Review #159: Bardstown Bourbon Company Copper & Kings Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Copper & Kings Apple Brandy Barrels

Bardstown Bourbon Company is a relatively new distillery out of Bardstown, Kentucky, hence the name. Unfortunately they don’t distribute to Texas so I wasn’t able to get a bottle until I went to Kentucky for the r/bourbon pick. Right now they have 3 main ‘series’ of whiskey: their discovery series which is sourced and blended, their fusion series which is a blend of their own distillate and sourced whiskey and their collaborative series which is sourced whiskey finished in collaboration with other local companies. So far they’ve released some interesting products and I like that they took route of doing more than just sourcing and bottling instead doing some interesting blending or finishing with plenty of transparency. I hope more craft distilleries take this route instead of just releasing a sourced product or releasing their own quite young young whiskey.

Back to the matter at hand while I was visiting Bardstown Bourbon Company did a tasting of several of their offerings and the one that stood out to me the most was the Collaborative series Copper & Kings Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Copper & Kings Apple Brandy Barrels. They were kind enough to give me a bottle to take back to Texas to hopefully tide me over until distribution makes it here!

Since I didn’t pay for this bottle I will not be giving it a ‘Value’ rating but I’m more than happy to taste it and give my thoughts there.

Bardstown Bourbon Company Copper and Kings

Age: 11 years (20 month finishing time)

Abv: 120.4 proof

Price: $124.99 (I received this for free)

Mashbill: 75/21/4 Corn/Rye/Malted Barley

Neat

Nose: Rich and sweet with brown sugar, leather, tobacco and dark fruit notes

Taste: The brown sugar and dark fruit from the nose a briefly present but give way to more leather and tobacco as well as a pleasantly warm baking spice note. The mouthfeel is viscous and excellent and about what I would expect for an 11 year old 120 proof bourbon.

Finish: Incredibly long spicy finish with warm baking spice, tobacco, rich oak and just the barest hints of something sweet.

4 Stars - Extraordinary whiskey: An all time favorite

Conclusion

The finish on this was the best part and reminds me a fair amount of one of my all time favorites Joseph Magnus Cigar Blend Batch 12 though it is a little spicier. Overall this was an amazing bourbon and I hope we see some more barrel finished MGP collaborations coming out of Bardstown! The nose was sweet, rich and complex, the finish was amazing and the taste was delicious if just a bit on the spicy side. The proof is in the fill level though as I’ve been back from Kentucky for just about 3 weeks and this is already ~2/3s gone making it easily the lowest level of the bottles I brought back from Kentucky.

Since this reminded me of Cigar Blend I went ahead and tried this paired with a cigar and the long, powerful finish made it an excellent bourbon for that pairing. I obviously didn’t take tasting notes during the cigar pairing haha.

Given that this bottle is nearing the end of it’s life and the current situation with Joseph Magnus changing distributors in Texas which may be impacting my supply of Cigar Blend I’m looking for pretty much any 9+ year old, 100+ proof MGP finished in some sort of brandy cask so let please let me know if you have something you think I should try!

TL;DR: Cask strength 11 year old MGP finished in brandy casks; of course I love it.