Hi Bourbon enthusiast
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You must be 21 or over to enter this website. If you're not old enough to drink, then you're not old enough to read Breaking Bourbon.
Please read and drink responsibly.
Classification: Straight Bourbon
Company: Chattanooga Whiskey Co.
Distillery: Chattanooga Riverfront Distillery
Release Date: October 2022
Proof: 100
Age: NAS (Aged at least 4 years based on TTB regulations)
Mashbill: Blend of four bourbon mashbills all distilled during Fall 2018, and each comprised of at least 25% specialty malted grains:
-30% SB091: Yellow Corn, Malted Rye, Caramel Malted Barley, Honey Malted Barley
-30% SB002: Yellow Corn, Hardwood Smoked Malted Barley (beech, mesquite, apple, or cherry), Caramel Malted Barley, Caramel Malted, Honey Malted Barley
-20% B005: Yellow Corn, Malted Wheat, Caramel Malted Wheat, Oak Smoked Malted Wheat
-20% R18098: Yellow Corn, Pale Malted Barley, Naked Malted Oats, Double Roasted Caramel Malted Barley, Peated Malted Barley, Cherrywood Smoked Malted Barley, Chocolate Malt, De-husked Chocolate Malt
Color: Deep Copper
MSRP: $53 (2022)
Cherry | Caramel | Roasted malt | Agave | Honeycrisp apple | Light & fruity
Caramel | Milk chocolate | Malt | Cap’n Crunch cereal | Fresh baked pasty | On the sweet side thanks to its strong caramel focus
Oatmeal raisin cookie | Caramel | Tempered barrel char | Light smoke | Soft malty aftertaste | Mildly dry
A devilish bourbon that comes across as straightforward before it reveals its complex underside.
I’m not sure if Chattanooga gets enough credit for their Bottled in Bond Vintage Series. Where just about everyone else releases their bottled in bond bourbon in a very traditional sense, Chattanooga figured out a way to play within the boundaries of bottled in bond’s ruleset, yet be a rebel at the same time.
The company has been producing some truly experimental whiskeys at their Riverfront Distillery and releasing them as special one-off releases. But not satisfied to leave it at that, they take some of these unique mashbills and combine them in different ways for each of their Vintage Series releases. There aren't many companies doing this and the results are just as interesting as the mashbills lead you to believe they are.
The Fall 2018 release carries over two mashbills from previous releases (SB091, B005), and adds two new ones. If you read RI8098’s stat line above, then you know there is a lot going on with this release. Yet at first sip, this isn’t immediately apparent. The whiskey’s overall temperament is decidedly docile and very much in control of itself. It drinks easy, perhaps too much so as it can be easy to miss some of the whiskey’s finer points.
It's these finer points where the real joy of this whiskey spawns from. What seems like at first a straightforward drinker, actually has a ton of depth the more you explore it. As a fan of their 111 proof release, I wondered if this whiskey was held back by its lower proof. But the more time I spent with it, I understood the virtues its 100 proof allows it. With so much going on with its mashbill, it has room to stretch out its complex mashbill limbs. Chattanooga Whiskey Bottled in Bond Bourbon Vintage Series continues to prove its worth in the company's lineup. Even though Chattanooga’s fantastic single barrels and 111 proof release cast long shadows, the Vintage Series continues to showcase the company’s willingness to explore new areas of bourbon. While not every release is a showstopper, they are some of the most interesting and fascinating whiskeys released.
