Whiskey Review: Republic Restoratives Borough Bourbon Batch No. 3

We’ve just about reached the end of the product line at Republic Restoratives, and today we’re looking at one last spirit on their shelves: Borough Bourbon. Apparently, this is their more experimental whiskey that they produce in batches — and in this case, there’s a delightful French influence on the bourbon in much the same way as there was a French influence on the founding of the United States of America.

History

As you might expect for a distillery located in Washington, D.C. the history of Republic Restoratives starts with politicians.

Pia Carusone had built a successful career in politics, serving as Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and in 2011 was appointed as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. But by 2013, after experiencing the horror of watching her boss Gabby Giffords nearly be assassinated on stage and enduring the grueling world of federal politics, Carusone was burnt out and wanted to make a change.

In her own words, at that point, “[y]ou can’t help but ask yourself, ‘what has my life amounted to, what would I regret’ following an experience like that”. And like so many other burnt-out, high performing people before her, she decided to quit the rat race and open a distillery.

Carusone teamed up with lifelong friend Rachel Cole Gardner to realize this dream. Gardner had found her love for fermented drinks in college, starting with making her own beer and eventually moving into the world of distilling in Seattle, Washington. There she worked with Berle “Rusty” Figgins Jr., a consultant distiller and assisted him in building and opening a number of craft distilleries in the area, and also worked on immersing herself in the technical details of distilled spirits by earning a Craft Distilling Certificate from the Spirits Institute of Puget Sound and attending courses at Moonshine University.

Together, Carusone and Gardner had the expertise and the gumption to open a distillery, and a fortuitous change in the laws in the District of Columbia had encouraged new businesses to open there — but they lacked the funding to make that dream a reality. They turned to crowdfunding to get their distillery off the ground, appealing to the fact that this would be the first woman-owned distillery in the District with both founders being members of the LGBTQ+ community to drive excitement and interest in the project, and appealing to their audience with provocative titles for their proposed spirits.

The result was a huge success — the distillery would become the largest crowd funded craft distillery in the world with over $119,500 in funding, opening its doors for the first time on Mother’s Day in 2016.

Product

• Learn More: What Is Bourbon Whiskey?

Let me start with the mystery: I don’t know where this is made.

Sure, the bottle says “Produced and Bottled By” Republic Restoratives in DC… but that’s the exact same thing that they say on their Rodham Rye Whiskey — which is actually sourced from a Tennessee distillery and not produced in-house. According to the label, at a bare minimum the unique cask finishing takes place in-house in DC, but I’m guessing that the actual whiskey is sourced elsewhere.

I’m a big fan of transparency and honesty, and this isn’t giving me a whole lot of either at the moment.

This specific product line from Republic Restoratives seems to be their experimental offering, using a straight bourbon whiskey and altering something about the process each time. (And why it’s called Borough Bourbon isn’t clearly explained on their marketing materials.)

As a bourbon whiskey, this is required to start as a crop of at least 51% corn. In this case, they specify that the grain bill is actually 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley — which is the exact same grain bill used by Fierce & Kind, who also source their whiskey and specifically use a North Carolina based distillery (which is probably as close as I’ll come to figuring out the actual provenance here). Those grains are milled, cooked, and fermented to create a mildly alcoholic liquid that is then distilled into raw whiskey.

Once distilled, as a specifically straight bourbon whiskey this is then required to sit for a minimum of four years in charred new oak barrels (it could have been as little as two if they disclosed that, but there’s nothing on the label that leads me to believe it’s less than four). Once properly matured, it is then shipped to DC for the final step.

In this third batch of their bourbon, Republic Restoratives obtained a used armangac cask to put the bourbon in to mature for a bit longer. A very close cousin of the more popular cognac, armangac is a type of brandy made from wine in a specific region of France. Their style of production typically leads to a lighter and more aromatic spirit, which is then aged in oak casks for a period of time to mature. By putting the bourbon into this cask, it allows the bourbon to mature a little bit longer and also to absorb some of the flavors from the armangac that used to inhabit that barrel before being bottled for sale.

