Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Bourbon Review (2018)

By Andrew Graham
Rating: A

Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Bourbon
(Credit: Angel’s Envy)

The 2018 Angel’s Envy Cask Strength has been in bars and liquor stores since early October, but I got an early taste of it at a launch party in Manhattan.

When it comes to Angel’s Envy Cask Strength, the limited production and scarcity is worth noting. In 2012, only 600 bottles of the cask strength were sold, and it is both regarded as a true classic and recognized as a bourbon that costs fat stacks on the secondary market. The 2018 run, obviously, produced more, but not enough to be particularly easy to find.

The Angel’s Envy 2018 Cask Strength is finished in Port casks and bottled at 62% ABV (124 proof). Generally, Angel’s Envy bourbon spends five to seven years in new American oak, then gets up to six months in those port barrels. What’s interesting is that, according to co-founder Wes Henderson, the 2018 cask strength should have markedly different qualities when compared to the lower-proof (43.3% ABV) expression, from this year or previous years.

Henderson continually sets aside barrels believed to be uniquely suited for cask strength bottling, he explained at the Manhattan launch. Eventually, they are tasted again, and about one out of every two barrels from that group gets used for something else. The rest, somewhere in the vicinity of 1 in 100 barrels, are put through an extended finishing process and become that year’s cask strength expression.

And the qualities they look for in cask-strength candidates, ostensibly, vary from year to year. “You don’t set out to do better each year,” Henderson said. “You set out to do different each year.”

I haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying the Angel’s Envy cask strength in the past, but I can say with certainty that the 2018 expression is something special.

The Bourbon
Color: The hue is golden ruby. It looks like bourbon, but a shade or two lighter than many.

Nose: Prominent banana and toasted, even burnt, spice notes dominate the nose, with some chocolate behind the considerable, aggressive heat from the alcohol.

Flavor: The high ABV dries out the mouth quickly, and notes of milk chocolate, ripe figs, and molasses reveal themselves. A few drops of water bring out a deeper chocolate flavor and make the raisin (maybe Raisinets, like what the movie theaters sell, is a good way to describe it) notes more prominent, especially compared to the regular expression, which was also available at the tasting I attended.

There is a slightly medicinal quality to the flavor of this bourbon. That’s probably the Port barrel showing through. There is a lot happening on the palate.

Finish: There is no debating the fact that this finishes hot. Personally, I love cask-strength bourbon that reminds me that I’m drinking cask-strength bourbon, so I count this as a positive. There is a type of lingering sweetness to the finish, but the prominent feature is a woody, earthy burn.

The Price
This limited-release bourbon is supposed to cost $200, although chatter at the event suggested the markup in and around New York will probably be significant.