Kentucky Vintage
The Forgotten KBD Small Batch
0 283
Review by @Victor
- Nose23
- Taste20
- Finish20
- Balance20
- Overall83
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Distribution of ratings for this:
- Brand: Kentucky Vintage
- Type: American
- ABV: 45%
Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd., a family company owned by the Kulsveens, is currently bottling and marketing bourbon and rye whiskeys procured from other distillers. KBD brands include the Johnny Drum series of bourbons, the Old Bardstown series of bourbons, the Vintage bourbons and ryes, Willett Pot Still Bourbon, and four "small batch" bourbons: Noah's Mill, Rowan's Creek, Pure Kentucky XO, and Kentucky Vintage. The Willett single barrel bourbons and ryes are usually barrels privately sold by KBD to others and bottled by KBD.
For me, there is good news and bad news with KBD. The good news is that most of their products are quite good. The bad news for a connoisseur is that you never are quite certain where the whiskey came from. Why is this bad news? First, it is a little unsatisfying not to know the story and origins of the whiskey. Second, if a brand has no firm distillery roots, it can change distilleries and character without notice. Where I live Kentucky Vintage is the hardest to find of the four KBD "small batch" bourbon brands.
The reviewed bottle is from Batch # 10-46. There is no age statement on the bottle, other than "...allowed to age long beyond that of any ordinary bourbon...." Wikipedia reports Kentucky Vintage to be 17 years old. The reviewed bottle has been open approximately 12 months with only about 50 ml consumed prior to tasting for this review.
Body: medium
Colour: quite dark and woody
Nose: strong vanilla with maple, quite sweet, mostly middle and high notes. A little dried fruit. Very strong but undifferentiated rye spice.
Palate: sweet, woody, actually too much wood, continues with the undifferentiated spice and the medium and high notes. The vanilla is less in the mouth than is present in the nose.
Finish: pleasant, medium length, but with a bit of a bitter note, probably from the wood.
Balance: overall, this is a nice bourbon, but the bitterness on the finish detracts from the total effect. This batch of Kentucky Vintage just seems to have been too long in the wood. A few additional bass notes would also be helpful here.
Jim Murray rated a different batch of Kentucky Vintage 94.5 pts in his 2012 Whisky Bible. Batch # 10-46 doesn't get to that level for me.
Find where to buy Kentucky Vintage whisky
I love the nose on this..it has great legs too...it just hangs on the side of the glass for what feels like minutes. I agree with the palate as well with sweet and woody, although I tasted the vanilla through the entire process. Its so funny you say that it 'stayed too long in the wood". The aftertaste to me, felt like...and please dont laugh at how crude this is but, like when I used to chew on my pencils during a test. It had that nasty wooded taste....almost like a popsicle stick taste...so I think you nailed it....bitter follow through. It may make someone gasp, but this has been relegated to one of my "bourbon and coke" bourbons.