Smoke Wagon Unfiltered Bourbon 750ml

We took the same vintage blending philosophy that we used to create Small Batch, except this time the goal was to create high proof bourbon that tasted its best neat. Uncut is so rich and sweet with an unbelievably thick mouth feel, the heat and rye spice finish are a welcome addition. It's like milk with cookies! Blending vintages of our high rye mash bill to achieve this flavor profile at 115-116 plus proof was a very rewarding challenge for us. There is a delicate balance between creamy mouthfeel, tannins and sugars that comes into play that makes the end result magical. Older vintages have more evaporation which means a higher concentration of fats and sugars per ounce which gives them that nice creamy mouthfeel as well as caramel and honey goodness. But they also have more tannins because alcohol has been in contact with the wood for longer. A lot of what is perceived as alcohol burn is actually a harshness due to tannins. This can counterbalance the benefit gained by a creamy mouthfeel insulating your pallet from alcohol heat. So there needs to be enough of the significant older bourbon for the oak flavors and mouthfeel, but also some younger ones to cut back on the tannins and bring in some delicate fruit and caramel flavors. The youngest used is 4 year which is where all the rye spice comes from. Calling out flavors for Uncut is hard to do because it is truly mercurial. Here's a story to illustrate what we mean. We blended to taste and bottled a batch at the end of fall when the distillery was 72 degrees. A few months later in the winter we did a tasting with some beverage directors and mixologists when the building was 58. We told them what to expect as far as flavors and that was not what anyone experienced. They were saying they tasted cola and cherries with virtually no rye spice. Our initial thought was how did these people get their jobs, cola and cherries?!?! Upon sampling they were right! I'm sure you can guess what happened when we sampled that same bottle at room temperature again, the flavor profile changed back to what it was when we first blended it.