Thomas S. Moore Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished in Chardonnay Casks
Thomas S. Moore Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a newer whiskey on the market from Barton 1792 Distillery, sister distillery of Buffalo Trace, all under the Sazerac umbrella. This newer series released three Bourbons with an “extended cask finish” in Port, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay wine casks. According to the labels, these bourbons were aged “many years” and then finished for “several more years”. Typically, you see “finishing” for 6-12 months, so having something finished for “many years” should impart more of the wine cask elements to the final product. We will be reviewing the Chardonnay finished version of this series. While I do love me a nice port finish, I wanted to try something new, and Chardonnay finished bourbons are not that common. So here we go.
ABV: 48.95% (love me some second decimal place ABVs)
How it smells..…oak, vanilla, fruity/berries, little maple syrup, a bit floral. Very traditional bourbon on the nose thus far.
How it tastes…starts off with strong oak and vanilla, a little hot, transitioning to some spice and fruity flavors, like a spiced punch. Ends in heavy cinnamon and a sweet finish that has a bit of peppery spice on the linger with more of those oak tannins.
Price….SRP of $70, I bought it for $75.
Rating.….🥃🥃
Final thoughts…Sometimes I write these reviews and get to spread the Good Word about some whiskeys and other times my sermons are more about avoiding the Great Temptations in life. This, unfortunately, is the latter. I was seduced by Barton 1792 Distillery making this product as I love the stuff they put out under the 1792 brand. Interesting array of cask finishes? Check that box. $75 price tag? Sure, you know what, I’m an adventurer, why not?!
It’s not that this is bad whiskey by any means, it’s actually a nice little bourbon if I’m being honest. My only problem with it is the price point. Flavor wise, you get some interesting notes out of it. It may be a bit oaky at times, but not in an off-putting way. This makes sense to me as I largely think of most Chardonnays as a bit oaky and this underwent an “extended” finishing in Chardonnay casks. Otherwise, it’s pretty good. At $50, it’s a nice value whiskey at 3x 🥃. At $40, it’s a 4x 🥃! But I’m really paying $25 too much on this at $75. I’m not getting a lot from the Chardonnay finish (except more oak tannins and some astringency that goes with it) but I’m paying a hell of a lot for it. I don’t like that value proposition at all. I don’t mind paying up for unique expressions, but I better get something unique for that extra $$!
For those that may think this is a harsh knee-jerk reaction to a sip, as evidenced by the picture below, I did some extensive testing on this bottle and while the more I drank through the bottle the more I liked the bourbon I also more firmly believed that this is not a $75 bourbon.
I will say that If Barton needs to have some overpriced products like this to keep the 1792 line affordable, then huzzah! But I have a sneaky suspicion that the marketing folks over at Barton just got ahead of themselves on this one.
Full disclosure, I did give into Temptation once again and picked up a bottle of the Thomas S. Moore version finished in Cabernet Sauvignon casks….that was in order to purchase a High West Midwinter Night’s Dram Act 9 (damn liquor store bundles…). So we will give it another go, who knows, maybe the Cabernet added more to the end product than the Chardonnay?
