BOTTLE DETAILS

• DISTILLER: New Riff Distillery
• MASH BILL: Not totally disclosed, although honey-roasted malt is talked about.
• AGE: 6 years
• YEAR: 2024
• PROOF: 112 (56% ABV)
• MSRP: $300
• BUY ONLINE: Safai Bottle Store

STEVE’S NOTES

SHARE WITH: Any whiskey fan who likes weighty, barely woody bourbon.

WORTH THE PRICE: No. Sorry, however $300 is method an excessive amount of to spend on 6-year-old sourced bourbon.

BOTTLE, BAR OR BUST: Bar to see when you actually wish to spend $300 on a young-ish bourbon.

OVERALL: I dwell in Louisville and know the nice Mike Safai has completed for our enterprise neighborhood. That mentioned, I nonetheless recoil over a 6-year-old bourbon supplied at $300 a bottle. This is a great level of reference:

Followers of Heaven Hill’s 6-year bottled-in-bond bourbon (inexperienced on white label for many who hadn’t had it) beloved it not solely as a result of it was fairly good, they actually beloved its $13 retail value. Those self same followers, nevertheless, received audibly uptight when HH stopped making it for some time with a view to launch it anew at 7 years outdated for $49. As soon as everybody calmed down and surveyed evolving market costs for comparably outdated bourbon, they noticed that HH deserved to “take value” for a whiskey whose high quality and age had earned it.

And but we have now Safai bourbon getting into the market at roughly six occasions that value. That is powerful to reconcile even in nowadays of absurdly overpriced market entries, to not point out an total market hunch for American whiskey. Nothing private in opposition to Safai, who’s clearly made a greater dwelling at wonderful espresso and property investments right here than I’ve reporting about them. It is mentioned typically and pretty, to the daring typically go the rewards, and that value is daring.

So what’s it like, you ask? The nostril is loaded with roasted espresso and darkish toffee, aromas seemingly born of malt and yeast choice; two components New Riff is thought to control to good measure. You recognize the whiskey is weighty simply by swirling it within the glass: it is silent and coats the vessel’s inside. Do not go in search of flowers or sweet right here, simply look ahead to the oak, recent wooden mulch and tobacco boldness to climb out and say, “C’mon, sufficient of that swirling. Simply style me.”

By appeasing it, you get a great dose of oak–as if the spirit had been double oaked–adopted by bitter chocolate, dark-fired tobacco, some flamed citrus and vanilla. Had been I tasting this blindly, the medium dryness would lead me to guess it is older than 6 years, however its gentle and cherry pipe tobacco end claims in any other case.

Make no mistake, this can be a strong whiskey, one I would like to sip together with a fatty steak or smoked beef ribs. It is received a number of spine and respectable construction for a juvenile in bourbon years. However $300 for a bottle of it … I can not go there when there are much better whiskies on the market for a lot much less.

BRAND NOTES

Distilled at New Riff Distillery in Newport, Ky., the whiskey entered the barrels at 110 proof. The 2 barrels of this Single Barrel Safai Bourbon had been aged at New Riff for six yeas. Safai saved the barrels in storage for a further two years after shifting them to Left Financial institution Spirits in Louisville. The whiskey matured to 122 proof and was bottled at 112 proof. It retails at $300 and is accessible at retail and safaibourbon.com. Every Safai Bourbon shall be a once-in-a-lifetime marker of distinction for whiskey collectors. These aficionados of Safai can have early entry to subsequent releases.

Disclaimer: Bourbon & Banter acquired a pattern of this product from the model for overview. We respect their willingness to permit us to overview their merchandise with no strings hooked up. Thanks.