My wife, who loves me so much, picked up a bottle of Bower Hill Barrel Reserve for me to try. She’s always on the lookout for something I don’t have on my bar or in my kitchen. This is not an easy task.

I am always a little skeptical of non-distiller producers until I try their whiskey. You just don’t know what’s really in that bottle. But, for $39 bucks, I can’t say this was a bad gamble just to see what was in the cool bottle.

I say bottle. It is really a decanter with a glass top and a plastic part to go in the bottle part. They spared no expense on the presentation. The whiskey is corn straw colored. Mellow fruity nose. On the palate, there is no rye spice but the familiar wheat recipe flavor from Heaven Hill, but with a peanut finish way less off putting than Larceny. More like Old Fitzgerald which I can’t get around here but tried at the Heaven Hill tasting room. Bottle says it is made and aged in Louisville. So this has to be New Bernheim wheat recipe bourbon. CORRECTION: the owner confirmed for me this is rye recipe bourbon but with a very different flavor profile.

So this is in the pretty good category of bourbon for me.

My wife says they have some cask strength of this for about $120. I told her to go ahead and buy it. New Bernheim bourbon at cask strength has the potential to be really good.

So if you have a hankering for Old Fitz but can’t get it where you are and Bower Hill is available, get it. And maybe the cask strength is like a Parker’s limited release bourbon. I can’t wait to find out.