Hillrock Solera Aged Bourbon Review

By Andrew Graham

Rating: A

Hillrock Solera-Aged Bourbon
(Credit: Hillrock Estate)

My household has one rule when it comes to our whiskey shelf: the last dram of every bottle we drink goes into the same glass decanter, which will become an increasingly voluminous blend as time goes on — assuming we don’t go and drink the stuff quicker than we can add to it.

In theory, this “infinity bottle” concept, which the folks on Reddit and other online communities tend to call it, is a kitschy way to create a custom blend that is completely unique to us and that summarizes the whiskey we keep around and drink at home. In practice, I sometimes feel like a comic book villain when I’m pouring the last bit of something great into a bottle that includes stuff that really isn’t.

But there’s no turning back now. At the least, it opens up shelf space for more whiskey.

This is obviously not how Hillrock, an outstanding distillery in New York’s Hudson Valley, makes its Solera expression, but it is similar conceptually. Solera is a centuries-old method of blending sherry, and Hillrock, at the direction of the late Dave Pickerell, the famed whiskey consultant, is the first distiller to apply the method to whiskey.

In short, a sherry Solera involves a stack of casks, where the cask at the bottom is holding the oldest wine, which is the bottling stock. When an amount of it is removed from that bottom-most cask for bottling, the cask is replenished with product from the cask immediately above it. And so on and so forth, on up the stack’s tiers. The cask on top holds the newest wine.

As editor Richard Thomas has written, what the Solera method really is, for whiskey, is fractional blending. Because each tier could consist of a different type of barrel, this method would seem to lend itself to experimenting with different finishing techniques. Hillrock uses an ex-Oloroso sherry casks for the final tier that holds the bottling stock. Two ex-bourbon barrels are above it. And, so the spirit can qualify as bourbon, the top tier of the pyramid consists of new, charred American oak barrels, which are continually replaced once their stock is depleted.

The mash bill of the Hillrock Solera is 63% corn and 37% rye, and the spirit is bottled at 46.3% ABV. The distillery estimates the average age of the bourbon that comes out of its Solera system is six years. Curiously, the bottle I received referenced a Napa cabernet barrel on its label, suggesting that some bottles get another finishing in something else, perhaps once they’re done in the ex-Oloroso casks.

I won’t pretend to be able to taste exactly what the Solera method does to this whiskey. But I can say that the Hillrock Solera is a phenomenal product that got more nuanced the more time I spent with it. I’ve already scooped up another kind of Solera whiskey to compare to the Hillrock, and they’ll both go into my infinity bottle eventually, which is all kinds of meta.

The Bourbon

Color: Reddish amber.

Nose: There are muted but pleasant notes of vanilla and maple syrup on the nose, and traces of mint. Overall, there isn’t one set of dominant notes that really sticks out on the nose. But no one buys whiskey to smell it.

Flavor: The flavor profile features toffee, molasses, and red fruit prominently. There are notes of spice — clove, cinnamon, and mint — that one would expect from a high rye bourbon.

What makes this whiskey an absolute treat to drink is that the flavors are extraordinarily well-balanced. The complexity and nuance of this bourbon’s flavor increased the more time I spent with it, and I found the depth of flavor to be remarkable.

Finish: The spice flavors linger on the finish, along with chocolate-covered cherries, and a rich sherried wood essence is introduced.

The Price
The Hillrock Solera runs from $90 to $100 per 750ml bottle most places you’d find it.