NOSE

The bourbon foundation is immediately apparent. Warm corn sweetness, vanilla, a little toasted oak. Then the PX arrives: darker, richer, medjool dates and dark cherry layered over the American base. It’s a genuinely interesting combination because both traditions remain identifiable. Neither has erased the other.

PALATE

Maple sweetness first, then the sherry depth. Toasted pecan, candied fruit, a warmth that builds slowly across the mid-palate. 18 months in Pedro Ximenez has added real body. This is a more substantial whisky than a standard 5 Year Old Kentucky bourbon has any right to be. The complexity is punching above the age statement.

FINISH

Long and dark. The PX influence is most obvious here. Dried fruit and warm baking spice linger well after the glass is empty. A little cinnamon at the very end.

✓

You’re a bourbon drinker who has been told you’d enjoy Scotch sherry casks, this gives you both in one bottle without having to choose

✓

You’re buying for someone who ‘drinks bourbon’ and you want to give them something they haven’t had – a Gold Medal winning Kentucky bourbon finished in a Pedro Ximenez cask, from the world’s #1 independent bottler, is that thing

✓

You’ve had too many finished whiskies where the finish is barely perceptible, 18 months in PX is not barely perceptible

POINT 1

A Gold Medal from a credible competition on a 5 Year Old bourbon is a genuine result, not a category win in a thin field, but a recognition that the overall quality is there, the 18 month PX finish did enough to earn that

POINT 2

We initially released this as a private bottling for Greg’s very own Poynton Whisky Club but after that sold out and we all loved it it made sense to bottle the rest of the cask for you good people

POINT 3

At this price you’re getting Gold Medal quality with a genuinely unusual maturation story, the PX finish adds a dimension that most straight bourbon at this age simply doesn’t have

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Neat first. The bourbon and PX combination is most interesting at room temperature where the warm sweetness expresses itself properly without chill

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Works exceptionally well as an Old Fashioned as the PX means you can reduce or eliminate the sugar entirely so 50ml, two dashes Angostura, orange peel, stir, don’t shake

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If you’re adding ice: one cube, large then let it dilute slowly as the flavour holds up well to dilution and the PX influence doesn’t disappear