For me, summer trips usually means spending some time in southwest Michigan, specifically New Buffalo. (As an Ohio State guy, I usually hate all things “that state up north” — but as a Chicagoan, I have to admit that driving for an hour or so to get out of the city and enjoy a more laid-back side of Lake Michigan is pretty enjoyable.) And when I’m up there, nothing beats relaxing by a fire with a good bottle of whiskey. So this past summer, I grabbed a new bottle from one of my favorite distillers, Bardstown, to see how their Origin Series line compares to their other lines.

History

Peter Loftin was a businessman who got his start in the telecommunications business, founding his first company in 1983 at the age of just 25 and growing it into a multi million dollar success. In the following years, he became a serial entrepreneur, stepping into the spirits industry in 2016 when he decided to found the Bardstown Bourbon Company to capitalize on bourbon’s explosion in popularity and provide a high-end source of spirits for brands who might not want to go to the trouble of building their own distillery.

The company was a huge success, and provides the spirit for brands such as Jefferson’s, High West, Belle Meade, and others. They’ve recently bottled their first six-year whiskey made entirely under their own brand, which is the Origin Series.

Bardstown is very transparent that most of their current product was distilled by someone else, and they place a lot of emphasis on their blending as the differentiator that sets them apart. They have various “series” of bourbon blends including their Fusion, Discovery, and Collaboration series. And they believe that their blending process results in a product that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Recently, they released their Origin Series, which is comprised entirely of whiskey distilled at Bardstown for at least six years.

Located in Bardstown, KY, the distillery is a shining glass beacon to all bourbon lovers. I’ve heard a Bardstown employee describe it as “the Apple store of distilleries” — if you have the chance, I would highly recommend that you visit for a tour or for lunch.

Peter Loftin sadly died in 2019 and the Bardstown Bourbon Company was sold to a private equity firm Pritzker Private Capital in March 2022.

Product

• Learn More: What Is Bourbon Whiskey?

There are four lines of spirits that the Bardstown Bourbon Company produces on its own label: the Fusion series, the Discovery series, the Origin series, and the Collaboration series. We are reviewing an Origin series today, which is completely distilled by Bardstown.

Because of the growth they achieved by blending soured whiskey, Bardstown remains transparent about where the product was distilled, but not necessarily who distilled it. So transparent, in fact, that every bottle (at least the ones I’ve seen) have a chart that describes not only the mashbill, but also the blend ratios and source of the distillate. This transparency might be one of my favorite things about Bardstown — I wish all distilleries were this forthright.

Below is the blend information about this bottle. The bad news is that it’s a little more boring than their other blends, but the good news is that this is a 100% blend of barrels that they make and with a very specific grain bill.

Proportion	Origin	Age	Mash Bill
100%	Bardstown Bourbon Company	6 years	Corn 60% / Rye 36% / Malted Barley 4%

Bardstown is busy distilling more of their own whiskey to continue to expand their Origin Series. When I toured the distillery, all eight of their fermentation tanks were full and active. Time is the most expensive part of any whiskey, and they continue to invest heavily and impressively in their own product.

To start, the listed grains in the mash bill are milled, cooked, and fermented to create a mildly alcoholic liquid. Once the fermentation is done, the product is moved to the multi-story still located in the very front of the distillery and distilled to selectively capture the desired flavors and concentrate the alcohol in the newly made whiskey. The finished distillate is added to a new American oak barrel and placed in one of their rickhouses for at least six years.

One element of the Bardstown’s process that I am very excited to see the future of is the fact that they purposely do not rotate their barrels in their rickhouses. A barrel that is aged for six years spends the entire time in the same rickhouse in the same space. One of the most important elements of imbuing flavor into whiskey while its aging is temperature change — the extreme high and low temperature changes help to move the whiskey into and out of the porous wood. So by leaving barrels alone during their aging, the barrels at the top of the rickhouse (7^th story) will experience higher highs and those at the bottom will stay cooler and experience less temperature swings. This ensures the blenders at Bardstown to have a large variety of flavors to work with.

Packaging

What we have here is a fairly modern take on a bourbon bottle. It’s got all the same parts, but there is some interesting geometry going on that makes it stand out.

