FEW Bourbon Whiskey Batch 1 (48.4%, That Boutique-Y Whisky Company, 67 Bottles, 2014)

• ABV: 48.4%
• Age: NAS
• Bottling: That Boutique-Y Whisky Company
• Category: American wheated bourbon whiskey
• Cost: £51.95
• Origin: FEW distillery
• Vintage: Undeclared

What they say

A wheated FEW Spirits bourbon whiskey bottling from That Boutique-y Whisky Company presented at 48.4% abv! On the label you’ll find Maverick Drinks’ Michael Vachon, who first brought FEW Spirits to the UK, waving a chequered flag as prohibition is finally repealed in Evanston, Illinois.

Paul Hletko in the background hardly needed any extra encouragement, and is busy creating delicious craft spirits from grain to glass at his Evanston distillery, located in the former heartland of the temperance movement! In fact, the bags full of barley, wheat and corn refer to the mashbill of the bourbon in the bottles. Clever, eh?

Just 67 bottles were produced.

Official tasting notes:

• Nose: Clean corn and malt is recognisable from FEW Spirits’ White Dog, but this soon proves to be far richer and rounder, with sweetness developing in the form of pleasant pine resin and honeyed nuts being roasted by street vendors.
• Palate: Classic FEW corn with that smooth malted edge. Pie-crust wheatiness (as opposed to butteriness), almonds and peppery cherries.
• Finish: Sweet buns and some salivating ganache.
• Overall: We’ve always liked to have a FEW, or even a good FEW, which this certainly is!

What I say

Another rediscovered note, I originally sampled this back in 2014. Distilled at FEW distillery and bottled by That Boutique-Y Whisky Company, carrying no age-statement but labelled as Whiskey so I can only guess that it is over 4 years old otherwise legally it should be labelled as Straight Bourbon or carry an age-statement. I do remember around this time FEW releases switched from using the term Whiskey to Spirit and the age of their output remains clear as mud?

My tasting notes:

• Appearance:  Old Sauternes (8/20), medium-fine tears and legs.
• Nose: Latex rubber, sultanas, figs, oat bran, bubblegum, pine needles, sap and wood, pine cones, cinnamon, orange, Christmas spices, struck matches.
• Taste: Thin/light bodied, more cinnamon bubblegum, cinnamon sticks, struck match/cordite, cowhide, waxy coloured pencil shavings, resinous, new wood.
• Finish: Medium, clementine fruit and zest, woody with warming spices.

Overall

Woody, suggesting perhaps it is a little older than their standard fare, but still quite spirity and feisty on the palate also.

Score 76/100

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