Proof: 120 proof Bottled : 2/13/25 Total Batch: 10 barrels Tasting Notes: Perhaps the most refined nose of any K Luke bourbon batch I’ve had to date. I’ve drawn similarities to Four Roses before but you definitely get them here - baked apple, fresh cherry and raspberry turnover, orange oil, peach iced tea, fresh vanilla beans and soft caramel icing on spongey carrot cake. There’s a gentle yet perfumed oak mixing with a fresh new leather aroma that grows more prominent in the background the longer it rests. The key to this blend is nuance. While some blends have leaned heavier on the spice or oak or fruitiness, this blend keeps all those things perfectly in check. It begins creamy, pulling in allspice and pepper initially but quickly sweetened with a rounded vanilla custard and caramello sweetness, not all unlike recent 99/1 bourbons. Before growing too sweet, the sugars develop a fruit forward juiciness, more melon than red fruit but definitely a medley of mixed fruits from ripe to dried. This blend doesn’t highlight deeper age as much as some in the past, but the age most noticeably comes through in a well-charred finish. This also means it trades in some of the heavier nuttiness and darker leaning fruit notes more noticeable in past blends for, again, a more nuanced and well/rounded pour with a pleasantly sweet trailing. Rich, custardy, and harmonious solid-aged pour that doesn’t taste it’s 120 proof at all. Awards: Barrel Strength Bourbon 2024 Awards San Francisco World Spirits Competition - Double Gold, 95 Points SIP Awards - Gold, Consumers’ Choice ASCOT Awards – Platinum and Gold John Barleycorn Awards - Double Gold and Gold New York World Wine & Spirits - Double Gold Fred Minnick #53 American Whiskey of 2024 UPROXX #56 Bourbon of 2024 About K.Luke Whiskey: K.LUKE Whiskey Company small batch blends are created by sourcing from several different distilleries in Kentucky and Indiana with different mash bills up to 36% rye and a variety of ages. This allows the focus to be on building multilayered and exciting blends instead of the individual components used to create each blend. Jonathan creates several blends based off his notes and ratings of their barrel inventory, then all blends are run through several rounds of blind tastings with blends being adjusted one barrel at a time by taste (Jonathan and Jennifer do all the blind tastings) until a favorite is decided for bottling. This is The Spirit Of Blending. K.LUKE Whiskey Company owner and master blender Jonathan Maisano made his first single barrel trip to Kentucky in the summer of 2014. Since then, he has tasted over 1,600 barrels and selected more than 400 to be deemed as Maisano Hand Select Single Barrels for retail. Jonathan is also a first level certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. He uses this extensive sensory training when evaluating aroma and flavor profiles in whiskey barrels as there are many similar traits in both wine and whiskey when searching for nuances.
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