There’s something undeniably appealing about a whiskey that doesn’t want to sit on your shelf. Most bourbons are designed for the bar cart, the china cabinet, maybe the Instagram-worthy liquor collection in your living room. Montana Whiskey Co. had a different idea entirely: what if your bourbon was built for a drift boat, a saddlebag, or a campfire? The Blackfoot River Bourbon arrives in a stainless steel vessel that looks less like a bottle of whiskey and more like a piece of outdoor gear… and given that we’re currently in that magical window of late spring where the days are long, the rivers are running, and every weekend screams for a camping trip, it felt like the perfect time to check this out. The question is whether the liquid inside lives up to the adventure that the bottle promises.
History
Montana Whiskey Co. is one of Missoula’s newer distilleries. It was founded by Todd Berg, a Montana native with the kind of resume that reads like a Cormac McCarthy character who somehow learned to make whiskey. Berg grew up in northwest Montana, where his parents and grandparents instilled in him an appreciation for hard work and the great outdoors. Before getting into the spirits business, Berg served as a decorated Marine with two combat tours, earned his commercial pilot’s license, and spent years overseeing major construction projects across the Pacific Rim and Africa. Eventually, he returned home to Montana to do what he’d apparently always wanted to do: craft whiskey that reflected the spirit of the state.
The distillery opened around 2019, and like many small start-ups, Montana Whiskey Co. took the honest route of sourcing its whiskey rather than pretending to distill everything on-site from day one. Berg has been transparent about this: the bourbon is distilled in Indiana (likely MGP, one of the largest contract distillers in the country), then shipped to Montana where it’s aged in their rickhouse, carefully blended, proofed with Montana water, and bottled. “It boils down to cash flow,” Berg has said. “Aging, selecting, proofing, and blending whiskey from another distillery is the answer for small start-up distilleries like us.” I respect that level of honesty. A lot of craft brands dance around the sourcing question; Berg just comes out and owns it.
Montana Whiskey Co.’s first two products were a nameless straight whiskey and a nameless straight bourbon — Berg deliberately stayed out of “the name game” for those initial releases. The Blackfoot River Bourbon came next, this time with a name that carries real weight in Montana. The Blackfoot River is the legendary waterway that inspired Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, one of the great American stories about fly fishing, family, and the rugged beauty of the Montana wilderness. It’s a 130-mile river running through some of the most stunning country in the West, famous for its wild trout, its drift boat floats, and its camping. Naming a bourbon after it is a statement of intent: this is outdoor whiskey, full stop.
Product
- Learn More: What Is Bourbon Whiskey?
Blackfoot River Bourbon is a straight bourbon whiskey aged for two years, which is the legal minimum to carry the “straight” designation. The bourbon is distilled in Indiana, most likely at MGP’s facility in Lawrenceburg, which is the source for a staggering number of craft bourbon brands across the country. The specific mash bill hasn’t been publicly disclosed, though it reportedly includes corn, rye, and wheat. Montana Whiskey Co.’s own marketing references “heavy caramel, spicy rye, and a hint of oak,” and the company describes their approach as blending “unique mash bills” — suggesting they may be working with more than one bourbon recipe from their source distiller.
Once the barrels arrive in Montana, they’re aged in Montana Whiskey Co.’s rickhouse in Missoula, where the temperature swings can be significant. Berg credits those extreme Montana temperature fluctuations (blistering summers and frigid winters) with helping to accelerate the aging and pull more character out of the barrel, despite the relatively young age statement. The bourbon is bottled at 80 proof (40% ABV), proofed down with what they describe as “top-notch” Montana proofing water.
Two years is young for a bourbon, and there’s no getting around that. But the company is clearly banking on the Montana climate and their blending skills to make up some of that difference.
Packaging
Let’s talk about this bottle, because it’s unlike anything else on the shelf, and it’s clearly the flagship feature of the entire product.
First of all, this is not glass. This is a 304 stainless-steel bottle — the same grade of stainless used in quality cookware and water bottles — wrapped in a matte, forest-green enamel coating that evokes a vintage camping mug or an old enamelware coffee pot sitting on a campfire grate. It’s the kind of thing you’d find hanging from a carabiner on somebody’s pack in a Patagonia catalogue.
Todd Berg spent four years developing this bottle, and it shows. It’s virtually unbreakable, lightweight, reusable as a water bottle once the whiskey’s gone, and completely recyclable. For anyone who’s ever cringed while packing a glass bottle into a kayak dry bag or a horse saddlebag, this is genuinely practical. It’s the kind of bottle that invites you to throw it in a cooler, prop it against some campfire rocks, or toss it into a drift boat without thinking twice. On a warm spring afternoon, with the sun hitting that green enamel and the trees leafing out behind it, this thing looks absolutely at home in the season. It’s hiking-in-Montana in bottle form.
