Taking time off

Hey folks, I just wanted to let everyone know that we had a death in the family this past weekend and am taking the week off to grieve and get my mind in order. Regular posts return next week. Thank you for your understanding.

Eric

Koopers Family Barrel Reserve Rye

I’d like to thank the Texas Whiskey Festival, Koopers Whiskey, and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Bottle of Kooper Family Barrel Reserve Rye whiskey standing on a weathered wooden deck railing. The white label features a leopard illustration, with a green, leafy backyard softly blurred in the background.

Bonus post time again! We’ll probably be having these for a while as I work through a massive sample backlog. Tonight’s is another winner from the Texas Whiskey Festival, this time the winner of the Rye — Must-Try Bottles category.

Koopers Family Barrel Reserve Rye is a mixture of four- and seven-year-old rye whiskeys that are then put into used bourbon barrels for finishing. Before bottling, toasted oak staves are added to those barrels as a final step. It is bottled at barrel proof and is available on the Koopers Whiskey website for $65 per bottle.

Let’s see how it tastes.

Koopers Family Barrel Reserve Rye

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no charge for review purposes. It is available on the Kooper's Whiskey website for $65 per bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.33

Nose: Sweet berries, mint, vanilla, cedar, and oak.

Mouth: Spicy, with notes of cedar, mint, cinnamon, and vanilla sugar.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Notes of cinnamon, cedar, caramel, and mint.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face indicating that I like this one.

Thoughts: Long-time readers will know that my wife, and tasting partner, is not a fan of rye whiskey outside of a cocktail. The first words out of her mouth with this were, "Oh, I like this!" So honestly, that sums things up. This is a delicious rye. It is dangerously drinkable neat. Normally, when you get over 110 proof, you're going to want a bit of dilution, but this doesn't need it. In fact, a splash of water actually makes it less enjoyable. All in all, I have to agree with my wife. I really like this one. It’s a delicious rye and well worth the splurge if you’re in the market.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon, 2025

I’d like to thank the Texas Whiskey Festival, Garrison Brothers, and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

When you think of great bourbon, who do you think of first? The obvious answer is Kentucky, right? So much so that there are still folks out there who think that it’s the only place that bourbon can be made. But there are folks all over the country these days who are lining up to prove that other states have what it takes as well.

For example, I recently received a couple of samples through the Texas Whiskey Festival. They were promoting the winners of their “Best Texas Whiskey of 2026” competition. I ended up with samples of two of their category winners. We’ll talk about the bourbon today and then hit the rye in a bonus post on Friday, so keep an eye out for that. But before we get into the winner, let’s let the Festival speak for themselves about their contest:

The 2026 Texas Whiskey Festival brought together distilleries from across the state for a night built on discovery, conversation, and shared pours. Through a blind tasting process—removing labels, reputations, and expectations—we set out to identify the bottles that truly stand out in the glass. The goal isn’t just to name the “best,” but to create a clear guide to the must-try Texas whiskeys right now—the ones worth seeking out, sharing with friends, and revisiting long after the festival ends.

So let’s get started with the winner of the category, Bourbon — Must-Try Bottles. The 2025 edition of Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon is a monster at 146.4 proof. It has been aged for six years in the Texas heat and is for sale at the Garrison Brothers website for $249.99. If that name sounds familiar, we last discussed the 2023 edition shortly after it came out, and I enjoyed it, even if it was way too hot to drink neat. This one, being even higher proof, made me excited to take a look at the 2025 edition as well. Let’s see how this one tastes.

Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon, 2025

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided at no charge by the PR team for review purposes. As of the time of writing, it is available at the Garrison Brothers website for $249.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $16.67

Details: 73.2% ABV. Six years old.

Nose: Caramel, wintergreen, maple, and oak.

Mouth: Holy fuckballs, this is hot! If you get past the proof while still being able to taste anything, you will find notes of dried grain, leather, wintergreen, caramel, maple, and cinnamon.

