Hokus Pokus has been putting together some solid barrel picks lately, and their Green River Wheated Bourbon Single Barrel Cask Strength is a worthy addition to the lineup. Green River Distillery in Owensboro, which revived Kentucky’s oldest bourbon brand after the Prohibition-era closure, has been making waves with their wheated bourbon program. The distillery’s single barrel program allows retailers to pick their own barrels from their rickhouses, and Hokus Pokus found a good one here.
This bottle comes in at a hefty 123.8 proof. The color is a deep solid amber with subtle hints of mahogany – darker than I would expect for what I suspect is around a seven-year-old wheated bourbon, give or take. On the swirl, nice thick legs form on the glass.
On the nose is a wonderfully rich bouquet of baked goods, caramel, and vanilla, with a very subtle but noticeable oak backbone that anchors everything. Despite the relative youth of this wheated bourbon, the nose shows real maturity – it doesn’t drink young at all, and that’s notable for a bourbon that hasn’t crossed the decade mark. That being said, the palate is slightly rough on the edges, and I like that.
On the palate, this bourbon delivers what wheated bourbon lovers are looking for: baked cinnamon rolls, candied baking spices, with intriguing hints of cardamom and clove. The mouthfeel is full and lush, as you would expect from a cask strength wheated bourbon.
The finish is where this bourbon really comes together. It’s reminiscent of the Pappy Van Winkle profile with a nice oak background, while the baked goods and spices hang out on the long fade. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to taste the Van Winkle or Buffalo Trace Antique Collection wheated offerings know that long, dessert-like finish, and this Green River evokes it nicely, and surprisingly so given its relatively young age.
Now, let’s be clear – William LaRue Weller remains the Platonic form of cask strength wheated bourbon, however difficult it is to obtain these days. But short of that unicorn, this Green River Hokus Pokus pick is a fantastic wheated bourbon. I’d put it ahead of Weller Full Proof and the various Maker’s Mark cask strength releases I’ve sampled. The community seems to agree that Green River’s wheated single barrels are delivering serious quality for the price point. While Larceny Barrel Proof which is generally available now has more oak on it, Green River does a good job at grabbing wheated bourbon’s subtleties without the Beam family yeast funk but a nice homage to the oak without it being over-oaked. What is certain is that Green River gets wheated bourbon and they do it extremely well, especially at cash strength.
If you see a Green River Wheated Single Barrel Cask Strength store pick at your local shop, it’s worth grabbing. At the prices these are commanding compared to the secondary market chaos surrounding the Buffalo Trace wheated lineup, it represents real value for wheated bourbon fans. It has a depth that Maker’s Mark just doesn’t touch much given how Maker’s rotates their barrels to maintain consistency. Perfection is often the enemy of the good. This wheated bourbon may not be perfect but is its really really good.