Last year at the Buffalo Trace Whiskey Weekend for Friends of the Trace, we attended an experimental whiskey tasting.

We tried a wheat whiskey, an Amaranth whiskey, and an Organic Six Grain Bourbon. While I personally voted for the wheat whiskey, the overwhelming majority of those in attendance picked Six Grain. At a cocktail party that evening, Mark Brown, the CEO announced the results and stated they would release it as part of the experimental collection, because that’s how things happen around there. So I had a fellow Friend of the Trace send me a bottle when he found some. I have had the bottle for a few months and decided to open it and revisit it.

The label is hard to photograph, but it is a bourbon so it is 50% corn. The other grains used in the mashbill are buckwheat, brown rice, sorghum (milo?), wheat and rye. It is the standard Buffalo Trace 90 Proof and was chill filtered.

Color is a lighter amber. Nose is incredibly complex; a Glencairn glass does this whiskey a lot more justice than the cough syrup shot glass we had at the tasting. Legs are decent and oily. The palate is incredibly complex as well. Spice notes, earthiness, heather, perfume, honeysuckle, potpourri. It tastes sort of like how a meadow smells. While I am a cask strength junkie I am glad they proofed this down; alcohol burn might have drowned out a lot of the subtle flavors. The finish is extremely spicy.

Now, this is not a great representation of the traditional bourbon profile. At all. But it’s definitely interesting, and really reflects what can be done with bourbon. This bourbon represents a step to bourbon becoming as diverse as scotch as to differing flavor profiles, and I personally think that is great.