Is it gimmicky? A little. But it’s gimmicky in a way that’s backed by actual utility, and I’ll take a functional gimmick any day.
Neat
The bourbon itself is a light amber with a slightly rusty, pale brown hue, which is consistent with that two-year age statement. It’s not going to win any beauty contests in the glass, but it’s not alarmingly anemic either.
The nose is inviting: cooked caramel up front, roasted peanuts, a solid vanilla backbone, and some pleasant orange citrus. There’s oak wood in there too, and a warming mix of nutmeg and cinnamon that gives the whole thing a baked-goods quality, like somebody’s making caramel rolls in a cabin kitchen.
On the palate, this is lighter than you might expect, but there’s a consistent saturation of flavor that’s worth noting. It’s not thin so much as it is delicate. Cinnamon and milk chocolate hit first, followed by nutmeg and brown sugar. As the flavor develops, vanilla rolls in and fills things out. There are slight citrus hints lingering around the edges. The finish is predominantly brown sugar and vanilla — simple, warm, and pleasant. It’s not going to bowl you over with complexity, but what’s here is well-integrated and surprisingly satisfying for a two-year bourbon at 80 proof.
On Ice
Here’s where things get interesting. A lot of young, low-proof bourbons completely fall apart on ice. The cold and dilution strip away whatever character they had, leaving you with vaguely sweet water.
But this Blackfoot River Bourbon doesn’t do that. There’s a good, consistent strength that holds up admirably despite the ice. The saturation of flavor persists, which is impressive.
The trade-off, though, is simplicity. The flavor profile narrows down to mainly brown sugar and vanilla, with some minor cinnamon notes poking through. You lose the nutmeg, the citrus, the milk chocolate — basically all the supporting cast members exit the stage, and you’re left with the two leads doing their thing. It’s simpler, but it’s still pleasant. On a warm evening, sitting on the deck watching the sun set through the trees, this bourbon on the rocks would be a perfect addition.
Cocktail (Old Fashioned)
This is where the Blackfoot River Bourbon earns its keep. This Old Fashioned is a great balance: that solid depth and saturation of the brown sugar and vanilla flavors gives the bitters plenty to work with. There’s a real push-and-pull between the bourbon’s sweetness and the bitters’ bitterness that lands in a satisfying spot.
Complexity is still not this bourbon’s strong suit, and an orange peel garnish is practically mandatory to add some dimension. But the core of the drink is genuinely delicious. This is a bourbon that was made for cocktails, and it knows it. If you’re mixing Old Fashioneds at a campsite (and honestly, with this bottle, you probably are) you’re going to be happy.
Fizz (Mule)
This is crisp, clean, and delicious with a good balance. The spice of the ginger beer plays well with the bourbon’s brown sugar sweetness, and the lime keeps everything bright. It lacks complexity (you’re not going to sit there parsing individual flavor notes), but as a simple, refreshing summer drink, it delivers.
This is a mule you crush on a hot afternoon without overthinking it. Which, again, feels very much like the point of this whole brand.
Overall Rating
The Blackfoot River Bourbon is a bourbon that knows exactly what it is and doesn’t pretend to be anything else. It’s a light, approachable, two-year straight bourbon at 80 proof, built to be mixed and enjoyed outdoors. Neat, it’s pleasant and surprisingly saturated for its age and proof, but it won’t compete with more mature offerings on complexity. On ice, it holds up better than it has any right to. And in cocktails, it’s genuinely delicious in that easygoing, don’t-overthink-it kind of way.
The elephant in the room is the price. At $37–$49 (depending on where you find it), you’re paying a significant premium for that stainless steel bottle, and there’s no getting around the fact that you can buy more complex, older bourbon for less money.
But you can’t take those glass bottles river rafting, can you? There’s a real argument that this bottle is the experience: this is the bourbon you toss in the truck for a Memorial Day camping trip, the one you bring on the drift boat for a day of fly fishing on the actual Blackfoot River, the one you lean against the campfire rocks while the sun goes down over the Rockies. In that context, it delivers.
| Montana Whiskey Co Blackfoot River Bourbon Produced By: Montana Whiskey Co Production Location: Montana, United StatesClassification: Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aging: 2 Years Proof: 40% ABV Price: $39.95 / 750 ml   |
Overall Rating: 3/5
The bourbon equivalent of a really nice camping trip: simple pleasures, beautiful scenery, and a bottle you can literally throw down a river.