Our second bottle on the finished whiskey series is Lux Row’s Blood Oath Pact 4, another NDP who is blending and finishing but this time from an unknown Kentucky distillery that is almost assuredly Heaven Hill instead of from MGP.
Blood Oath is a divisive series of sourced bourbons from Luxco. Between the unknown sourcing, inclusion of finished whiskeys and fancy packaging these bottles have been subject to a lot of hate and a lot of tatering(full disclosure: I am on the tatering side here).
Pact 4 is a blend of 12 year old and 10 year old straight bourbon blended with a 9 year old bourbon that has been finished in toasted barrels. All bourbon barrels are charred which basically means exposing them to a very hot flame for 10 to 60 or so seconds which creates a layer of charred wood on the inside of the barrel. Some barrels are toasted before they are charred which typically involves a longer, slower heating process and causes different chemical changes in the barrel. Woodford Double Oaked and Michter’s various toasted barrel finished whiskies are other examples of tasted barrel finishes whiskies.
Enough about barrels, onto the review!
Blood Oath Pact 4
Age: blend of 9, 10 and 12 years
Abv: 98.6 proof (human body temp lol)
Price: $99
Neat
Nose: Lots of oak notes balanced with sweet vanilla and subtle smoky notes
Taste: Sweet and oaky with caramel, vanilla, rich oak and just a hint of nuttiness. Solid mouthfeel for the proof.
Finish: Medium length finish with rye spice, vanilla and more oak.
Conclusion
This is quite okay, which shouldn’t be a surprise, and very sweet. Coincidentally those are two flavor categories I enjoy which made this a pleasant dram. I found the 98.6 proof to be close enough to 100 or to not mind it being proofed down.
This was a noticeable step up from Woodford Double Oaked and a store pick of that for me though it is also significantly more expensive and harder to find. I won’t be rushing out trying to hunt down a back up bottle of this specific Pact as I thought 5 was better.
TL;DR: Oaky and sweet, I liked it
8 - an excellent bottle I’d like to have at home
Fair - Worth the money, happy with my purchase
Scale
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