Charred oak | Caramel | Leather | Honey

Leather | Charred oak | Toffee | Pleasant fruit notes | Caramel | Oak-forward but still bright and balanced

Baking spices | Light pepper | Seasoned oak | Leather | Dry on the backend

According to the company’s press release, “the history behind Double Oak goes back to the 2014 barrel shortage when cooperages couldn’t make barrels due to unusually heavy precipitation that impacted logging. Distilleries continued to make whiskey, but they were forced to put their whiskey in used barrels. Because one of the key requirements to being labeled a Kentucky Straight Bourbon is that the liquid must be aged in new white American oak barrels, Chicken Cock Whiskey Double Oak is the combination of two distinct barrel finishings – seven-year-old Kentucky Whiskey which was aged in used barrels and then transferred into new white American oak barrels, which were placed on the top floor of the rick house at Bardstown Bourbon Company during one of the hottest Kentucky summers on record.”

Chicken Cock Double Oak most likely has a bourbon mashbill, but because it was first aged in used barrels it does not qualify as bourbon. Instead, it was transferred to new oak barrels during the last ~18 months of its aging, which may have been a necessary step to impart more depth of flavor into the whiskey. The whiskey maintains a presence of oak throughout, but at the same time never comes across as over-oaked. Instead, it highlights caramel, toffee, dark fruit, and leather quite nicely. True to other whiskeys in the Chicken Cock lineup, its balance is on point when it comes to both flavor and drinkability against potency. If you enjoy oak-forward whiskey but don’t enjoy over-oaked territory, Chicken Cock Double Oak is for you.