Brown sugar | Baking spices | Charred oak | Light molasses | Nougat | Faint SweeTARTS

Molasses | Brown sugar | Cinnamon spice | Syrup soaked dark cherries | Aged oak

Leather | Charred oak | Brown sugar | Light cherry | Short

Four Gate Whiskey Company is known for sourcing barrels to create very small batches and doing unique things to them. In order to celebrate the 5 year anniversary of their launch in the U.S. market, the company is releasing their Kelvin Collaboration VI. This release is a blend of three different 9-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons, which are then aged in Portuguese Madeira casks. The whiskey is then aged in dark rum casks from the Florida Keys that were sourced through Kelvin Cooperage.

Kelvin Collaboration VI doesn’t shy away from the fact that it’s barrel finished. In particular, the influence from the rum barrels is very noticeable throughout the sip. Brown sugar is prominent throughout, along with a molasses and cherry note, which pulls forward a lot of sweetness. While the midpoint adds in a dry spice to produce a nice contrast overall, the Madeira cask finish doesn’t play as prominent of a role. It’s a well-blended bourbon however, there is no denying that it comes with a high price for this 3,876 bottle release. Even in today’s market, $200 is still an incredibly high asking price for a bourbon, and while the sip is well-balanced, for the price, the bar is set that much higher for what a bourbon needs to deliver to stand out.