Caramel | Burnt sugar | Copper | Malt | Fresh cut firewood | Charcoal | Light smoke

Brown sugar | Cinnamon | Vanilla | Butterscotch

Mesquite smoke | Light seasoned oak | Black peppercorn | Lingering sweet oak

After last year’s impressive showing of their in-house distilled Bottled in Bond Bourbon, Diageo is back with a bourbon that omits the rye from its mashbill altogether for malted barley that was smoked over mesquite wood. This limited edition release marks the first time a Bulleit Bourbon has removed rye from any of its bourbon’s mashbills. Bulleit Bourbon is known for its high rye mashbill, and with this release, malt accounts for a whopping 35% of its final mashbill.

American whiskey producers continue to toy with adding smoke to their whiskeys. Though it seems like a hard sell, their continued pursuit seems to suggest that there is a market for it and it is growing at a quantifiable rate. While smoke in American-made single malts isn’t new, we’ve seen brands as mainstream as Basil Hayden introduce a smoked bourbon in 2022, and the smoke-daddy of them all, Warbringer Mesquite Smoked Bourbon, is now over 20 batches in.

Though the bottle doesn’t state it was distilled by Bulleit Distilling Company, like their Bottled in Bond Bourbon does, according to the company’s press release, it was. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feature the same characteristics as the Bottled in Bond Bourbon, like its fantastic oily mouthfeel, and instead, comes across thinner and more diluted.

The bourbon’s aroma is also on the light side, with caramel, burnt sugar, copper, and malt, followed by light smokiness. The palate is on the simple side with straightforward notes of caramel, cinnamon, vanilla, and butterscotch. The finish is more interesting with gentle notes of mesquite smoke and seasoned oak upfront, followed by a hit of spicy black peppercorn and lingering sweet oak.

There are plenty of bourbon drinkers that will never come over to the “dark side” that is smoked whiskeys. Sometimes, though, individuals think people simply like the taste of smoke, but in actuality, it's the smoke that adds a new layer of complexity to the whiskey. Without the smoke element, Bulleit Bourbon Mesquite Smoked Malt Straight Bourbon would be an extremely boring bourbon. But the addition of fresh cut fire wood and charcoal in the bourbon’s aroma, along with tempered smoke, followed by black peppercorn and sweet oak, gives the bourbon some dimension. That said, there was still a lot more that could have been done to make this a better sip, but that might have also risked alienating new smoke-curious drinkers whom this bourbon is directly targeting. Overall, Bulleit Bourbon Mesquite Smoked Malt Straight Bourbon is an average light sipper that leans sweet and offers a manageable amount of smoke for those new to the style.