Other American

Each phase of Legent Bourbon highlights a different one of its components. The bouquet brightly showcases the wine influence, fruity and jammy with grapes and red wine. The palate is where the rich, chewy bourbon character shines through, with caramel, crème brûlée and butterscotch. A long finish then offers up the sherry side, with a bitter streak and peanut shells, along with oak, rye spice, tingly black pepper and vanilla.

Tincup is one of the gentlest I’ve ever had, which is the antithesis of how we usually consider high-rye spirits. The nose offers vanilla and butterscotch, and as it opens up in the glass, dusty wood notes develop. This all leads into a quiet and surprisingly understated body: apple cinnamon, vanilla caramels and ice cream, and chocolate covered raisins. Curious strawberry notes, something you don’t typically find in bourbon, come along on the finish, which is otherwise silky, moderately sweet (solid caramel notes returning here), and hard not to like.

This peated bottling is a blend of two aged whiskeys distilled at Westland, one was from a peated malt mash and one was from a Washington pale malt mash. The whiskeys were aged a minimum of 2 years in a variety of casks which include heavily charred, new American oak; ex-bourbon barrels, and ex-sherry casks.

Pecans, both the nut and the shell, are found on the bouquet along with sweet creamed corn. There is a decent amount of smoke from the barrel. The palate has more of a dark caramel covered popcorn quality to it along with a moderate amount of wood spices. It is young and perhaps not super complex, but overall it’s pretty, pretty, pretty good….