Laws Whiskey House Cognac-Finished Bourbon Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: B+

Cask finishes figure highly in the annual limited edition game, but enthusiasts usually think only of the major and mid-sized distilleries. However, craft distillers do regular, annual releases too, and some of them are merit more attention than they get. A fine example of that is Laws Whiskey House Cognac-Finished Bourbon. The maturation process behind this one is complicated, so sit down and prepare for a story. Late last year saw the inaugural release of a new series from the Colorado distiller, one based on cognac-finishing and the solera system.

What goes into these bottles starts as the standard Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon (aged two years or slightly longer; mash of 60% corn, 20% heirloom wheat, 10% heirloom rye, 10% heirloom malted barley). This bourbon is then moved over to 205L and 400L ex-cognac casks for a round of finishing. Then comes the third step: dumping those casks into a venerable, French oak foeder. That is the basis of the solera system used in this expression. After a spell of marriage in the foeder, the annual batch of the Cognac-Finished Bourbon is drawn out of the foeder. The big vat is then filled topped up again with more bourbon from Step 2. At the end of this process, the whiskey in question is approximately four years old.

The Bourbon
A pour of this bourbon takes on a coppered, light amber look in the glass. The scent coming off that glass is of stewed apples with vanilla and a tannic current akin to Earl Grey. The flavor follows up on that very closely, delivering a warm, sticky caramel apple rolled in raisins and on a toasted stick of oak. That rolls into a finish that is a touch woody and a touch ashy.

The Price
The production run on this bourbon is 2,200 bottles, fetching $79.99.