Hidden Barn Kentucky Straight Bourbon Small Batch “Cherry Picker” Review

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The story of Hidden Barn begins not with a bottle, but a woman. She didn’t start the Hidden Barn brand. She doesn’t distill the whiskey. She’s not even a member of the Neeley family. But without her, this brand would probably be a relative unknown amongst the enthusiast community to this day. Who am I talking about?

Jackie Zykan is the best thing that could have happened to the Neeley family

In 2022, Jackie Zykan – the former face and palate of Old Forester – walked away from one of the most coveted jobs in bourbon as a Master Taster at Old Forester. In doing so, she stepped off the stage of a legacy brand that dates back to 1870 and into the world of craft whiskey. Many wondered which big heritage distillery she would go to next. It turns out that she decided to go small by finding a home in Sparta, Kentucky – home of the Neeley Family Distillery -and the wide-open possibilities that presented.

Together with Royce Neeley, an eleventh-generation distiller and his partners Nate Winegar and Matt Dankner, Jackie launched Hidden Barn (she was also apparently a co-owner). The name evokes Prohibition-era secrecy, referencing barns once blackened with char and smoke to disguise the illegal stills within. But Hidden Barn doesn’t hide much these days. The brand openly shows and tells its whiskeymaking process of open fermentation in cypress tanks, wild yeast harvested by hand, pot distillation, low barrel-entry proofs and extremely minimal filtering.

For years, I gleefully consumed any and all podcasts or interview with Jackie in it. She knew her stuff, was a great educator and was gifted in the art of gab. I loved that she was at Old Forester and stripped away its many layers of secrecy throughout the years. That distillery needed someone to pull back the curtain and make us all more curious about it – and that’s what she did.

I have to wonder if her brash takes and sharp wit didn’t prematurely end her time at OF or if she wanted to be challenged more. That’s what made it odd to me to see that she was going to join a craft distillery. I love the spunk that many craft distilleries have with their product, but I’d argue that more than half of them produce below-average whiskies. And while I’m not coming from a bad place with that comment, the fact so many are going bankrupt is furthering my opinion.

To step back from Jackie for a minute, the Neeley operation is one that I’m still not entirely familiar with. I know they use a pot still and have low barrel entry proofs, but I’m not up-to-date on their mash bills or how they age them (I think in a barn, haha). I have read that most releases are a blend of just 4 to 5 year old barrels which means that they don’t have much for the hardcore enthusiasts to embrace just yet.

But with Jackie steering the ship on what the customer will taste, I think a lot of us were duped into thinking that these products were going to be up to the standards of those she helped create at Old Forester. This is what brings me front and center with this bottle today. Thanks to my good friends Jon and Dawn, they gave me my first taste from a bottle they purchased. The store they got it from shall remain anonymous (for now), but let’s just say it was from a trusted palate in the local Indianapolis whiskey scene. I’ll tell you their experience at the end of this review. But for now, let’s get down to tasting! I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The opening notes reek of youthful, craft whiskey that still has a lot of “green-ness” left to be aged out. Young saplings intersect with wet cardboard to create the sensation that this wasn’t ready to come out of the barrel just yet. Loads of cinnamon stick pair with cocoa powder but neither add delicate spice or sensations of a sweet treat. There’s the telltale sign of raw dough that I usually get with craft spirits and weak tea with some honey. Overall, there’s not a lot in here that I find particularly enjoyable

Palate: For a batch that wears the name “Cherry Picker,” there’s not a whole lot of cherry flavors within. I can taste a little bit, but it comes off as cherry cough syrup. The palate is hotter than I was expecting and there are lots of youthful notes that my tongue does not enjoy. Eucalyptus, artificial vanilla and more cardboard bring this down many pegs. Other flavors include pine sap, lemon rink, dry gingerbread cookies and corn flakes. Spices are just as harsh as the ones on the nose with clove and red pepper flakes being the most noticeable. At least it has an oily texture going for it – rare positive in this review.

Finish: A lingering finish that is moderate-to-long even though I don’t want it to be. Cinnamon chewing gum, mint, clove and poorly made coffee cake. The youthful notes still swarm around like mosquitos and include more cardboard, table syrup, peppercorns and chili powder. Nothing is cohesive in the end.

Score: 4.4/10

Hidden Barn is a young distillery that seems like it needs to revamp their processes. This bottle was purchased a couple years ago and is likely (hopefully) the result of their first generation of distillate. I say hopefully because many distillers make significant fundamental changes around 4 years after their first barrels are filled. This is because nobody really gets these things right and change is how you fix it. I can only hope this is the case with this brand.

But after my first experience, I can’t, in good faith, recommend that anyone use their hard-earned money to buy from this brand yet. I am not alone on this because many of my friends (including the one that shared this bottle with me) feel the same way. It’s amazing to see how many awards they’ve won, but I just have to remind myself that most spirits competitions are either pay-to-play or have wild varieties of judges.

I think we were all kind of hoping that Jackie was the key to turning the brand into something more. And while I have no doubt she tried as hard as she could, the underlying whiskey needs to be torn down to the studs and possibly have a new foundation poured. It also might not be a good sign that Jackie has left the brand as of June this year.

Final Thoughts

If Hidden Barn started around $40 when it came out, I might’ve been more inclined to buy my own bottle and review this sooner. But it was around $60 and I just couldn’t justify it. It took this long for somebody in my friend group to come forward and admit they had purchased one and wanted to share it. In whiskey groups, this is the telltale sign that a whiskey is not good. It was passed around specifically as an example of “I made a bad purchase guys, you gotta try it to see what I mean.”

Can Hidden Barn save their legacy and can Jackie resuscitate hers? Time will tell.