Buzzard's Roost Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon Review

In its first few years in operation, Kentucky micro-bottler Buzzard’s Roost has amassed a pretty impressive collection of bourbon and rye whiskey releases, leaning on their proprietary secondary barrel finishing process to transform sourced bourbon and sourced rye into a profile that is distinctly their own. This specific profile, which really highlights toasted oak notes and char #1 barrels, is both the company’s strength and potential limitation–after tasting a handful of Buzzard’s Roost releases, I feel like I now have a pretty good idea of what their “house style” tastes like to me, and they generally operate (in my opinion) within relatively narrow parameters. Given that, I can see how someone would look at their new Buzzard’s Roost Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon and struggle to guess at what exactly makes it unique. It’s a moderately aged bourbon with a secondary cask finish in newly charred and toasted oak–is that not more or less what other bourbons are from the company as well? What makes this one distinct?

As it turns out, Buzzard’s Roost Bottled in Bond is actually the company’s first foray into wheated bourbon rather than traditional rye bourbon recipes, which makes it a bit curious in my opinion that they didn’t choose to lean into that fact more prominently on the name or label. After all, the fixation on wheated bourbon is still pretty strong in the American whiskey world, owing to Pappy Van Winkle mania and then subsequent association of all wheated bourbon brands with Pappy. There’s a big market of whiskey drinkers out there who hunt down wheated bourbon releases specifically. So why “Bottled in Bond” for this specific release, rather than “wheated bourbon”? Who knows, but this is a wheater indeed–and not a barely wheated one, either. The mash bill of 51% corn, 45% wheat and 4% malted barley puts this about as close to “wheat whiskey” as you can get while still remaining bourbon. It also makes us wonder about the source of this particular, 5-year-old distillate–none of the old-school Kentucky distillers produce a wheated bourbon with such a large amount of wheat in it. That fact would seemingly point at one of the younger generation of Kentucky distillers as the source of this spirit, though it’s obviously evolved since its initial aging thanks to the signature Buzzard’s Roost secondary maturation.

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Regardless, this is a moderately aged (5 years) wheated bourbon, bottled at the typical 100 proof for the bottled in bond designation, and finished in newly toasted and charred barrels by Buzzard’s Roost. So with that said, let’s get right into tasting it.

On the nose, this is nice and fruity, redolent in cooked red fruit syrup and also some dried fruit impressions, with sweet maple and then a lot of the toasted oak spice that I tend to associate with almost all of the brand’s releases. The oak is warm and gentle here, intertwining itself with cinnamon brown sugar and candied ginger, in an almost French oak-style toast/spice profile. Through it all, there’s a subtle element of toasted wheat bread that hints a little bit at the different mash bill involved.

On the palate, the sweet and toasty spices take center stage once again. I’m getting cinnamon sugar, ginger and brown sugar cookies, along with vanilla cream, clove and nutmeg–but also a sweet spice evocative of cola. There’s some vinous red fruitiness running through this as well, almost winey in nature. The flip side of the oak influence and secondary barrel maturation is that the wood has pulled some moderately significant tannin here, turning each sip to the dryer side as those oak spice notes linger on the palate–a very sort of “dry spice” type sensation, where the wood has perhaps picked up a bit of bitterness. This tempers the overall impression of sweetness, leaving it a bit more mild than the nose initially suggests. Ethanol is modest, and where it should be for the proof.

All in all, this strikes me as a solid expression that fits the aforementioned company house style, though it’s perhaps a bit more tannic than some of the others. It’s more purely flavorful than something like the flagship Buzzard’s Roost American Whiskey, but it can’t quite match the greater degree of complexity and balance present in the company’s single barrel or barrel strength bourbon expressions. If you’re a particular fan of toasted oak finishes or wheated bourbons, this is a bottle you’ll likely find intriguing.

Distillery: Buzzard’s Roost
City: Louisville, KY
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
ABV: 50% (100 proof)
Availability: 750 ml bottles, $72 MSRP

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.

Buzzard’s Roost Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon Review