Woodinville Cask Strength Straight Bourbon

Bull City Bourbon Club pick, named "Honey Smack'd" Barrel No. 3306, Bottle No. 156 59.96% abv, 119.92 proof Open 1.5 months Nose - Bright honey, boozy mead, artificial cinnamon, young oak, apples and white grapes, bourbon cask strength version of pot-still Irish whiskey Palate - Honey, butterscotch, honey crisp apples, French toast, sweet oatmeal. Finishes with an ethanol punch that was disguised on the nose and tongue, then transforms to a light honey syrup with hints of cinnamon and oak. I took a chance on this expensive craft bourbon because I heard the Bull City Bourbon Club (BCBC) was a new group that has picked some good local stuff in 2020. This drastically exceeded my expectations. I've had a lot of cask strength bourbon in the last 2 years and this is wildly different. While most are spicy and dense in profile, this is light, bright, and sweet. I think the distillery location in Washington lends to a unique profile that is a nice addition to the bourbon category. The name Honey Smack'd by BCBC is appropriate, this tastes like the alcoholic version of Honey Smacks and is more like a strong mead than something like Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. I've been seeing a variety of store picks around NC and I doubt any of them are bad. I highly recommend picking one up, I guesstimate it'll be a welcome change to the typical Kentucky cask strength bourbon.

Chatham County ABC pick (Fall 2021) Barrel No. 4940 59.21% abv; 118.42 proof Open 3 months Nose - Mead, Corn Pops, menthol, green apples, green grapes, light cinnamon, butterscotch, fresh cut grass, light oak, and strong ethanol. Palate - Honey syrup, toasted marshmallow, Werther's, caramel apples at the state fair, oat ale (try an oat ale if you haven't), lightly sugared Frosted Flakes, shortbread cookie, and sharp ethanol. Finish is long with honey, chili powder, cinnamon, astringent oak, spice cake, and medium ethanol. This is remarkably similar to a club pick I bought almost 2 years ago. I guess I'm just a big fan of Woodinville bourbon. Its honey and bright fruit profile is unique in my experience for cask strength bourbon, and really damn drinkable. I think it has a lot in common with notes you'll find in a Highland malt, albeit with corn and new oak. The climate in Washington likely has a big influence. These picks sit around for months on ABC shelves. I don't know if people don't like them, or are hesitant to drop $70 on a lesser known product. With the prices going up everywhere, I think these are a really good buy.

Uncorking- Barrel pick from my local NW Bourbon group. Nose - burnt sugar, char and oak. Taste- Marshmallow, sweet, hints of wood and leather. Finish- shorter length with some darker cocoa nibs, more dark caramels and real vanilla bean extract. Tasted this against total wines barrel pick from earlier this year. This one has a much more pronounced burnt marshmallow sugar nose and start, then goes into much deeper flavors of leather and woods. Vs the Total Wine pick which stays much lighter and leans into dark fruits which this one has none of. Really interesting to see how much difference the barrel makes.

Phenomenal cask strength bourbon! This is everything right about the craft bourbon industry. I toured the distillery this summer and got the chance to be part of a private barrel selection. These guys are taking every effort to produce a world class whiskey. Seasoned barrel staves, toasted heads, single sourced corn from a local farm. All that effort results in a burst of cinnamon and baked spices on the palate led by the warm vanilla nose. The oak is the star of the finish that lingers on and on. Kentucky meet Washington!

On the nose, this reminds me a lot of Colonel E.H. Taylor Single Barrel: loads of vanilla, caramel and some cherry. The whiskey arrives with a fair amount of heat (not surprising, given the proof) and cinnamon spice. This is pretty complex given the relatively young age (~5 yrs). The mid-palate is nice and chewy, with Vanilla Cherry Coke and a slightly bitter spearment to balance the sweet. The finish is long, with bitter dark chocolate lingering along with more cinnamon and nutmeg.

Aroma is fairly on par with the regular release except there’s very little of that woody-crafty profile coming through, it’s there, but in the back and more of the dark spice, fruit and sweets notes are coming through; Palate follows suite and is warmer and richer than the standard with a more complex sweets array and, again, the craft note hiding out in the back; Finish shows the most similarity with the old standard release with that woody-craft note makes a noticeable showing.