Old Pogue Master’s Select Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: A-

Old Pogue Master’s Select
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

Old Pogue was a trailblazer in many ways. The Pogue family is one of those Kentucky clans that had been in the bourbon business before Prohibition, but not after, and returned to it in modern times. The key distinction is the Pogues got back into bourbon before the Whiskey Boom took off. They enjoy the added distinction of having eventually returned to the ancestral seat of Maysville, Kentucky, a move that both brought bourbon back to what was a key hub in the early bourbon trade while at the same time becoming the first company to open the third corner of Kentucky’s bourbon triangle. I say that because before Old Pogue returned to Maysville, there was no bourbon-making in Northern Kentucky; they were the first stone laid in what is now the B Line, Northern Kentucky’s bourbon travel trail.

The family story properly began with the purchase of the Old Time Distillery of Maysville by H.E. Pogue in 1876, where Pogue was already employed as a distiller. It proved a successful, but especially tragic and unlucky, business for the Pogue men: both H.E. Pogue and his son would be killed in industrial accidents. H.E. Pogue III returned from his service in the US Navy during World War One to find his father recently killed, and just the next year the 18th Amendment and Prohibition would be ratified. The Pogues were out of the whiskey business altogether by 1926, returning after 1933 only as a consultant. The original Old Pogue Distillery fell into the hands of the Schenley Industries, and burned down in 1973.

A later generation of Pogues began considering reentering the old family business in the 1990s, after passing around some rediscovered memorabilia and vintage bottles of bourbon. They began by producing their bourbon under contract (Heaven Hill is the consensus guess) and aging it in the rickhouses owned by what is now Willett, starting in 2004. A few years later, the company reacquired the house that used to overlook the old distillery’s Ohio River-side site. Contrary to some reports you’ll see on different blogs, the new Old Pogue Distillery didn’t open there until 2012; I’m mystified at how this could be misreported, since the firing up of the new stills was widely covered at the time.

Old Pogue Master’s Select is a 9 year old bourbon, and the in-house production wasn’t theoretically available until 2021. I checked in with Master Distiller John Pogue at the end of 2021 to see if their initial production run was being used yet or slated for use in the near future, and he said no. Maybe it is in bottles now, but that isn’t what I’m reviewing here.

I’ve had this bottle of Old Pogue Master’s Select sitting on my shelf since late 2016, and it is high time I sat down with it and wrote it up. Then I can follow up on the issue of whether they’ve switched from their contract-produced stock to their in-house stock, and do a comparison.

The Bourbon
The pour has a dull bronzed quality to it, with a nose that smacks of gingerbread with a maple and caramel drizzle. Further nosing brings out an herbal element that sits astride cloves and non-descript evergreen needles (meaning are they pine or fir or cedar…?) The flavor follows on that, with the herbal-evergreen aspect coming into center stage, promoted from minor role to junior co-star. It’s still a traditional bourbon in the main, with brown sugar and vanilla are its core, but add to this thick, two-fingered pinch of fresh mint, evergreen stuff and clove. The minor role now goes to a hint of dry oak. From there, the finish brings out a current of distinctive, leathery barrel char, which fades to an earthy nougat note.

It’s a lovely bourbon, well worth the official price. If you find yourself plying the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in its Northern Kentucky corner, make a point of calling Old Pogue to see if they have any, and go get it if they do.

The Price
If you drive to the distillery and buy a bottle (when it is available there), you will pay the official price of $110 a bottle. If you pick up a bottle anywhere else, expect a mark-up. Sometimes that mark-up will be double the official price.