Finish: Warm and long with notes of dried grain, maple, caramel, and cinnamon.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn neutral face denoting that it isn’t for me, but that others will possiblylove it.

Thoughts: I don't usually comment on the color of a bourbon I write about, but this one is gorgeous. Deep, rich mahogany color. The nose initially had a lot of ethanol notes, but they evaporated off after a few minutes. After that, you started to get sweet notes like maple and caramel, with some oak along for the ride.

The mouth? Dude. A small sip started to numb the tongue. Under the heat it is quite sweet. I wasn't expecting the dried grain notes on something this old. If you like a grain-forward bourbon, this is the one for you. Personally, I don't mind them, but don't seek them out either.

The big story on this one, though, is not the flavor but the proof. And it is as hot as you’d expect at over 140 proof. So I added a bit of water to try to tame it. Oddly, the water seemed to accentuate both the heat and the graininess. This bourbon isn't for me—I'm not a fan of overproof or grain-forward bourbons. You get over 110 proof and I start needing to dilute it too much before I can enjoy it. And if the water doesn’t help, as in this case, I tend to move on. But that is a me problem not a problem with the bourbon.

So, at the end of the day, this doesn't align with my palate but it isn't objectively bad either (as evidenced by the awards it wins), so I'm giving it a neutral rating. It is certainly worth trying a pour if you get the opportunity though at $250, a full bottle is certainly outside my price range these days.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned

I’d like to thanks the folks at Penelope Bourbon and their PR team for sending this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Bottle of Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned ready-to-pour cocktail beside a rocks glass filled with the drink over ice and garnished with fresh mint. Photographed outdoors on a wooden deck in warm afternoon sunlight.

Hello my friends! It is time for a bonus post. I was planning to do this yesterday. I always do bonus posts on Friday, but I just plum forgot.

Tonight’s subject is actually something I didn’t plan to review. It was sent along to me by mistake as I had already turned down the sample thinking that you folks might find it a bit outside the norm for the focus of the site. But when it landed on my doorstep, I figured what the heck? I mean I’m not going to force y’all to read this, you are grown adults and can make that decision on your own.

So what is it? Well, it is a premade, bottled, cocktail. You open it up and pour it over ice. And while I know that an Old Fashioned is basically the easiest cocktail to make outside of two ounces of whiskey in a glass, they put a nice spin on it by adding blackberry to the mix. But before we get into the review, let’s let the producer talk about this one since they were nice enough to go through the effort of writing the press release. And since it is Saturday and I want to get back to relaxing.

Crafted for easy enjoyment, from backyard gatherings to relaxed evenings with friends, Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned features a blend of straight bourbon and rye whiskey, orange bitters, and blackberry simple syrup for a vibrant, fruit-forward take on the classic cocktail.

So let’ss ee how this tastes.

Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail cost is $29.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.00

Details: 38% SBV

Nose: Strong blackberry with a nice sweetness.

Mouth: Thick and viscous with notes of blackberry syrup, baking spice, and a floral sweetness.

Finish: Strong blackberry

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face that denoted I like the product.

Thoughts: For the tasting notes above, I initially tasted this chilled from the fridge and undiluted as that was one of the ways the bottle mentioned serving it. But because I wanted to make the photo pretty, I also made one with a large chunk of ice and a mint garnish. When neat, I found the Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned to be way too sweet for my tastes. But take that with a grain of salt. Due to my lack of sweet tooth, I tend to use much less than the amount of sweetener that a cocktail recipe recommends. Basically I find every cocktail to be too sweet if I’m not the one making it. In this case, it almost reminded me of Grape Kool-Aid, if it were thicker and had a bit of a kick to it. Now, the pretty version over ice with a garnish was much better. The ice knocked down the sweetness and the mint sprig garnish added freshness to the nose which really enhanced the experience. Even with the added dilution, I still think it was too sweet for me but, if I went to a bar and was served something that tasted just like this, I'd be happy with it. So yeah, I like it. Now, since it is Saturday, I'm going to go enjoy the rest of this drink out on the deck.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Penelope Bourbon Cooper Series: Riviera

I’d like to thank Penelope Bourbon and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Close-up of a bottle of Penelope Riviera American Whiskey finished in rosé wine casks. The bottle features floral artwork and a pink label, photographed outdoors on a wooden deck with a softly blurred backyard in the background.

