Frey Ranch Farm Strength Uncut Bourbon Review

Over years of tasting spirits, I’ve come to believe that one of the best things you can say about a smaller, independent craft distillery is that it has its own unique niche or flavor profile. Suffice to say, with hundreds of small distilleries in the country in 2023, many of them are making products such as whiskey that, although palatable, taste rather similar to one another. Finding a true identity that sets you apart from others? That’s the harder part of the business, but it’s one area where Nevada’s Frey Ranch excels. Their grain-to-glass whiskeys (bourbon and rye) have a true sense of place, and just the right combination of familiarity and exoticness.

Frey Ranch Distillery has actually been in operation since 2006, but it’s really been in the last few years that they’ve come into their own and achieved a lot more national recognition for their whiskey program as many of their products reached a moderate level of maturity. The 1,500 acre farm located just east of the Sierra Nevada mountains grows all the various grains for Frey Ranch’s program–all the more impressive give that the distillery’s house bourbon style is a four-grain bourbon that utilizes Dent Corn (66.6%) winter wheat (10%), winter rye (11.4%) and two row barley (12%). All of that is grown, harvested, milled and distilled on site by co-founder Colby Frey. You can’t ask for more of a genuine expression of terroir than that, and this definitely stood out to me when I sampled several Frey Ranch rye whiskeys last year.

The company’s typical flagship bourbon weighs in at a mid-strength 45% ABV (90 proof), but today we’re tasting the newly released “Farm Strength” Bourbon, which has to rank among the best euphemisms for “cask strength” or “barrel proof” that I’ve yet come across. This one comes across at a much more advanced 62.15% (124.3 proof), aged for “an average of five years” like the flagship bourbon. So with that said, let’s get to tasting and see how the bump in proof affects this one.

On the nose, Frey Ranch Farm Strength Uncut Bourbon balances itself neatly between impressions of sweetness, grain and more earthy and herbal tones. Up front there’s caramel and clove-like spice, with an underlying, slightly musty/earthy graininess and suggestion of some of the biscuity/bready quality possibly derived from the wheat or malted barley. At the same time, I’m also getting significant rye with more of a floral bent to it, along with brighter mint. One thing that isn’t particularly assertive is ethanol, which is surprising for the advanced proof and lack of a big age statement.

On the palate, most of these same impressions hold true–I’m getting plenty of caramel, honey and mint, combined with significant rye spice. The clove is joined by a little more cinnamon, but the star of the show is a complex sort of herbaceousness from the rye and maybe from the wheat as well–it’s floral and maybe a little bit resinous, but doesn’t lose track of its moderate residual sweetness. Over time, things turn more savory with pronounced tobacco notes, balanced by sweet herbaceousness. To me, this speaks to the farm terroir and the unique grains being grown on site, and I find this profile exotic enough that it excites my palate after tasting so many other whiskeys on a regular basis without any genuinely unique x-factors. Also quite impressive here is the integration of all that alcohol–for 124.3 proof, this drinks pretty shockingly easily, being one of the more delicate cask strength bourbons I’ve come across in recent memory. That’s another nice quality to have for a producer that is still (relatively) on the younger side for this industry.

All in all, Frey Ranch’s Farm Strength Uncut Bourbon manages to stand out and present a distinct aesthetic for itself, and that is a major part of building a following in the whiskey world these days. Their concise focus and execution have built the company into one of the country’s best small distilleries.

Distillery: Frey Ranch Distilling
City: Fallon, NV
Style: Straight bourbon whiskey
ABV: 62.15% (124.3 proof)
Availability: 750 ml bottles, $80 MSRP

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