Honeycomb | Butterscotch | Caramel corn | Cinnamon frosting | Marshmallow | Toasted oak

Honey Smacks cereal | Cornbread | Snickerdoodle | White pepper

Cinnamon | Toasted oak | Brittle | Burnt sugar | Gentle rye spice

Penelope Rio became a bonafide hit when it launched in 2023. Amburana finishing was red hot, and it quickly felt like every American whiskey producer had one of their own. Penelope’s version of an Amburana-finished bourbon was a bit different though, as it also included a honey finishing aspect to it. The result was an incredibly sweet and surprisingly flavorful finished bourbon that connected with many bourbon drinkers. Now on batch 4 (unknown to some, but batch 2 was mainly limited to the Texas market), Penelope is focusing even more on nuance this time out, a goal the company has been trying to achieve since their initial batch.

To create batch 4, the bourbon was first aged in honey barrels for 1-3 weeks, with some pulled after just a week and others pulled at three. According to Danny Polise, Penelope co-founder and VP of Product, Master Blender, the idea behind this was to create a better honey balance. Then, the whiskey entered second-use Amburana barrels, which were re-used from batch 3. To Polise’s surprise, the whiskey that came out of the Amburana barrels ended up being more potent than expected.

Batch 4 opens with the usual honey and cinnamon scents but tunes them to honeycomb and cinnamon frosting while adding butterscotch, caramel corn, and marshmallow. The palate features less Greek baklava this time out and instead layers in Honey Smacks cereal, cornbread, snickerdoodle, and white pepper. The finish offers tempered cinnamon and toasted oak before sweet brittle and burnt sugar take over, finally ending on a light rye spice pop.

Penelope has been trying to move away from the blunt kick, Amburana-heavy sip that was batch 1 and introduce some subtlety to their subsequent batches. They tried to temper the Amburana notes found in batch 1 by utilizing more of the honey finishing for batch 3, which leaned too far into honey territory. Batch 4 is more fine-tuned than ever, with honey and Amburana notes pulled way back and better balanced against each other. This is no small feat dealing with these particularly strong flavors, as it has taken four tries to get to this point.

That’s not to say batch 4 doesn’t pack the same acute flavors as before; this is still a sweet-tasting whiskey that leans slightly more to the honey side than Amburana. The latest batch comes across as less of a dessert-tasting whiskey and more stately. There will be fans who will clamor for a more uproarious release like batch 1 and others who enjoy the nuance and balance batch 4 provides. They’re almost entirely different releases in that regard, and it goes to show how unexpectedly nuanced this style of whiskey can be.  

Penelope Rio (Batch 4) (25-901) is approximately a 51,000 bottle release, up from 30,000 for batch 3. Much like how Penelope 17 Year American Light Whiskey saw a $30 decrease this year from its previous release, Rio batch 4 is $10 less than batch 3.