I love being proved wrong. In fact, I embrace it. Especially when it comes to opinions. The main reason for this is that I love learning. Especially things about myself. I love grinding my preconceived notions under the boot heel of truth.

Case in point, I used to think that Light Whiskey was no good. You distill it to such a high proof that there is barely any flavor left? Who wants that? Flavor is the major point of differentiation between whiskey and vodka. But then I had an aged Light Whiskey sourced from MGP that was one of the more delicious things I’d tasted that year. I used to think that blends of different styles of whiskey were somehow lesser whiskeys. But then I made an infinity bottle of 2 ounces of every whiskey I reviewed in a year. It was amazing. Rosé wine used to be my favorite style when I was young. Then I found that I much preferred fruity, crisp whites and dry, robust reds and no longer really liked the sweet rosé wines I had enjoyed previously.

Of course, there are a lot more things I learned about myself and my tastes over the years, much more important things. And each of these things replaced ones that I “knew” about myself. Ones I struggled to give up on. They were strongly held beliefs that I had a hard time coming to terms with changing. But the more I learned about things, the more I learned about myself, the happier I was. Until now, if I can learn something new that upends my worldview, I get excited. I love that. Inject that shit right into me. Make me the Captain America of self-reflection. Just super serum and strange radiation and new learning muscles and …

What were we talking about? Oh yeah, whiskey somehow…

So, yeah, that got a bit odd, but I mention those learning experiences specifically because of tonight’s whiskey. Penelope Bourbon Cooper Series: Riviera is a whiskey created by blending a straight bourbon and an eight-year-old Light Whiskey and then finishing that in rosé wine casks sourced from Spain. According to the press release, “designed with spring and summer in mind, Riviera brings a coastal-inspired, lighter take to the lineup while continuing the brand’s focus on innovative cask finishing.”

So all good. While I don’t necessarily like rosé wines, I know enough about how whiskey works to know that what I like in a barrel finish isn’t always what I would like on its own. Just like I know enough about cooking to know that while I may not want to eat an ingredient like, say, black pepper on its own, a little in my meal just hits right.

So let’s see how this one tastes. At the end of the day, that’s the most important thing to learn about any whiskey.

Penelope Bourbon Cooper Series: Riviera

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided to me at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $79.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.33

Details: 8-year-old Light Whiskey and straight bourbon finished in Spanish rosé wine casks. 47% ABV.

Nose: Floral vanilla, a little mint, red fruit, and baking spice.

Mouth: Floral, with notes of vanilla, cotton candy, cinnamon, leather, and oak.

Finish: Warm and long. Notes of cinnamon candies, vanilla, caramel, and oak.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face denoting that I like the product.

Thoughts: I'm going to level with you. When I realized that this was finished in rosé wine casks, I figured that I would not like this one. I was already trying to soften the wording I thought I’d be typing below (because I really dislike being a dick, not because I would have felt the need to lighten the “score”). But honestly, this is delightful. It is really quite good. It's got a delicate sweetness that isn't cloying. It's floral without being perfumy. Lots of baking spice without being hot. Honestly, this is just a masterful job of blending and finishing. I am very pleasantly surprised, and gladly so. I like this one.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Skeeter’s Nootkatone Flavored Whiskey, Tamworth Distilling

I’d like to thank Tamworth Distilling and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Glass with a whiskey cocktail beside a spray bottle of Tamworth Distilling Nootkatone flavored whiskey on a deck railing overlooking a sunny backyard.

As we are just coming out of Memorial Day weekend, a weekend full of dusty work in the garden, we are going a little lighter today than normal. I just didn’t have a lot of time to do the tasting, research, and writing involved in doing a full-fledged review. Plus, with noses full of dust and dirt, we couldn’t really breathe over the weekend. So we decided to wait a few days and look at a cocktail ingredient that showed up on our doorstep recently instead.

