Review #: 287
Description: Jefferson’s Ocean Cask Strength
Spirit: Bourbon
Background: Jefferson’s has tried to recreate the “original” bourbon that story goes that aging whiskey started by putting it in barrels in order to transport it on river boats to get to port. They place barrels on ships and age them as they traverse the world. There is some merit to “dynamic” aging and the constant movement promoting interaction of the spirit with the wood, but is it mostly a marketing gimmick? This sample was provided to me by a friend and tried blind with the reveal coming after providing my notes.
Distillery – Undisclosed
Bottler – Kentucky Artisan Distillers
Brand – Jefferson’s
Selection – N/A
ABV – 56%
Age – NAS
Nose – oooh, that’s new oak. Pretty sweet but a lot of fun stuff going on. Bright cherry, little bit of cinnamon red hots, brown sugar. There’s a balance of sweet and savory spices. More air brings out some eucalyptus and more savory spices. A nice buttery shortbread cookie comes in too
Taste – Almost a grape like fruity sweetness, caramel chew, vanilla, melted butter, toasted rye bread.
Finish – Sweet cinnamon, spicy tobacco, rye spice and black pepper hit really hard and ramp up the spiciness alongside heat. Cinnamon red hots again but more aggressive than the nose. Still some of that buttery popcorn note lingers on the tongue
Guess: I’m going to guess rye, something more than barely legal, on the younger side, maybe 5 years, and 50-55% abv? I’m guessing it drinks hotter than it is.
Score: 6
Would I buy a bottle? No
Thoughts:
The nose on this was super interesting and kept changing around. At first pour, I was definitely thinking bourbon and it was real fruity. The more I dove into it though, the more spice I could find. The taste was nice and sweet but the finish really sealed “rye” for me and pushed it to a point where the spice blurred the line with heat, which is what held it back for me though. No obviously negative notes though and very drinkable.
Post Reveal: Surprised this was bourbon. Felt like I got a bunch of rye off of it but for what Jefferson’s is, it kind of makes sense with how much isn’t known about it.