Review #175: Hillrock Estate Owners Reserve Sauternes

MASH BILL: undisclosed (but believed to be around a 36% rye bourbon mash bill)

PROOF: 111.7

AGE: NAS 

COST: ~$180 for 750mL bottle online (I’m reviewing a sample)

Hillrock, not Rock Hill. Other than both being bourbon, they are nothing alike. But there have been a couple of finished bottles of Hillrock at one of my favorite local stores that have sat on the shelf for a while. I’ve come close to just getting one to try it out, but have always found something else to grab before I do. Mike over at Mostly Bourbon hooked me up with this sample of their Solera aged bourbon finished in Sauternes barrels and served up at cask strength. Now I can finally see what it’s about, and if it his well, maybe I can negotiate a good price with the store that has some bottles locally since they’ve sat for a while. Let’s find out!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: A dark, brown sugar color (1.6); thick and syrupy looking.

NOSE: It’s a bit astringent. Getting past that, I find a pecan praline note, the nuttier side of that being a little stronger than the sweetness. Caramel and orange zest hanging out in the background, and a hint of fennel and mint. When I dip my nose down into the glass I can pick up some light peach and honey sweetness. A rather light nose overall though.

PALATE: A viscous mouthfeel that coats the palate well. Similar to the nose, this is not very robust on the palate, but it is much more complex than the nose was. A red fruit note (most like cherry) is picked up at first. A heavy helping of cinnamon spice tingles the palate, and a little ethanol helps here too. Burnt brown sugar and a tinge of barrel char show up towards the end and carry over nicely into the finish. There’s a light duo of honey and nuttiness, almost brittle like, that lingers in the background but took me far too long to find it.

FINISH: A medium length finish but a fairly powerful hug that can almost take your breath away at first. Burnt brown sugar and charred oak are immediately present. Tart cherry shows up as the hug starts to fade. The hug comes in strong right away but passes by within a few seconds each sip. It took a good 5 or 6 sips to acclimate to it.) Clove is the more prominent spice note here, though a touch of cinnamon at the beginning of the finish.

RATING: 4.5/10

OVERALL: I’m not really a big fan of this one. It sips rather hot to me and was just a bit flat in flavor. While it’s not age stated, and I know they use the Solera process, I feel like the average age of the batch has to be pretty close to 4 years with as much ethanol as I was picking up with this at cask strength. With a dash of water, it cut the heat on the palate and finish completely, but I was still able to pick it up on the nose. The water did let a lot more honey and light flesh fruit notes shine through, but it did get thin on flavor fast with the water considering it wasn’t that robust to start out with. Overall, this was just a miss for my palate, and I’ll continue watching the bottles I spotted locally sit right where they’re at.

I do want to say thanks to Mike at Mostly Bourbon for letting me try this one out! And while I had the experience I explained above, I checked out his review from the same bottle after I was done writing this up and he had a totally different experience from me. So again, I think it just goes to show that not all palates are the same. Our palates align more often than not on tasting notes, and even with this one we had some similar notes picked up, but they just didn’t hit well on my palate as they did his. If you want to learn more about how Hillrock implements the Solera process, he has a great write up about it in his review.

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, Hillrock Estate Sauternes CS

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

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, BBCo Origin High Wheat, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, Maker's Mark Wood Finishing releases, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Woodford Reserve Batch Proof 121.2, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08