This is a fun one. And has been since the PR email landed in my inbox. See, this is another release from Tamworth Distilling. We know Tamworth from the absolutely divine 7-year-old Apple Brandy that we covered back in March. But Tamworth makes a few…less traditional spirits as well. After all, it is the home of a crab-flavored whiskey; a venison-flavored whiskey; a spruce-, plum- and roast goose-flavored whiskey; a whiskey flavored with the castor gland of a beaver; and a brandy flavored with elements of corpse flower and durian fruit. So it was with a little trepidation that I opened an email asking if I wanted to cover an, at the time, unannounced new product. I wrote back letting the PR person know that I was nervous to say yes without knowing what the product was. Once I saw the follow-up with a mosquito on the graphics, I noped right out of that. I didn’t want to even think about trying a mosquito-flavored whiskey.

But then I did what so few of us actually do these days, I read deeper than the headline and image. When I did that, I was intrigued. What they were offering was not a mosquito-flavored whiskey, but a whiskey designed to keep away mosquitos. Specifically away from your drink. The whiskey comes in a spray bottle that you spritz over the top of your cocktail to deter mosquitos from trying to take a sip and drowning in it.

So how does a whiskey keep away mosquitos? Well, that comes down to the flavoring in this one. Nootkatone is a compound derived from both the skin of a grapefruit and Alaskan yellow cedar trees. It is widely used in the food industry to flavor foods and in the fragrance industry to make perfumes and colognes. It is also responsible for some of the smell and taste of grapefruit. I get it, I can already hear you saying “so what?” Well, the other thing it has been found to do is repel and even kill ticks and other insects, including mosquitos. It has been registered with the EPA, and the info above comes from the CDC (from before the current head of the department decided to try to crater their reputation). If you want an in-depth and way too complicated description please feel free to read the following article from Current Biology.

Does it work when put in a whiskey? I was never good at chemistry. There was a reason I started studying astrophysics only to end up with an art degree. So me, I’m just going to trust that the scientists know what they’re talking about on the chemical and focus on how it tastes for the drink.

Skeeter’s Nootkatone Flavored Whiskey, Tamworth Distilling

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent to me at no charge for review purposes. It is selling on the Tamworth Distilling website for $24.99 for a 100 mL spray bottle.

Nose: Straight out of the spray bottle you get a strong hint of lemon/lime citrus and juniper-type notes.

Mouth: I should note that this wasn't necessarily intended to be consumed neat, but I felt I owed it to everyone to at least take a sip. This is filled with bitter citrus and that same juniper-type note. I'm guessing that is what nootkatone tastes and smells like.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face denoting that I like the product.

In a Cocktail (as intended): I made two identical, simple Old Fashioneds. Just rye whiskey, a bit of honey, and a dash of Angostura bitters. The control was left as is, the test got 2–3 sprays of Skeeter's over it. The Skeeter's was most notable on the nose and finish of the test cocktail. The nose seemed maltier for some reason. Like, I'm straight up smelling an earthy forest smell and some Malt-O-Meal hot cereal. It's weird, but not off-putting or anything. The mouth has added notes of the bitter citrus notes, but nothing that would be noticeable if I had garnished with an orange peel where I'd expressed the orange oils over the drink. The finish is where it was most noticeable, bringing a lingering citrus note that wasn't there in the control. All in all, if it really does work as advertised to keep the bugs out of your drink, then this is a fun thing to toss in your camping gear. So, let's see how it does for that.

