The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
By Richard Thomas
Rating: B-
Coppercraft Blend of Straight Bourbons
(Credit: Coppercraft Distillery)
Given that I often wax romantic about the place of copper and oak in a distillery, Coppercraft is an outfit with an undeniably cool name in my book. As the axiom goes, though, what’s in a name for this West Michigan craft distiller?
Coppercraft is in the midst of making the transition from sourced whiskeys to in-house whiskeys, and some choose to make that transition by blending their youngish in-house spirits with better aged, sourced spirits. The highest profile example to date is probably Whistlepig’s Farmstock. Coppercraft has such a blend too, and I’ve started my look at their line of whiskeys with it precisely because it includes some of their own whiskey. Seeing as how the distillery has been around since 2012, they certainly have some young-but-mature stock to work with.
The blend incorporates four year old Coppercraft bourbon with sourced four and ten year old bourbons. The company certainly made a good choice for who to craft that stock into something drinkable in Nancy Fraley, a whiskey and rum blender noted for her nosing prowess and who serves as Director of Research at the American Distilling Institute.
The Bourbon
Bottled at 100 proof, this whiskey has an orange-amber appearance, so it’s a good guess the four year old whiskeys predominate in the blend. Even so, it’s a viscous liquid, easily forming a beaded crown inside the glass while dropping just a few skinny legs.
My nosing gave me a faint and light whiskey. There was some rye spice, herbs and oak there, but it took some doing to find all three of those notes.
The flavor has some more body to it, sitting well inside the normal bourbon profile of caramel, a little rye spice and a little oak. It’s neither as woody or as spicy as the nose suggested. The finish, however, turned to oaky. It’s not overpoweringly oaky in the end, but decisively so nonetheless.
The Price
The recommended retail price on Coppercraft’s Blend of Straight Bourbon in $42.95.
