Rebel Yell bourbon is one of the five large labels of the 5% or so of bourbons made with wheat instead of rye as the "flavoring grain", along with Van Winkle, Weller, Maker's Mark, and Old Fitzgerald. There is also a Rebel Reserve bourbon. My sister had a really great bottle of Rebel Yell about 3 years ago, which made me excited to try a bottle of my own. My bottle was not as good, by far. This bourbon is assumed to be 4 years old, since there is no other age statement on the bottle. The bottle has been open about 2 years, and has improved slightly with time. I kept hoping... The bottle is about 80% full
Colour: rather pale, for bourbon
Nose: pretty good 2 years open, fairly weak for most of the prior period. Now, pretty strong oak/wheat combo, with good vanilla. This is that interesting and unique combination of the flavours of oak and those of wheat grain. Pretty sweet. Now worth 22/25, previously 19/25. Compromise rating: 20/25
Taste: dilute tasting...then and now. The wheat flavours are pretty slight compared to other wheated bourbons, even young ones, of comparable aging history. Sweet, in satisfactory balance, but...there is nothing at all interesting going on here. This particular bottle is just nothing-y, like a wheated bourbon diluted one part bourbon to two parts water
Finish: pretty short, with almost no complexity whatsover...there is sweet wood with a hint of wheat flavour, nothing more
Balance: Where can I buy a bottle of that Rebel Yell I tasted at Mary Anne's house three years ago? This is a pale third-rate imitation. Among standard release bourbons, most of my top favourites are wheated bourbons, eg Pappy Van Winkle 15 and William Larue Weller. I hate to see a crappy wheated bourbon with very little to offer. This bottle would be best for mixing rather than sipping. I really hope that they will bring back a better version of this. Not too long ago Rebel Yell was very good indeed. I am hopeful, but I would have to have a good more-recent sample of it before I would buy another bottle.
I've had standard Rebel Yell (wheated bourbon) from 6 different batches at different times and they were all over the place in flavour, smoothness vs roughness, and general quality. About half of the bottles were very good, and at Rebel Yell's very inexpensive US price represented outstanding value for money. About half of the bottles of Rebel Yell I tasted I did not like at all, and would not want a bottle of. Unfortunately the only bottle of it I ever bought for myself was one of the inferior ones. My advice: sample the batch of Rebel Yell you are thinking of buying first. If it a good one, then you are getting a steal. If not, stay far away.
Rebel Reserve, and the newer much older age-stated Rebel Yells, are far superior to the standard release.
Luxco, located in St. Louis, Missouri, owns Rebel Yell and puts out several products which are very cost-competitive, especially in the US. I think that the 45% ABV Ezra Brooks bourbon (standard bourbon made with rye grain) is a much safer bet for quality than is standard Rebel Yell. Old Ezra 101 7 yo and Ezra B. 12 yo Single Barrel are very nice products. There is even an ultra-cheap (in the US) Exotico Reposado Tequila put out by Luxco which is really quite serviceable.