Sam Houston 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Batch NY-4 (2021)

Sam Houston 15 Year Batch NY-4 (2021)

COST: Averages $214 for 750 mL bottle today (I’m reviewing a sample)

AGE: 15 years

MASH BILL: 74% corn, 18% rye, 8% malted barley

PROOF: 103

Sam Houston 15 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was a limited release bourbon that was made in 7 released between 2018 and 2021. I’ve heard some great things about it, but have never seen a bottle of it in person. Thanks to u/micro7777 for letting me try this out. Let’s see how it is!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Toasted oak (1.8), it clings to the glass and runs down like it were a thin syrup, with medium, tear drop legs that stream down the glass.

NOSE: Warm, sweet notes of a cinnamon spiced vanilla, cherry streusel bar. There’s loads of brown sugar, vanilla cream, and dark cherry pie filling. Cinnamon and spicy oak round out the robust sweetness along with a subtle touch of orange zest. This is a really nice nose, extremely familiar and inviting.

PALATE: The mouthfeel comes across as a little thin, a little buttery, and slightly astringent. It does coat the palate well, though. But the flavor experience is nothing less than excellent! Ripe red cherries and dried cranberries explode onto the palate followed by a cacophony of spicy licorice, oak, burnt brown sugar, and cinnamon. There’s a rye spice that is very prominent at the middle of the palate. There’s a bit of an oscillation in the flavors of this one where it starts out with sweetness, then the spicy, earthy notes take center stage, and then they yield to the sweet cherry notes again going into the finish.

FINISH: A very nice, long finish with sweet cherry carrying surprisingly far into the finish which I find fantastic. I’m used to the spicy and earthy notes dominating the finish over the sweeter notes – not here. That said, for a 15 year bourbon, the most oak I’ve experienced thus far shows up here in the finish. There’s a little cinnamon and orange peel that lingers as well. There’s a light hug that dissipates as quickly as it forms high in the chest.

RATING: 8.5/10

VALUE: 4.4/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)

OVERALL: The nose was actually the weakest scoring part of this, and even so it was quite nice. I knew as soon as I took the first sip this was going to score above an 8. I was really impressed by how well the red fruit sweetness showed out in the palate and finish and it wasn’t dominated by an oaky profile. A very good sipping bourbon that I’m sad hasn’t been released since 2021.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE

Sam Houston 15 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is produced by Western Spirits Beverage Company, a non-distiller producer. Sam Houston 15 year included 7 releases between 2018 and 2021. From what I’ve seen, it hasn’t officially been discontinued, but it hasn’t been made since 2021…so there’s that… Each release contained multiple batches, each batch including no more than 3 barrels, so quite low bottle count for each batch. Each batch was made for a specific state, so this particular one was made for New York and it was the 4th batch made of all Sam Houston 15 year releases for New York. This particular batch was part of release 7 which was the last release of this bourbon at the end of 2021. Each release is also bottled at a different proof, release number 7 happened to be 103 proof.

The bourbon in Sam Houston 15 yr is a 74% corn, 18% rye, 8% malted barley mash bill that was distilled and aged in Bardstown, KY. Based on what is known about various mash bills out there, this is a known Barton 1792 mash bill.

Western Spirits is also known for making Calumet (extremely similar labeling here), which is also offered with quite old age statements of 15 and 16 years. Calumet also uses Barton bourbon, but it is produced in significantly larger batches than Sam Houston 15 year which uses no more than 3 barrels per batch. I would expect the 15 and 16 year Calumet (which is still being produced) to probably be pretty similar to Sam Houston 15 year all things considered (but I haven’t tried a Calumet 15 or 16 year yet to confirm, but may be on my short list now).

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Widow Jane Decadence

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, WhistlePig PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08

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