Prodigal Son

Original Artwork by Gabe Weis
Distilled by MGP – Lawrenceburg, IN

TASTING NOTES

As I sit here writing these tasting notes I’m in awe of how much this whiskey keeps changing. I originally fell in love with this cask almost two years ago. It was great then, but now it is on a whole new level! This cask has also racked up quite a few frequent flier miles before arriving at its final destination in Ukiah, California to be bottled. I’d like to think that the extra time spent shaking around in the back of a hot semi-trailer traveling back and forth across the US helped bring a little extra character to the final spirit. Regardless, for just 6 years 8 months old, it's got the vocabulary of a literary Master’s student. It’s worth noting that some of the most loved and highly regarded bourbons like Old Weller Antique, BiB Dusties, and Old Taylors from the 60s/70s/80s were all 4-7 year old whiskies. No matter what age, good whiskey is good whiskey.

This cask was bottled by hand on July 9, 2021, with a tiny hose that I gravity fed out of the racked barrel. Just like how you’d siphon gas out the tank. This means that the first bottle filled was coming from a different place in the barrel than the last. There will be more bottle variation than your standard ‘single-barrel’, which is typically dumped, filtered, and tanked before bottling, thereby mixing all the whiskey to form a more consistent solution. The only filtration that happened was a simple household bar strainer, so some bottles will have specs of barrel char in them.

Notes of burnt caramel, brown sugar, and rolling tobacco dominate the initial impression in the glass, but underneath the savory surface layer is an ebullient array of fruits and floral aromas, bringing a balance of flavors that are harmonious and complex. It clocks in at a clean 120 proof, but I would have believed it if you told me that it was lower. Lots of exotic spices begin to emerge with a little time and air in the glass. Kola nuts, root beer, and sassafras, in particular, come to mind, before tilting back into an orangey, cream soda-like sweetness bringing it into balance. I like this a lot, and I can’t wait to see how it evolves after spending some more time in the glass. The cask yielded just 188 bottles, 20 of which will be sold in a limited edition NFT package on OpenSea.

Read the complete story of the Prodigal Son.