Kings County Blended Bourbon (750ml)

Batch #1. As this innovative distillery has done previously with Moonshine and Bottled in Bond, it now asks Whiskey drinkers to reconsider another overlooked category of spirit-blended Bourbon. In the US, blended Whiskey is most often associated with crowd-pleasing Scotch or Canadian spirits. Here—to delicious effect—Kings County utilises quality organic ingredients, careful distilling, and creative blending to create an analogy to these reliable, if unexciting, spirits.

Composed entirely of in-house, pot-distilled straight Bourbon (two-thirds), with corn, rye and malt Whiskeys, and aged between two and four years, the blend makes for a bright, complex and approachable multi-occasion spirit for neat sipping or mixing. Founder Colin Spoleman describes this new label as a “superior, all-purpose spirit”, something a bit more versatile than the other Whiskeys in the line-up, specifically in that it can be used for mixing in cocktails. In the interest of providing the highest level of transparency, the distillery lists the contributing percentages of each spirit type, along with their respective age and barrel format on each bottle.

While blended Bourbon is most often stretched with neutral spirit, Kings County’s riff is more of a reflection of the art of what the blenders can do with the distillery’s full breadth of mature inventory. “This isn’t the kind of Blended Bourbon our parents might have drunk,” smiles distiller Colin Spoelman. Smoothness is joined by flavours of honey and caramel, citrus-tinged vanilla and satisfying rye spiciness. Clad in a new blue label—which differentiates the spirit from Kings County’s established Bourbon, Rye, and Single Malt Whiskeys—it’s a delicious and versatile Whiskey, and one that is set to reinvigorate the US blended category.