Packaging

Overall, the design of the bottle is very familiar for a modern distillery. The general shape is that of a cylindrical body with a sharply angled shoulder and short neck, capped off with a plastic and synthetic stopper. It’s clean and modern, and consistent with other craft distilleries out there.

The label is tastefully done: large enough to be legible, but still small enough to let the whiskey show through and be the star of the show. It’s a simple design with clean lettering and legible text, very similar to other modern distilleries and their products.

While the label looks good, it’s also my biggest complaint. The label claims that this is “Produced & Bottled By” Republic Restoratives… but that’s a lie of omission. The whiskey is actually sourced from an undisclosed location and the only thing that Republic Restoratives does is mature the spirit a bit longer and bottle it. Being more transparent about that distinction would have been a much better choice, in my opinion.

Neat

It’s a lighter color of a bourbon, more of a rusty gold with some orange hues. Coming off the glass are aromas of brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, cedar chips, raw corn, and way in the background is just a hint of crisp fruit.

Taking a sip, the immediate impression I’m getting is the flavor of toasted brown sugar like you’d find on a nice creme brulee. From there, the flavor develops as if you’ve kept a blowtorch on that sugar, moving from crispy to toasted to charred in rapid succession. At the deepest those flavors get, it changes to become more of a dark chocolate flavor with some accompanying bitterness, alongside some coffee and tobacco. Near the finish, things lighten up a bit with the volume of those initial flavors toned down and instead being replaced by notes of vanilla, cedar chips, and flan on the finish.

Generally, it’s not a bad profile. I think the darker flavors just got a bit hard when taken neat — there’s too much going on and it leaves a slightly tart impression on the back of your tongue even after the whiskey is gone.

On Ice

My biggest concern when taken neat was that bitter depth to the flavors. Thankfully, with a little bit of ice, that seems to have toned down and allowed more of the flavors to peek through.

I can actually taste the Armagnac at this point: deep and rich flavors like dried figs, plums, walnuts, and raisins are providing the flavorful base of this profile and with a little help from the brown sugar and vanilla of the whiskey it’s making for a remarkably well balanced drink.

Cocktail (Old Fashioned)

If you’ve read enough of our reviews to know my love of darker richer bourbons (like this one) for my old fashioned, you can probably tell where this is going.

In general, the flavors here are great. The rancio flavors from the Armagnac (dried figs, raisins, walnuts, etc) combined with the brown sugar really help provide a great balance for the aromatics and bitterness in the bitters. There’s a richness here that I really appreciate and enjoy.

My only note is that you really do need the sugar here. Usually, my post-holidays keto kick has me trying these sans sucre for the first few months of the year, but there’s a hint of bitterness in this glass that requires a touch of sweetness to completely eliminate.

Fizz (Mule)

At first, things seem promising here. The flavors do a good job balancing, with the richer dried fruits and brown sugar elements providing a nice balance against the lime juice and ginger beer. It’s almost a good poolside drink — something you can sip while relaxing on a warm summer’s day.

But then, on the finish, the bitterness comes back. There’s a kick of tartness that starts as a delightful little bit of texture and grows into an unpleasant blemish on an otherwise pretty good time. It really harshes the mellow, if you get my drift.

Overall Rating

I appreciate it when a distillery tries new things. And especially for a newer distillery, trying their hand at finishing whiskey in different kinds of exotic barrels has been a generally winning strategy. I think they chose properly and gave it a good shot here, and the results in an old fashioned or on the rocks bear out the (dried) fruits of their labor.

The problem is that, either neat or in other cocktails, there’s just too much tartness, too much darkness, and too much bitterness that is unbalanced and makes for a poor experience. Compared to other spirits in this category and price range, it comes up short.

My hope is that they keep perfecting their craft, because their instincts seem good and I’d love to see what they come out with next.

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
A bourbon with a dark side that, unfortunately, is just a bit too tart in some situations.