Alltech Town Branch Bourbon

I was given a bottle of this same brand and tried it. The friend who gave this to me thought of me and brought it home from a business trip and wanted to know what I thought of it. He is the captain of our artillery unit you met in Gettysburg Pa. I liked it and thanked him for his consideration. I was not brave enough to review it for this site. Thanks for your review and bravery I can be such a chicken sometimes.(:

@PMessinger, I miss your Civil War re-enactment group. 30 artillery pieces being towed on SUVs etc for 600 miles each way from Michigan. Such a hoot! Glad I caught you at the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The reviewed bottle was given to me as a gift from a friend also. I did think twice about reviewing it for this reason, but concluded that 1) the friend who gave it to me was unlikely to read this review, and that 2) I was still on the hook later to tell him what I thought of the whiskey, when asked. I guess I will say that it is "ok, drinkable, but not one of the best ones".

When I try some new product like this one I always wonder what the distiller her/himself thinks of it. The pressures must be great to make some money, even if the batches are not that great. What would disturb me is that someone would drink from this bottle and think that this is great bourbon. This bottle is not great bourbon. But it can get better if someone at the distillery knows what he/she is doing. Age is not the issue. There are some excellent bourbons at four years old. There is a guy 5 miles from where I live, @TwinValley, who makes great whiskey less than a year old. The issues of Alltech Town Branch Bourbon are other than age. Cooperage for sure, and maybe distillation technique also.

@PMessinger, thank you, kind words. Michigan - are you located UP, Plains Region, or LP near IN and OH?

@paddockjudge I am in LP near Lake Michigan north of Ind. :-)

@PMessinger, There must be a powerful temptation to make a Binny's excursion given your location.

Three months open bottle follow up:

The grains are expressing themselves more and better now, which is very welcome. There is much increased spiciness, both from the wood and from the rye grain. There is still too much char and tannin, but the experience is a better one now and renders this bottle far more drinkable, 97 days later. Both nose and taste are noticeably better now.

Re-review at 3 months:

Sequential: Nose-Taste-Finish-Balance = 22-20-19-19, Total 80 points

Non-sequential: Strength-Quality-Variety-Harmony = 22-19-20-19, Total 80 points

I am raising the review score to 80 points. This bourbon has earned it.

You might ask, just a 2 point revision equals a MUCH more enjoyable experience? Yes, because, as reported in the initial review, I was initially being quite generous in scoring this whiskey at 78 points. The revised 80 point score is a strict scoring. Up until today I was thinking strongly about to whom I could give this bottle away. Now this is a bourbon I can actually enjoy drinking.

This is one more example of just how much the extent of air exposure can change the experience of a whiskey.