If there’s one thing that there’s always more room for in the bourbon market, it’s affordable, midshelf whiskey brands. In an era of runaway price gouging, hype chasing and premiumization, those moderately aged $20-40 bottles of yore have become an increasingly endangered species. Sure, there are still the old reliable workhorse brands of the bigger distilleries on the shelf, but it’s become especially rare to see NEW brands released in this price range from younger and more nimble craft distilleries. Instead, these distilleries have often fallen back on pitching their whiskey as a more premium product, in order to reflect the greater costs inherent to a small company that can’t really take advantage of economies of scale. The result is a lot of $50 and higher bottles from young distilleries, which can be harder for a consumer to roll the dice on in comparison with old, reliable stalwarts.
That’s why it’s certainly nice to see a $35 MSRP on Green River Bourbon, just as it’s likewise nice to see a respectable 5-year age statement on the new flagship bourbon from the titular Green River Distilling Co. A whiskey with these kinds of specs, at this price point, would make sense from one of the bigger players in the industry, such as Heaven Hill. To get it from a smaller operation like this one, on the other hand, is pretty notable and refreshing.
Not that Green River Distilling Co. is a brand new name. This is a revived historic brand of Owensboro, Kentucky, operating in the formerly crumbling facility on the banks of the Ohio River that holds the designation of DSP-10. That means that this site was just the tenth location in the state of Kentucky to receive a distilling license, which is quite a feather in their cap. The facility was purchased by South Carolina-based Terressentia in 2016, who renovated it and brought it back to its glory as an operating distillery. The newly christened company was known as the O.Z. Tyler Distillery and specialized in contract distilling for others while they aged their own house bourbon. In 2020, the name of the company changed to Green River Distilling Co. as they eyed the launch of this particular product, produced by eighth generation master distiller Jacob Call. Now it’s here, and Green River Distilling Co. is ready to make a name for itself with its own house spirits.
As for the full product specs, they are as follows: This is a high-rye bourbon, with a mashbill of 70% corn, 21% rye and 9% malted barley. It has an age statement somewhere a smidge over five years, and is bottled at a respectable 45% ABV (90 proof) for the aforementioned MSRP of $35. The target demographic seems obvious: This is pitched as a mainline, “every day” bourbon, designed to be versatile for neat drinking, cocktails and mixed drinks. So let’s get to tasting and see how they did.