Woodinville Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

Woodinville Straight Bourbon
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

In bourbon’s modern boom times, a great many lay claim to authenticity by reviving an old brand, returning to family roots or laying claim to a local tradition. Sometimes these claims are quite tenuous and cannot even be described as gimmicks, but they overlook the most authentic path of all: make good whiskey, and in time let that speak for itself.

Mind you, making whiskey isn’t cheap. The long-term capital investment required to produce a batch of merely mature bourbon is substantial, and has been described so often in so many venues that I feel no need to repeat it in a review, but wish to point to it as a reminder of why it isn’t the path most often followed. One of the few to go this route is Washington state’s Woodinville Whiskey Company.

Woodinville’s production process is certainly crafty. The grain is locally sourced, with a mash of 72% corn, 22% rye and 6% malted barley; they distill in copper pots, not hybrids; their barrel stock, all 53-gallon standard barrels, is made from staves that were air-dried for 18 months, then heavily toasted and middlingly charred; and they age in those barrels for 5 years. The bourbon coming out of that process is bottled at 90 proof.

The Bourbon
A pour from Woodinville’s boxy bottle has a bright, middle amber appearance. The nose smacks of caramel and butterscotch, with a whiff of campfire-roasted corn (in the husk, of course) and a hint of cinnamon. The flavor followed in very much that vein, albeit with a somewhat surprisingly light mouthfeel. The finish was even lighter, parting with a tiny sliver of green wood.

I found Woodinville’s bourbon to be traditional, but also distinct, and it is going down on my list of rebuttals to the critics of small distilling in America. It’s a lovely, easy drinker, and even the price point is quite reasonable.

The Price
You should pay $40 a bottle for this bourbon, and if you don’t then blame the retailer or the distributor.