Redwood Empire Pipe Dream Cask Strength Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B

When it comes to California’s Redwood Empire, I’m most familiar with their in-house, bonded whiskeys. Before that, however, both I and past contributor Padre John took a crack at their American Whiskey. That expression followed the model of blending stocks of sourced, mature or old whiskey with youthful, in-house make. Some four years later, I’m circling around to another example of the latter model from Redwood Empire, Pipe Dream.

This whiskey’s namesake is the 14th tallest tree standing alive today, standing more than 367 feet tall and over 1,100 years old. As stated, this is a mix of the distillery’s own bourbon with sourced stock. No notes were available as I wrote this on what the sourcing and ages therein was, with even the distillery’s own website referring back to the 2021 release. The 2022 version differs markedly from the 2021 release, however, as can be seen with its amalgamated four-grain mash bill: 74% corn, 20% rye, 4.5% malted barley and 1.5% wheat. Despite the variance in sourcing, the age of the stock remains in the four to twelve year range. This batching came out at 58.4% ABV.

The Bourbon
In my glass, the bourbon took on a copper-leaning, light amber coloring. That was rather surprising, given that it’s a pretty strong whiskey. At the same time, that lighter coloring pointed right to one of the best aspects of this Pipe Dream: it doesn’t require any water, despite pushing hard on 120 proof. The sniffing and sipping are fairly mellow as is, so enjoy.

The scent certainly doesn’t offer a hint of the potency. It’s softened and heathery, atop a base of butterscotch and dried cherries. The palate follows through on that to a large extent, offering up a sweetness that is more honey than brown sugar, coupled to the currents of butterscotch and dried cherry. A certain nuttiness rises up on the back end, which carries over into a mild woodiness on the finish.

The Price
This item is already sold out with the distillery, but one might still find it on liquor store shelves. With online retailers, it’s fetching between $80 and (shamefully) $200.