Apricot | White pepper | Cinnamon | Vanilla frosting | Slight rye spice

Delicate rye spice | Caramel | Apricot | Summer fruits | Leather | Well rounded

Baking spices | Delicate rye spice | Savory leather | Peach cobbler | Balanced

The K.Luke brand was created by husband-wife team Jonathan and Jennifer Maisano and named after their two children, Kaitlyn and Lucas. Jonathan is also a first-level certified Sommelier through the Court of Master Sommeliers. Small Batch Barrel Strength Bourbon Batch 12 is a 1,630 bottle release that combines bourbons from Kentucky and Indiana and clocks in at just over 117 proof.

Deviating from the more traditional caramel and oak undertones, Batch 12 instead leans into flavors of apricot, summer fruits, and leather, with delicate amounts of spice mingling throughout the sip. More traditional notes of caramel and vanilla are found throughout, but only in small doses at varying parts of the sip. Most notable is how well rounded the sip is, managing to deliver ample rye spice but keep it even-tempered throughout the entire sip.

Now 12 batches in for this line (the company’s most produced out of their 6 bottle lines), the Maisano’s have proven their ability to blend a consistently high quality product.