Most prominent is the design of the body of the bottle, which has a square cross section with rounded sides and edges that almost looks like a slightly melted ice cube. The sides of the bottle aren’t exactly straight, though — they flare slightly from the base to the shoulder. At the top there’s a very short stubby neck, and at the bottom there’s a nice thick glass base that should help it light up nicely on an under-lit bar shelf.

The labeling here is clean, understated, and really lets the color of the bourbon inside shine through nicely. The primary label is made from this textured paper and has a very simple, clean logo on it with the minimum information required. It’s a well-executed, modern take on a bourbon label and I really appreciate the aesthetics of it.

Neat

At first, I get sweet and spicy aromas coming off the glass. There are smooth notes of vanilla and buttery toffee juxtaposed by a spicy red pepper aroma. It’s an interesting combination, but it’s not necessarily abnormal with a high-rye bourbon like this one.

Speaking of that high rye content: it’s also the very first thing I notice when taking a sip. There’s a distinctive spiciness that’s front and center almost immediately. Once that bold flavor subsides into a more subtle cinnamon and nutmeg, though, you’re able to pick up the more subtle notes of the vanilla and toffee that came across on the nose, but are definitely not as prominent in the taste of the bourbon as they were in the aroma. 

There are also some more mild layered fruit flavors — apricot and orange are what immediately jumped to mind for me. Surprisingly, I don’t get a lot of oak from this bottle beyond the vanilla components. 

Overall, it’s a good bourbon but did not wow me neat like the Origin Rye did, which may have been the smoothest rye whiskey I’ve ever sipped. I wonder if this is trapped somewhere between ‘too much rye to be a good bourbon’ and ‘not rye enough to be a great rye’. 

On Ice

Before I poured myself a glass on the rocks, I wondered if the ice would help smooth some of the spiciness of the bourbon. It did, and I am thankful for it — this now resembles more of what I would expect in a bourbon.

On the rocks, this bourbon drinks much smoother. That spice is mellowed out and takes a back seat to the sweetness. Now you get a much richer vanilla and caramel flavor, with the spice coming more towards the end. There are notes of black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but the fruit notes all but washed away with the addition of ice.

I am much more pleased with the flavor of this bourbon on the rocks rather than neat. It still drinks like a high rye bourbon, but has seemed to found some identity and complexity.

Cocktail (Old Fashioned)

In my experience, I am worried about using a whiskey in a cocktail that was mediocre neat and better on the rocks. I worry that once you start adding bitters, sugar, and orange zest, it loses its identity and just becomes boring and bland. And as much as I normally enjoy being right, in this case it’s an unfortunate result.

Overall, I can only say this is just okay. It’s not bad, but it’s far from good. The vanilla and caramel flavors are there, but can only be described as “meh”. The peppery spice is still there, but now seems to clash with the angostura bitters to make something a little more unpleasant than you’d like.

Don’t get me wrong, this is far from the worst old fashioned I’ve ever had… but it’s solidly below average.

Fizz (Mule)

This cocktail tastes like it was wiped up with an old bar rag and wrung into your glass. If you read our reviews often, you know I’m not a fan of mules on a good day — but this is just bad, and its not just my anti-mule bias talking. 

This delivers a lot of ginger beer and very little whiskey flavor other than a bitter orange flavor. The one redeeming thing I can say about this cocktail is that it drinks very smooth. Which makes sense, because you’re not really tasting the whiskey itself. 

Overall Rating

I am excited that Bardstown has launched this Origin Series entirely made of 100% their own product. In several of the previous bottles we’ve tasted, we were tasting their blending expertise. In this bottle, we are tasting their craftsmanship. 

That said, I did find this bottle a little disappointing compared to some of their others so I hope this just indicative of a learning curve. (My other theory is that the stank from being in the state of Michigan seeped through the bottle and is tainting the product.)

I expect that as they mature more of their own product, and thus having a higher level of control of the flavors that have spent more time in the barrel, that Bardstown Bourbon Company will evolve and become more well-rounded. For now, we will have to enjoy a bourbon that does only one thing really well. And it needs to be said that for $50, I expect more from a bottle of bourbon.

All reviews are evaluated within the context of their specific spirit classification as specified above. Click here to check out similar spirits we have reviewed.

Overall Rating: 2/5
I hope you have ice, otherwise you’re into a rough night.