Journeyman Distillery Buggy Whip Wheat

Up until now, Heaven Hill's Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey has had little competition in the field of whiskey made from a mashbill with a majority of wheat. A lot of people like the dominant taste of wheat in a whiskey, whether that whiskey be a 51+% wheat content whiskey or a wheated bourbon. There are some smaller distilleries putting out other wheat whiskeys now, and I expect that we will see quite a few worthy wheat whiskeys in the next few years, as aging time accrues for the products of the hundreds of recently founded microdistilleries. The Journeyman Distillery is located in Three Oaks, Michigan, in a factory space in which corsets and buggy whips were produced in the 1880s. The reviewed bottle is from Bottle # 458 from Batch # 24. The bottle was opened 10 days ago and is 70% full. There is no age statement on the bottle or on the Journeyman Distillery website, nor is there exact information on the %age content of wheat in the whiskey. The whiskey is sold as a wheat whiskey and so it is assumed to be a minimum of 51% wheat content. It is not declared to be a STRAIGHT wheat whiskey, so it cannot be assumed to be even 2 years old. Journeyman Buggy Whip Wheat Whiskey is certified to be organic

Nose: very wheaty, like cooked wheat berry cereal. There is a floral perfumed background with elements of the higher pitches from grapes. Pleasant and gently sweet

Taste: very pointed wheat flavours with a hint of cocoa. The flowers and grape notes from the nose are also tasted in the mouth. This is tingly, tickly, and effervescent on the palate. Wood flavours are noticeable and adequate, even in this rather young whiskey. Buggy Whip Wheat is very sweet on the palate, but with a very good tart/sour balance

Finish: moves away from sweet toward sour on the finish; the limitations of the wood maturation are more noticeable on the finish

Balance: Journeyman Buggy Whip Wheat Whiskey works very well indeed. I am a fan. This is a totally different style of wheat whiskey than is the very gentle Bernheim Original, of which I am also a fan. Buggy Whip Wheat has lots and lots of flavour, and assaults the taste buds with a pointedness which is more typical of rye grain than of wheat grain. I like that assault. I like it a lot. My sister drank 30% of this bottle in the first week she owned it. I understand why