Belle Meade Madeira Finished Bourbon

COST: I’m reviewing a sample (When originally released, a 750mL bottle was about $80, today these bottles are about $400 online)

AGE: NAS (some sources say 6-9 year bourbon)

MASH BILL: Undisclosed (MGP bourbon sourced by Nelson’s Green Brier Distilling)

PROOF: 90.4

This sample is from bottle 244 of batch 17-06. Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: A dark, sherry color (1.9), thin but very slow legs. This looks very syrupy!

NOSE: A bouquet of dark fruit sweetness dominates the nose with notes of plum, grape jelly, and black cherry. Behind all those fruit notes, there is a light peppery oak and a touch of honey. There is a very faint ethanol note that is present as well.

PALATE: The mouthfeel is a thinner than it looks, but has a sort of velvety, Merlot-like feel. While the flavor is overall still very sweet, it’s actually more balanced than you would expect based on the nose. There is a red wine barrel stave note that tends to inject some earthy and spicy wood notes amongst the dark fruit and caramel sweetness. Toasted oak, black pepper, smoke, black currant, raspberry compote, caramel sauce, dark cherries, and over-ripe figs. We spent a week in Portugal earlier this year, and during that trip I tried a Madeira wine for the first time. Sipping this whiskey completely jogs my memory to that experience due to the eerily similar Madeira flavor that I remember from that trip.

FINISH: A fairly short and slightly dry finish. The sweetness still helps keep this from being perceived as overly dry or tannic though. Charred oak, stewed dark red fruit, black pepper, and caramel. This has a surprising mild hug to warm the chest despite it being 90 proof.

RATING: 7.7/10

VALUE: 8.2/10 at MSRP (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: This is a fantastic pour with a lot of big, red fruit notes which I’m a sucker for. The two main things that hold it back from getting up to the excellent or nearing incredible ratings are the hint of ethanol on the nose (not really expected for 90 proof) and the rather short and somewhat muted finish. For a 90 proof whiskey, this had impressively well defined notes and was quite enjoyable to sip on.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE

Nelson’s Green Brier launched a Special Cask Finish Series with their Belle Meade line in 2017/2018 time frame. The three finishes in that series were Sherry, Cognac, and Madeira, with the Madeira being the third and final of the series. Each finish came in a 90.4 proof version and a cask strength version. While this sample was from the 90.4 proof version, it leaves me wondering how amazing the cask strength variants must be!

Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine. It’s a sweet red wine that is cooked and fortified with grape spirits to help preserve it. Madeira is primarily uses the grape variety Negra Mole, but uses additional a second varietals for added complexity and generally the “type” of Madeira is named after this secondary grape that is used. The casks that were used to finish this Belle Meade product were Malmsey Madeira casks, which use Malmsey, or Malvasia, grapes along with the Negra Mole. This is oft considered the sweetest type of Madeira.

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