Cody Road Bourbon Whiskey Review
By S.D. Peters
Rating: B
(Credit: Mississippi River Distilling)
Named for Buffalo Bill Cody, a native son of the city that the Mississippi River Distilling Co. calls home (LeClaire, Iowa), Cody Road Bourbon was the first of the company’s aged whiskeys, pre-dating its Cody Road Rye by a year. This relatively young whiskey is a good companion for a mild summer evening: you can rely on it to be there if you’re looking for consistency and comfort.
The Bourbon
Cody Road Bourbon was launched in 2011, at first in a limited run of 1 batch. Subsequent releases in 2012 (9 batches), 2013 (7 batches) and 2014 (4 batches so far), find this Bourbon further down the road. Cody Road Bourbon, like Maker’s Mark, is a wheated bourbon, with no rye grain in the mashbill. Made of 70% corn, 20% wheat, and 10% barley, the corn locally grown, it’s on the sweeter, fruitier side of bourbon’s flavor profile. The whiskey was aged for one year in 30-gallon new oak barrels, so it’s a small barrel bourbon, although not quite as small barrel as some whiskeys of this type.
Like it’s Rye brother in the Cody Road series, it comes in a wide bottle that looks nice on the shelf and shows off the whiskey’s lustrous color. It’s proof is just a little higher than the Rye’s minimum 80, however, at 86 Proof (45% ABV).
My tasting came from the Batch #1 of the 2014 series, Bottle 677 of 1,175 numbered bottles. In the bottle, Cody Road Bourbon is a deep amber that retains its hue in the glass. Vanilla and red raspberry command the nose, with lighter, grassy notes around the edges. It’s light and airy, like a spring breeze.
Cody Road Bourbon plays it straight on flavor. The raspberry leads, with a wash of grain and grass that goes down light and smooth, returning the vanilla and adding a stick of bubblegum in a moderate finish.
The Price
You may need to travel a good stretch of road to find a bottle of Cody Road Bourbon, particularly if you live on the West Coast, Northeast, or Mid-Atlantic regions — or anywhere outside the U.S — but it looks as if each annual series will put expand this on the road to a distributor near you. The average price for 750 ml. is $30-33.
Awards
Cody Road Bourbon has won the Silver Medal in the 2013 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
On the website it says this bourbon is now aged two years instead of one. Most review sites talk badly of this whiskey but they are all for the one year age statement. I wonder how much that extra year makes a difference. If you guys get the chance to review it again that would be appreciated.