Review #182-184: A RD1 Wood-Finished Flight

MASH BILL: 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley

AGE: 4 yrs

COST: $70 for 3x 200mL bottles 

RD One offers a package of three 200 mL samples of wood finished bourbon: French Oak, Amburana, and Oak and Maple. RD1 makes these wood finished expressions starting with 4 year aged RD1 blue label bourbon. They remove the bung from select barrels, insert finishing staves of select woods into the barrel, and then put a new bung back in to allow them to continue aging for an undisclosed amount of time.

Each of these expressions is released at a different proof, each picked to be where the expression is best represented, all higher than the 98 proof the standard RD1 blue label is bottled at. I enjoyed these over the course of 3 months and documented my tasting notes at different point along the way, usually only trying one at a time. I did sample these all back-to-back twice, but other than just to try them back-to-back, I don’t recommend this for writing tasting notes because the Oak and Maple and Amburana expressions can really alter the palate with how potent in flavor they are. Perhaps at least give 30 minutes to an hour between those two before trying something else if you’re trying to pick out notes.

All whiskey was reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

Review #182: RD1 Bourbon Finished with French Oak

PROOF: 101

APPEARANCE: A bright rusty color (1.3); a thin, oily appearance with quick, thin legs.

NOSE: Lots of French vanilla cream! Caramel corn and a pop of orange citrus are also present. Digging a little deeper, a milk chocolate note softens this and pairs wonderfully with those big vanilla notes. Not overly complex, but familiar and inviting.

PALATE: A much more oily mouthfeel than it appeared. The caramel notes really standout font and center supported by vanilla cream and a lovely mix of baking spices, nutmeg in particular. There are some dark fruit notes on the palate that I didn’t notice on the nose. Chocolate, cinnamon, and a mild tannic oak note start to show up just before the finish.

FINISH: A long, tannic finish. Much spicier with cinnamon starting to build in. The nutmeg, vanilla, and chocolate from the palate transition nicely. As the vanilla notes start to fade, they’re replaced with a bit more stone fruit making a very warm, cozy profile on the palate. For a moment, that citrus note from the nose shows back up but fades out rather quickly.

RATING: 6.2/10

OVERALL: I like this, and other than an occasional slight ethanol burn on the nose, I can’t find anything off putting about it. It is rather simple and doesn’t have a lot of complexity, but I do get those nice vanilla and chocolate notes that I normally find with French Oak. I think it’s worth the extra $10 more per 750 mL bottle over the standard RD1 blue label without completely changing the experience.

Review #183: RD1 Bourbon Finished with Brazilian Amburana

PROOF: 110

APPEARANCE: A burnished copper color (1.1); a bit thicker, more oily appearance than the French Oak finished expression.

NOSE: Lots of spice notes but a sweet undertone. Clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger present a spicy front, but there’s a nice caramelized brown sugar note that supports it. Dipping my nose a little deeper, I get a sweet cinnamon note like a Red Hot or Hot Tamale candy, but also a caramelized wood note with rich vanilla and tannins.

PALATE: A mouthfeel about the same as the French Oak, but matching the appearance this time. A very unique tasting experience. There’s a definite proof heat on the palate that is ignited by the assortment of spices: cinnamon, spicy, candied ginger, and allspice. There’s also a slight anise note that I get occasionally. Orange zest adds a lot of brightness. A light caramelized sugar note adds sweetness, but overall, this is rather spicy. It seems like it would go really good in a cocktail, more than as a sipper.

FINISH: A short finish and less tannic than the French oak, otherwise this is rather hard to describe honestly. It’s fairly weak and undefined. I get some tannic dryness, but it’s mostly a sort of sweet spiced candy. Maybe like candied ginger with a touch of milk chocolate.

RATING: 5.5/10

OVERALL: Because I know Amburana is a very polarizing finish, this is the first time I’ve tried an Amburana finished whiskey. From talking with others who have had Amburana finishes (whose palates I understand), I determined it wasn’t worth me spending any significant amount of money to try. After trying this, that has somewhat been confirmed. While I wasn’t necessarily a fan of it neat, I thought it might make a pretty good cocktail. It’s not a rye whiskey, but with it being quite spicy I figured I would try it out in a Manhattan, and it didn’t disappoint! Honestly, it’s my favorite Manhattan I’ve ever made at home. I wouldn’t buy this as a sipper, personally, but for someone that does a lot of cocktails or hosts often, this would be an excellent bottle for some impressive Manhattan’s!

Review #184: RD1 Bourbon Finished with Oak and Maple

PROOF: 99.9

APPEARANCE: A sherry color (1.4); much thicker looking than the other two expressions with fat, slow legs.

NOSE: Maple syrup just screams right away! With a longer whiff, slight caramel and cherry notes show up as well. A little spicy oak, but overall not very complex, quite sweet and obvious on the nose.

PALATE: A slightly syrupy mouthfeel (there’s probably a mental aspect here with the flavor profile being what it is). Again, tons of maple syrup are showing up right away. There’s a chocolate note as well. In the background I get a dark, stone fruit note, most like black currant. A touch of tannic oak and burnt brown sugar as well. Aside from the maple syrup and chocolate, I really had to dig for the other notes.

FINISH: A short, sweet finish. That maple syrup continues to shine. (During one of my sessions with this expression, I started to get hiccups during the sip (No, shut up! YOU drank too much!) and it started tasting like a short stack of pancakes drenched in maple syrup.) More tannic than the Amburana, but not as much as the French Oak finish. Seeing as this expression has both French Oak and Maple finishing staves, the French Oak stave shows up the most here with some nice vanillin rich oak notes and a soft chocolate towards the very end.

RATING: 5.6/10

OVERALL: An interesting thing to note with this expression: RD1 uses a propriotary process where they dry maple syrup from Maine on the maple staves, so no liquid maple syrup is added (i.e. no additive), but it does give a very robust maple syrup flavor (and to be honest, I would imagine the crystalized maple syrup on that wood just gets melted off from the alcohol in the barrel, so practically the same thing as an additive, just not defined as such). This is a maple syrup bomb! If you don’t like maple syrup, steer very clear of this because there’s really not much else to discuss with this one. I used this in an Old Fashioned and it was quite good giving it a maple syrup note without using maple syrup in the ingredients.

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, RR15