Beverage of the Week: Henry McKenna 10 Year Single Barrel

Before I dig into this week's bourbon: last night an amazing, happy event occured. I walked into the Sparrow and what should greet my eyes but "New Albanian 15B Porter" on the chalkboard. Oh, happy day.

Anyway, sticking with the notion that the BoW should have relatively wide availability, this week we have Henry McKenna's single barrel offering. This is another excellent, affordable offering from Heaven Hill Distilleries, makers of my all-time favorite value whiskey, Evan William's Single Barrel. This is also very nice stuff at a reasonable price (~$30), but I chose it as much to talk about marketing as the whiskey itself.

For starters, this whiskey makes a big fuss about being "bottled in bond." Legally, this means it is 1) the product of a single distillery, 2) the product of one distillation season, and 3) bottled at 100 proof. As you can imagine, aside from the 100 proof bit (which is mostly irrelevant), every single barrel whiskey on the market could be called "bottled in bond," as could the majority of small batch whiskeys, and quite a few regular-old age dated products. HK makes it sound like this status is the holy grail of whiskey, however, and I think this is an excellent example of how aggressive and misleading advertising is getting as the premium whiskey market swells with new products. Another interesting thing about this product - the billing leads you to believe this is a sort of Irish bourbon recipe, an idea furthered by the attractive green packaging. I have never heard of any Irish whiskey made from corn, and tasting-wise this has about as much in common with Irish whiskey as Captain Morgan. I enjoyed this whiskey quite a bit, but caveat emptor nonetheless.

Back to the tasting. I really enjoy the nose on this - for a higher proof whiskey, you can really get into it without catching any of that alcohol sear in your nostrils. There's the a maple-forward note, and a hint of dark chocolate down there too. The mouth feel is great, with a thickness that reminds me of Booker's. The palate is nice as well, though it is definitely less complex than say a Van Winkle, or Evan Williams Single Barrel, for that matter. It's very focused on sweetness, with toffee, honey, and vanilla predominating. The alcohol comes out more on the palate than the nose, though, so I wouldn't hesitate to bring it down a bit with some water. All in all, a 7/9 - a great everyday bourbon. My favorite thing is that it is just good enough to really enjoy but not so good I'm tempted to hoard it back (hence the near-empty bottle).

Oh, and this was from barrel #358.