Lux Row Double Barrel 12yr Bourbon

Lux Row Double Barrel 12yr

COST: $190 for 750 mL bottle (I’m reviewing a sample)

AGE: 12 yr

MASH BILL: Undisclosed (believed to be Heaven Hill distillate, 78% corn, 12% rye, 10% malt)

PROOF: 118.4

This has been a bottle I’ve wanted to pick up for a couple years now, but as a distillery exclusive, that makes it fairly tough without accepting secondary pricing. A fellow r/Bourbon redditor was willing to trade me a sample allowing me to finally try this one. With a 12yr age statement, 118.4 proof, and rumored to be Heaven Hill distillate, I expect this to be reminiscent of ECBP. Let’s find out if it is!

This bottle is a blend of barrel numbers 5782968 and 5782985. Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Chocolate oak (1.8), medium legs with a generally syrupy appearance.

NOSE: Cherry fried pie with a heavy dusting of cocoa powder. There’s a nice spice following that cocoa note combining cinnamon, fennel, and a little lemon zest. Toasted vanilla bean, cola, and damp, charred oak bring that sweetness back with some dark and bitter aspects making this a very complete and rounded nose.

PALATE: Big red fruit vibes with a strong cherry note, some raspberry, and even strawberry. There’s a lot of spices showing up: rye, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper, and even a little ginger with a little zestiness. There’s also a non-trivial amount of vanilla present. At times, the vanilla completely erupts as the most dominant note on the palate. Spicy oak and dark chocolate linger in the background and require a little focus to pick them out over the very strong sweet notes at first, but once you notice that oak it’s very hard to miss it again.

FINISH: Cherry Coke, charred oak with heavy vanillin aspects, caramelized brown sugar, toasted orange peel, and black pepper all make an appearance in a long, dry finish. There’s a noticeable hug that shows up almost mid chest and just warms the entire chest and throat for a nice 10 or 15 seconds.

RATING: 8.8/10

VALUE: 5.3/10 (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: I do get a lot of ECBP vibes from this, so you know it’s good! The nose, palate, and finish were all extremely well balanced and each in the 8-9/10 range for me making this a very complete sip (it wasn’t like the nose picked up the shortcomings of the finish or anything). The amount of cherry (which I’m an admitted sucker for) was very pleasing throughout this sip.

The quality is as good as you could ask for. As far as where it could improve, it’s a little too dry/tannic on the finish, and the first couple of sips came across a little astringent, though that disappears after a couple minutes in. Other than that, I have nothing. It’s a fantastic bourbon!

BEHIND THE BOTTLE: Lux Row Distillers opened in 2018, and this 12 year expression has been a distillery exclusive offering since then. Lux Row has been known to source distillate from Heaven Hill, and there’s a general understanding across the internet that this 12 year double barrel expression is Heaven Hill distillate. Based on my tasting, I think this is a good bet.

This expression is made by combining two select single barrels, each aged 12 years, combining them, and diluting to 118.4 proof before bottling. The 118.4 proof was intentional as a tie to when Lux Row opened to the public in April of 2018.

Knowing that this is very likely 12 year Heaven Hill distillate, that makes these barrels likely to be candidates for ECBP (or EC private barrels), which also has ~12 year age statements and the same mash bill. However, this bottle can be picked up for about 2x the price of ECBP batches. Based on my take though, they are very careful and intentional on the barrels that are selected for this expression, so I definitely think it’s deserving of a more premium pricing than ECBP, buuttt, ECBP does continue to get better and better each year… All that said, I would still buy this bottle if I had the chance. I just figured I would share the cost and value comparison here.

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, Eagle Rare

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