Well, after one hour, neither of the cocktails had any mosquitos in it. There was some sort of beetle-type bug swimming around in the test one, but not a mosquito. I should mention that we do treat our yard for mosquitos so I really didn't expect any. Plus, the odds of a drink lasting around me for an hour are almost nil. But, hey. This is fun. It tastes pretty good. Adds a nice citrus note to your drink. And, most importantly, it's fun. I like it with whiskey, but I really can’t wait to try it with a gin cocktail. It seems like it would be a match made in heaven.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Wenzel Distillery Sherry Barrel Finished Bourbon, Batch 2

I’d like to thank Wenzel Distillery and their PR team for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Small bottle of Wenzel Distillery Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in sherry casks sitting on a deck railing with bright green trees blurred in the background.

As I am an old man, I know a lot of old songs. And as much as it pains me to realize this, the 1980s were 40 years ago. Which is an objectively long time. There was an old song by a band called Cinderella, that was popular when I was a young lad titled Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone). And we are living that in the BourbonGuy household this week. We recently got new neighbors on one side of our house. We live in a tightly packed neighborhood, but what made it lovely were all the trees in everyone’s yards. It made it easy to pretend that our houses were further apart than they really were.

Well, this week, the new neighbors to the south took down their three extremely large maples. Which sucked for us since they provided shade and, more importantly, privacy from the neighbors beyond them. It was sad and has us trying to figure out how to replace the effect. But it does provide much more sun for a garden that was shaded most of the morning, which is nice. So it’s a mixed bag for us. But they seem to like it. And the motto around here has always been that there are few objectively bad things, just things that we don’t personally like (this is why there are few “dislike” ratings on the site). How boring would it be if we all liked the same things, including whiskey, the same way? There would be no reason for experimentation or even multiple brands of whiskey. We’d all like the same thing, so that’s what would be produced.

That isn’t to say that all experiments are successful. At least not to every audience. Case in point: tonight’s bourbon. While there are people who love a sherry cask finish, I am not one of them. I don’t mind it now and then. Sometimes it even adds a touch of fruitiness to an otherwise boring bourbon. Other times it seems to overpower the bourbon entirely. Sherry fans may very well love when the latter occurs. Not being a sherry fan, I usually prefer the former.

Tonight’s bourbon is more of the sherry-forward variety. As the producer was purchasing this whiskey from another distillery that was shutting down, the liquid in the barrel spent three years in the ex-Oloroso Sherry finishing barrels instead the months that is a more typical length for a barrel-finish. That liquid became Batch 1 of Wenzel Distillery Sherry Barrel Finished Bourbon. For Batch 2, they ended up blending some of the remaining barrels from Batch 1 with other barrels that were aged longer but finished for a more normal length of time. Batch 2 is made up of 679 bottles. It is bottled at 119.1 proof and is for sale at the distillery in Covington, KY, or on the distillery website for $109.

Wenzel Distillery Sherry Barrel Finished Bourbon, Batch 2

Purchase Info: This sample was sent at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $109 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $7.27

Details: 59.55% ABV. Batch 2

Nose: Caramel, walnut, baking spice, and leather.

Mouth: Hot and dry in the mouth. Slightly astringent. Notes of toffee, leather, walnut, cinnamon, and oak.

Finish: Hot and long. Notes of toffee, nuts, vanilla sugar cookies, and nutmeg.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn neutral face that denotes that while I personally don’t care for the product, others may well love it.

Thoughts: It turns out that we are not Oloroso sherry fans in the BourbonGuy household. We’ve had some lovely bourbons with a hint of sherry finish, but this has a lot of sherry influence. Not my cup of tea, nor my wife’s. Because I wasn’t a fan of this in a Glencairn glass (I felt that the tasting glass accented the more astringent notes), I tried it how I normally drink my whiskey for pleasure: in a rocks glass with a little piece of ice. The added dilution took away the astringent notes and accented the fruitiness of the sherry finish, but it also brought out a graininess in the whiskey that had previously been obscured by the proof. Which was better, and bumped it from a dislike to a neutral rating.

Bottom line: if you love sherry, you will probably love this. But if not, you may not. However, I love the experimentation and hope more people are willing to do fun things like this. In the old days, over-aged bourbon would have been redistilled to try to “salvage” it into something that would make the producer money. Today we get people trying new things, and that is awesome.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.