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: Blended Bourbon
Company: O.K.I. Bourbon
Distillery: MGP
Release Date: June 2022
Proof: 100
Age:
Low Rye Bourbon: 7.8% 10 Year, 1.8% 9 Year, 23.3% 8 Year
High Rye Bourbon: 26.4% 8 Year, 0.2% 3 Year
Rye Whiskey: 12.2% 9 Year
Corn Whiskey: 4.6% 9 Year
Light Whiskey: 23.7% 10 Year
Mashbill:
Low Rye Bourbon: 75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley
High Rye Bourbon: 60% Corn, 36% Rye, 4% Malted Barley
Rye Whiskey: 95% Rye, 5% Malted Barley
Corn Whiskey: 81% Corn, 15% Rye, 4% Malted Barley
Light Whiskey: 99% Corn, 1% Malted Barley
Color: Dark Amber
MSRP: $75 (2022)
Stone fruit | Orange peel | Rich caramel | Tobacco | Pretzel dough | Light raisin | Complex & interesting
Apricot | Baking spices | Cinnamon | Toffee | Creme brulee | Kettle corn | Chewy with a thick mouthfeel
Dried cherries | Cigar box | Caramel chews | Allspice | Touch of oak | Long & sweet
O.K.I. Reserve Batch 1 blends MGP's five core mashbills which includes two bourbons, rye, corn whiskey, and light whiskey ranging in age from 3-10 years old (99.8% aged over 8 years) to create a cohesive and delicious end result.
The O.K.I. brand was started by New Riff Distilling as a sourced line with the intention of getting the distillery off the ground as whiskey stocks aged, awaiting the day they would become ready to be bottled. O.K.I. stands for Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, or as originally stated on the bottles, distilled in Indiana, bottled in Kentucky, and loved in Ohio. The brand eventually went defunct as New Riff phased it out replacing it with their own stock and new label. In 2020, local entrepreneurs Jake Warm and Chad Brizendine acquired and relaunched the brand, hoping to breathe new life into it.
Combining MGP’s five core mashbills, which includes multiple bourbons, rye whiskey, corn whiskey, and light whiskey into a cohesive end result is a challenge in-and-of-itself. The blend of whiskey ages is also interesting: 99% of this whiskey is aged over 8 years, some aged up to 10 years, but 0.2% of the blend includes a whiskey aged only 3 years. The original barrel fill dates on the back label range from 2007 to 2014, which on first glance suggests the whiskey is actually older than what’s stated on the front label. Notably, the whiskeys included in the blend were barreled twice before the final blend was created, and then stored in tanks prior to bottling. The ages stated on the front represent the original time the whiskeys were stored in barrels before being tanked.
O.K.I. knocked it out of the park with this release. The final blend is complex and delicious, reaching a height that is almost certainly greater than the sum of its parts…individual parts that many bourbon drinkers are quite familiar with. It’s a must have for bourbon and American whiskey fans at the $75 price point. If you do miss out on this batch however, some of Reserve Batch 1 was re-barreled, and is intended to be released as part of O.K.I.’s single barrel program when the youngest of the majority of the contents (excluding the 0.2% component) reaches a 10 year “stored in oak” mark.
