Blue Note Honey Cask Bourbon

By Richard Thomas

Rating:

Blue Note is a brand from B.R. Distilling Company in Memphis, Tennessee, which was founded in 2014 and the oldest whiskey company currently operating in that city. Their whiskey is distilled under contract with Bardstown Bourbon Company and then shipped to their Memphis facility for maturation. B.R. Distilling is also the home of Riverset Rye. They call particular attention to their local climate, at the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi. That is a good thing for any distillery to do, since climate is a major factor in how maturation plays out. In their case, they note how they may be in sweltering West Tennessee, very close to the Mississippi River, but their location is outside the “heat island” of the city proper. So, they get the humidity for sure, but not the kind of baking temperatures that cling to all that concrete and asphalt 24 hours a day during the summer months.

Their standard bearing release is Blue Note Juke Joint Bourbon (very appropriately named for Memphis and that part of the Mississippi River country), but this is a limited release new to 2024. It may or may not return in 2025. The premise is to take some barrels previously used to mature other whiskeys, use them to barrel age honey for a few months, and then bring those “honey barrels” back to finish bourbon. The minimum age is three years. That bourbon in question was made with a 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley mash bill, fairly benchmark stuff. It was bottled at a cask strength of 57.85% ABV.

The Bourbon
The pour on this youthful, honey-finished whiskey came out coppered, and I found the honeyed finish took the whiskey a good couple of steps away from benchmark bourbon territory just as soon as I began nosing it. What came on first was a current of pollen and nuts, and only behind that came some vanilla. The woody tinge was cedar, rather than oak.

The flavor jinked back into more familiar territory. The cedar, which is not untypical (Wild Turkey sometimes has cedar notes) is now joined by a stronger vanilla, coupled to some candy corn. The honey slips very much into the background, but not off the stage. The finish has a light, honeyed touch to it.

As a general sipper’s bourbon, I think the grade I gave Blue Note Honey Cask is solid. However, I think the bottle truly shines as a dessert bourbon, something to trot out as a digestiv. There it’s sweetness, honeyed character and strong alcohol level shine, and for that purpose raise the grade to a B+.

The Price
Expect to pay $65 for this bottle.