Toasted oak | Pancake mix | Vanilla bean | White peppercorn | Faint buckwheat | Sandalwood

Sweet vanilla cream | Rye spice | Light tannic oak | White peppercorn spice | Faint spiced honey

Rye spice | Spiced ginger | Prickly oak | White peppercorn spice | Vanilla | Lingering cinnamon spice

Pursuit United Bourbon is produced by Pursuit Spirits, whose two co-founders got their start in the world of American whiskey as part of the podcast team at Bourbon Pursuit. The brand has stuck with the same three sources for their bourbon as they continue to hone their blending skills. To create Kodam Mizunara Bourbon, the company finished and blended two lots of bourbon, both of which share the same triple mash bourbon base. The first lot was finished in Mizunara barrels and the other in infrared-toasted American oak. The company states that this bourbon is named ‘Kodama,’ a term for the tree spirits in Japanese folklore. It serves as a nod to the life and spirit of the oak itself, which is fundamental to the brand's craft of whiskey making.”

The bourbon’s time in various oak barrel types is accentuated throughout the sip. Scents of sandalwood spotlight the Mizunara finish, while pancake mix and buckwheat scents highlight the wheat component. While the rye and infrared-toasted components aren’t that noticeable up front, they roar to life in the palate and highlight various spice notes along with a light tannic oak. Sweet scents from the wheat grain add balance before fading to black in the finish, where a barrage of spice notes vie for attention. Ending on a lingering cinnamon spice note, the sip stands apart from other bourbons that are solely finished in Mizunara barrels.

Mizunara finished bourbons continued to gain in popularity over the last year or so. As this type of finishing barrel becomes less rare, it’s fun to see how companies are putting their own twist on incorporating it into a larger blend. In the case of Pursuit United Kodam Mizunara Bourbon, the Mizunara finish adds in hints of sandalwood and creamy flavors while trying to help balance the prickly spice of the rye component and infrared-toasted oak barrels. In the end it comes across as less Mizunara-focused than some may prefer, but this is a fun take on a Mizunara finished whiskey and a solid overall bourbon from Pursuit Spirits.

The bottle in review is from batch code 9CF.