King’s County 7 Year Old Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Craft whiskey as we think of it today began in the middle 2000s, with a handful of pioneers inspiring and trailblazing the way for the first explosion of small distilling start-ups round about 2010. One such early entrant was Kings County Distillery, founded in Brooklyn 2010 as New York’s first legal and working distillery in modern times. Co-founder Colin Spoelman came from Harlan, Kentucky and was initially an urban moonshiner (his term, by the way), but it wasn’t long before he was making bourbon, American malt and other aged whiskeys.

In 2013, Kings County pot distilled a batch of bourbon, filled a barrel with (presumably some) of it, and that barrel sat aging in the steamy attic of their Brooklyn Navy Yard building for seven years. That single barrel gave about a third of its contents up to the angels, pointing back to just how stuffy that aging room could get in summertime. The distillery bottled the remainder at 107 proof, adding it to the growing ranks of craft whiskeys that could be called mature, even by the standards of the Kentucky and Tennessee majors. Best of all, this is the first installment in a new series of age-stated, single barrel releases from Kings County.

The Bourbon
As a roasted-in-the-barrel, mature bourbon, it came out with a deep red, amber appearance. I found the nose to be quite fruity, hand in glove with a traditional bourbon scent, so much so it was like having a plate of freshly made crackerjacks and caramel apples placed in front of you: the caramel is very much present, along with toasty sweet corn and fresh red apple. It’s the toasty corn aspect that serves as something like a boundary, allowing one to pull the two distinct threads apart.

A sip morphs into an apple pie, served with a caramel drizzle. The toasty corn returns later on, rising up on the back end. That corn aspect fades, leaving a sliver of oak to linger on in the finish.

These last few years have seen a growing number of small distillers introduce bonded and mature whiskeys, all the while retaining identities that are quite distinct from what the big guys in the Upper South are doing. This 7 year old bourbon is a prime example: wonderfully balanced, displaying some sophistication and a good character.

The Price
The one hang up is the price tag: $149.99 per 750 ml bottle. Even a small distiller booster like myself winces a bit upon seeing that number.