Town Branch is a newer distillery located in Lexington, Kentucky, which is owned by Alltech, a two billion dollar agricultural congolomorate and headed by Irish Entrepreneur Pearse Lyons. Alltech also owns a sister distillery in Dublin, Ireland. I have read that the Irish distillery uses Vendome column stills from America while Town Branch uses pot stills made in the UK. I am sure he has his reasons. I hadn’t bought a bottle of their regular 90 proof release, as the internet has not had a lot of great things to say about it. But, I do trust the folks behind the New Orleans bourbon festival, and their Town Branch pick is seven years old and bottled at 107.8 proof, which I am betting is cask strength with a barrelling proof of 110. The mashbill is 72% corn, 15% malted barley, and 13% rye.

The color is a nice amber color. On the swirl is a thin film with not a lot of legs, and those that do develop are thick and very slow moving. Nose is pretty traditional bourbon – caramel, vanilla, toasted oak; some craft bitterness on the nose. On the palate, very rich vanilla overtakes the initial caramel note, and lots of oak. On the finish, the oak is prevalent with some dark fruit notes in the background.

For $45, this is a pretty good bottle of cask strength bourbon. It is not terribly complex, but the oak is really nice. If you find a store pick of this bourbon, it is worth picking up.