ON March 15, Kentucky Owl launched two of its bestsellers in Director’s Cut, a luxurious whiskey bar located in Taman Tun Dr Ismail.
The launch showcased the Kentucky Owl The Wiseman, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and the Kentucky Owl The Wiseman, Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey.
At the prestigious 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the Straight Bourbon won a Double Gold medal while the Straight Rye took a Gold medal. The former was also listed in Whiskey Advocate’s 2021 Top 20.
At the launch tasting, Kentucky Owl Global Ambassador Tom Jones walked attendees through the history of Kentucky Owl, and the two whiskeys being launched, along with the Kentucky Owl Confiscated bourbon.
Top shelf bourbon
A blend of four Kentucky Straight Bourbons that were selected for their individual taste, the Straight Bourbon is a smooth but complex bourbon that can be drunk neat, on the rocks or in a cocktail.
The whiskey itself leads with a caramel flavour with notes of allspice, citrus fruit and a nudge of oak.
As for the Straight Rye, it’s a traditional rye made with a mash bill of 95% selected by Kentucky Owl’s Master Blender, John Rhea.
The whiskey provides a rich and spicy nose hints of fresh rye bread, hints of sweet caramel and cinnamon. Upon tasting, the whiskey’s spicy character is immediate, as it instantly fills the mouth with long finish.
It progresses from fresh rye bread, through buttered cinnamon toast and ending with a hint of walnut.
The whiskeys paired well with the rye bread and the appetisers that were provided.
The Confiscated on the other hand, was at the launch tasting “for fun”. It’s a sourced whiskey with no age statement, and almost completely shrouded in secrecy, including its mashbill.
Compared to the Straight Bourbon and Straight Rye, the Confiscated sits somewhere in the middle. It’s balanced exceedingly well, with a nice mix of sweet and dry flavours, and quite flexible; it can be sipped, works with ice or water, and very mixable, as Jones explained.
A worthy origin
Considered to be the world’s most international forward-thinking American whiskey, the current Kentucky Owl was rejuvenated in 2014 by Dixon Dedman, the great great-grandson of Charles Dedman who started the original Kentucky Owl Bourbon Distillery in 1879.
Dixon dreamt of bringing the Kentucky Owl back to life. This began with him looking into hand selecting and blending barrels to create a new, small batch of Kentucky Owl. With no specific taste in mind, Dixon would take samples from each barrel and combine them in different ways.
In 2014, Kentucky Owl was reborn with the release of Batch 1, which took six years to create. It was made from some of the finest bourbon in Kentucky, and bottled at barrel proof, uncut and unfiltered.
In 2017, Kentucky Owl was bought by the Stoli Group to be its flagship ultra-premium whiskey.
