew. Wintergreen. Date, fig, and raisin. Vanilla, caramel, milk chocolate, and nougat. Almond and walnut. Finish: Cola, cranberry, raisin, fig, and date. Red grape. Wintergreen. Gala apple, dried apricot, and newspaper. Cinnamon, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, and oak. Medium length. This is a solid bourbon. Jefferson’s clearly has a great ability to select compatible wine casks for their spirits. On sale for $53 (down from $65), this is a solid value to boot. A lot to like here. Now, to answer the obvious question. How does this fair against the Groth Cask Reserve? While this is a damn fine whiskey in its own right, it doesn’t quite reach the level of the Groth, the Pritchard Hill is worthy of praise for what it does. It’s an interesting bottling for sure. It shares a lot of the better qualities and notes of the Groth cask. Given the option, I’d go for the latter, but as a replacement, this does a damn fine job. 4.25/5.

Ruddy copper color.. the red really comes through from the Cabernet cask. Very few slow forming legs. BIG nose bounces back and forth between classic bourbon notes of vanilla, carmel and cacao to the dark ripe fruit coming through from The cask. A distinctive earthy tone emerges through all of it. Soft mouth feel immediately leaves a warmth upon swallowing. Sweet front moves into vanilla and caramel. Followed by a dry oak and musty grain/grape skin flavor. Finish is moderate, but dominated early by the Cabernet before drifting off with notes of dark chocolate covered maraschino cherries.

On the nose I get subtle notes of chocolate covered raspberry, cabernet, and oak. First sip offers more of the oak and char and the subtle cabernet finish was a very nice touch. The cabernet was not overpowering like I’ve had with other bourbons/whiskeys that are finished in wine casks. I can get the dryness from the cabernet mixed in theoughout the taste but it’s subtle and welcoming. I like this one and will enjoy the rest of the bottle. Ice removes most the dryness, increases the smoothness, and pulls the oak and char more to the front of the profile.

You can definitely get a glimpse of the wine finish when you smell the bourbon. Both neat and with an ice cube you can get a subtle taste of the cab finish but it is more of a normal oaky upfront palate that then finished a bit briny/bitter at the end. Smooth and goes down easy. Can see how it’s good as a change of pace but not a go to for me. Coming back to it this was very good balance of flavor and very easy to drink. Changing from 3.5 to 3.75.

nose - sharpie strong on the front, mixed with a wine undertone, slight tea comes through palette - smashes wine and aged wood, followed by a earl grey tea, and then taffy ending - a banana/caramel influence. not a fan. the wine foreward is so string that it takes a min for my taste buds to catch up to it. theres no bourbon influence left in the mix.

Nose: Carmel, vanilla, toasted bread and brown sugar Palate: vanilla, also got a slight cherry note. Probably the Cabernet finish. Solid taste. Nothing spectacular. Finish: short. Wine on the back of the palate. Overall 3.25-3.5/5. It’s somewhere in the middle so it’s a solid pour for me. At 90 proof it’s easy to drink