Castle & Cairn

The fourth bottle in the Origin Series standard lineup, Bardstown High Wheat joins a high-rye Bourbon, a Wheated Bottled-in-Bond, and a Rye - all award winning. It has almost double the wheat content of the bottled-in-bond and promises pastry bomb dessert perfection. Bardstown Bourbon Company's Master Distiller is none other than Steve Nally, Bourbon Hall of Fame member formerly of Maker's Mark and the "King of Wheat". The wheated Bottled-in-Bond and this bottle are some of his favorite brainchildren.  🛒 Sourced:   $44.99 - Tower Wine and Spirits, GA 750ml. SRP is $49.99 as you'll find on their website.  🧪 Proof:  106 proof, 53% ABV. Barrel entry proof is 108 so there is minimal dilution. I'd imagine they settled at this proof point to address a common perception that wheated bourbons feel thinner on the tongue due to their soft sweetness. The lack of dilution likely helps a good bit. They'll tell you that this makes it "cask strength" on the t...

Though Bardstown is known for contract distilling , their Origin and Discovery series have both collected quite the metal count at spirits awards shows. Bardstown Origin  Wheated Bottled-in-Bond  formed part of the Origin lineup with high-rye, double barreled-rye, and a 39% high wheated bourbon iterations. The high wheat is the only one of the four not to win gold or double-gold though it very likely will next season, it was just released  for the Holidays in 2024. I'm very fond of the sweetness that comes with wheated bourbons and enjoy the character building that comes with the bonded standard. Seasonal batches for bonded whiskies mean that they can differ somewhat year-to-year without being as variable as single barrels. Speaking of single barrels, at the same time as the Origin series launch in 2023, Bardstown Bourbon Co. also announced a barrel pick program or select on and off-premise retailers. 🛒 Sourced:  $44.99 - 750ml - Tower Package, GA. Typically around ...

If you've been browsing whiskey Reddit or your other choice of social media, you may have seen people referring to some whiskey as being "sourced". Sourcing simply means that the final brand or producer purchases the initial distillate from another company. There are a growing number of such "Non-Distiller Producers" (NDPs) in the US. Typically these NDPs will blend and bottle different distillates and may age or finish them as well. This is not a new concept as rectifiers (those who bought whiskey from producers and "rectified" it) have been around as long as whiskey has existed in America. Some of the biggest brands we know today started as rectifier companies, including Four Roses. On the other hand, bad actor rectifiers added adulterants and put out shoddy products, spurring the creation of the Bottled-In-Bond Act and other quality regulations. While we have replaced the term "rectifier" with "NDP" in the common parlance, the p...