Bardstown Bourbon Company Small Batch Stave Finish Bourbon Review

On a recent trip to Kentucky with the Neat Drinkers Association, we stopped in at Bardstown Bourbon Company’s Gift Shop and Tasting Room located on Whiskey Row in Louisville. While we were looking over the list of pours they had to offer, the bartender told us that we should try one of their newest offerings – a stave-finished small batch bourbon. The price was reasonable enough, so we figured “why not?”

Bardstown Bourbon Company Small Batch Stave Finish Bourbon

At the time of this writing, there really isn’t much out there in terms of information on what this product is, so let me take a swing at filling in some of the blanks. If you see some literature from Bardstown Bourbon Company for this bottle that I missed, let me know in the comments!

First off, let’s recap the three main product lines that Bardstown Bourbon Company makes. The first one is their Origin Series (which replaced the Fusion Series) and is either available in batched or single barrel form. The whiskey you can find in it ranges from their own ryed-bourbon, wheated-bourbon or rye whiskey. Second up is their Discovery Series which is a blend of sourced whiskies and their own whiskey. And finally we have their Collaboration Series which is essentially their Discovery Series finished in unique and unusual casks.

I imagine this bottle of Small Batch Stave Finished Bourbon is going to be its own thing. Outwardly, it looks like it’s most similar to the Discovery Series because it uses a blend of sourced bourbon and their own bourbon. They then go on to finish the blend with additional wooden staves. Sound familiar? It might if you’re a Maker’s Mark fan. This is essentially the entire premise of Maker’s Mark 46, Private Selection and Wood Finished Series.

Why the Stave-Finished Treatment?

Maker’s Mark takes a used barrel, removes the top three metal hoops and pries off the head. Then they insert up to 10 wooden staves (see picture below) into the barrel and seal it back up again. From there, they dump bourbon back in through the bunghole and seal it back up to rest for a set period of time. Maker’s Mark typically only does their finishing for 4 to 6 weeks.

Is that what Bardstown Bourbon Company is doing here? I would almost bet on it. I was going to try to make the connection to their hiring of Steve Nally many years ago. He was originally a Master Distiller at Maker’s Mark so it made sense that he was responsible for this idea. However, I double-checked his employment there and he left in 2003. This was 7 years before Maker’s Mark introduced their first stave-finished bourbon – Maker’s 46. But I’m sure there is some sort of connection between the two even if it’s as miniscule as Steve noticing the different trends around the industry and pushing BBCo to test them out.

The one complaint I have about the way Bardstown Bourbon Company went about this release is they didn’t tell us a whole lot about the staves used to finish this bourbon – just that they’re “oak staves.” In this day and age, skimping on the details only makes your product less interesting to enthusiasts. I would implore their marketing team to expand on the oak that was used (there are dozens of varieties) and the treatment it received (toasted, roasted, infrared cured, baked, etc).

In the end, Bardstown Bourbon Company took bourbon distillate from four different distilleries and blended them together for this new label. They are:

An 8-Year-Old 4-Grain Bourbon from Georgia (likely Ivy Mountain Distillery before they shut down)

A 5-Year-Old Ryed-Bourbon from Bardstown Bourbon Company

A 4-Year-Old Ryed-Bourbon from Green River Distillery (get used to seeing more of this since they were purchased by Bardstown Bourbon Company in 2022)

A 12-Year-Old Ryed-Bourbon from Heaven Hill

After the finishing process was complete, the bourbon was dumped and cut down to 94 proof. This low proof makes me think that it’s going to be marketed more to new bourbon drinkers rather than rabid enthusiasts. But I could be wrong about that so I’m hoping that its flavor will somehow convince me otherwise. With that being said, it’s time for a drink! I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Come on nose, give me something to write about here! The scents I’m finding are frustratingly docile and light. They also smell very young. The two most “bold” scents I find are cinnamon powder and citrus peel. Otherwise, light scents like chamomile, forest fern and powdered sugar covered donuts stick out the most. Rarely have I ever used the first two notes in a bourbon review. Do these odd notes come from a large helping of that Georgia bourbon? Maybe. There is an overall youthful element to the blend that showcases green wood and some astringency. This is not my cup of tea.

Palate: Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, I find flavors that are similarly light like the nose was. Sweetness comes from light caramel and vanilla but then the unlikeable combination of unripe fruits (strawberry and orange) becomes too much. Pear, cherry (turnover) and apricot also add their two cents, but don’t bring much by way of sweetness. I wish they would because this dram really needs. I just find too much astringency, youthful oak and clove notes to make me really enjoy this. The mouthfeel feels the opposite of “rich” as well.

Finish: A fleeting finish of unripe orange, clove and youthful oak. The finish isn’t bad per say, it’s just not anything worth savoring. It demands you take another sip to get some sort of flavor back on your tongue.

Score: 4/10

I don’t know what happened here, but wow… this was not good at all. I don’t know where exactly to point the finger at what went wrong. I’ve had Green River Bourbon and Heaven Hill Bourbon before, so I’m sure they’re not the culprits here. I’m going to blame the youthful and unappetizing flavors and scents on the unidentified Georgia bourbon that makes up almost half of this blend.

If you think about it, it would make sense that BBCo is trying to get rid of it sooner than later since it’s probably not turning into anything worthwhile. So why not dump it into blends that enthusiasts aren’t going to be chasing? At best, this bottle of Small Batch Stave Finish Bourbon is a mixer. Covering it up with other ingredients is probably the best way to dispose of it.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know when this is supposed to receive national release or just how many bottles will be made, but this is a product you should avoid. It’s simply not good. Instead, save your money and buy one of the new Discovery Releases or whatever other finished Collaboration Series they’re rolling out with next.

It’s a shame that Bardstown didn’t do a better job with this inaugural release. The concept has a lot of promise. But as it stands, this bottle should only be treated as an entry-level experiment. Avoid at all costs.