Sonoma Cherrywood Smoked Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B-

Sonoma Distilling has been around since 2010, and eagle-eyed whiskey fans probably recognize their original label design, with the Golden Gate Bridge and matching “West of Kentucky” title. In 2018, they revamped their line and their image, and as it stands now their line has been reduced from three West of Kentucky bourbons to a regular bourbon and this Cherrywood Smoked Bourbon.

West of Kentucky No. 1 became the Cherrywood Smoked Bourbon. It’s made with 67% corn, 20% rye and 13% smoked malted barley. Like the standard bourbon, the minimum age is 15 months, but more than half of a given batch is two years or older. It’s bottled at 96 proof.

The Bourbon
This whiskey has a bright copper look in the glass, and coating the inside leaves drops plenty of legs. The nose comes across with caramel, cocktail cherries and a spot of leathery wood. The flavor sits squarely in traditional bourbon territory, but with a slight twist. It tastes of vanilla and brown sugar, with a touch of that cocktail cherry (much less than on the nose). That spot of leathery wood from the nose takes on an ashy, marginally astringent character once it gets on your tongue, like a charred bit of green oak. The finish is a touch smoky and short.

The interesting thing for me was tasting the regular and smoked bourbons side by side. The two have quite different mash bills, but are made by the same distillery and are roughly the same age. The cherrywood smoked barley is a real plus.

The Price
A bottle of this will cost you about $50.