This bottle surprised us. That might be an understatement. This bottle kind of knocked our socks off. Who knew that such a delicious bourbon would come from the banks of the Baraboo River in Wisconsin? Today we want to introduce you to the Driftless Glen Straight Bourbon Whiskey - Small Batch #73. This is a bourbon like nothing we have ever tasted. After our tasting and note-writing, we did some investigating and we truly believe that the unique wand-filtered water along with a natural concentration of limestone set a solid and distinctive base to this spirit.
Driftless Glen sources all of their grains from the Midwest and they use a 44 foot column still and a pot still to produce truly unique, mellow flavors. The flavor extraction they get from both their distillation and aging process are impressive and welcoming.
If you're a lower proof (sub 100) drinker, this bottle checks off all of the boxes: Aromas, flavor profile, soft finish, color. We tasted this neat in a Glencairn glass immediately after we popped the cork, so there was no "air time" to speak of here initially. This bottle has a gorgeous walnut color. Initial aromas of maple, caramel and a soft minerality introduce themselves. A bit of a swirl and a second sniff presented some wonderful citrus aromas and Jeff likened these to Smarties candy. (FYI, Smarties is his favorite non-chocolate candy).
The first sip brought over the citrus, caramel and hard candy flavors. This soft and memorable finish showed off some maple and brighter fruit flavors with a touch of spice. There was absolutely no burn to this bottle and it is one that we suspect would be equally enjoyable with a single small ice cube. This was small batch #73 and I wish we could have tasted some previous batches to see if the flavors were similar to this bottle. I'm sure they were all delicious. This bottle is a huge winner in our book and we highly recommend you check out Driftless Glen. If we get an opportunity to share more selections from DG, you'll see them here.
Check out our YouTube video on this bottle!
Distillery: Driftless Glen
Suggested retail price: $49.95
Drink The Bottles score: 92/100
