Lucky Seven Spirits is a non-distilling producer known for the Lucky Seven line of bourbons that have earned a great reputation. Especially the single barrel 14 Year Proprietor (which I also reviewed) and is one of my favorite bottles of the year. I was surprised when I happened to see a Lucky Seven “The Holiday Toast” sitting behind the register at my local store. It’s not a brand that I’ve seen locally before or since. The Holiday Toast is a blend of Kentucky bourbon of unknown age additionally aged for an unknown time in toasted new American oak barrels. The Lucky Seven Spirits website doesn’t give much info on this or any of their other selections. Although transparency isn’t one of Lucky Seven’s strong suits, I had a good feeling about this bottle. Let’s see if I’m right or if this is an instant regret.
Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested about 15 minutes.
Distillery: Unknown Kentucky. (Most likely Barton 1792).
Proof: 115
Age: NAS.
Baatch #: 3.
Mash bill: Unknown. (Mostly likely, 74% Corn/18% Rye/8% Malted Barley).
Price: $85.
Appearance: Dark golden amber.
Nose
Wow, this smells good! Toffee, maple syrup, cocoa, plums, peach, cherry, vanilla, cinnamon spice, oak and barrel char. This expression lets you know it’s double oaked in the best way. The rich toffee, cocoa, and sweet notes are blended incredibly well with pitted fruits with a perfect balance of cinnamon spice, vanilla and oak. It’s hard to keep my nose out of this glass.
Palate
This has a very good medium viscous mouthfeel. The nose continues on to the palate with toffee, brown sugar and cocoa, pitted fruits of peaches, plums, cherry, vanilla, orange citrus and barrel char. Cinnamon spice enters mid sip covering the whole palate with a good helping of oak. The double oak treatment isn’t making this batch too sweet or too oaky. It’s just right. You could say it’s the “double oak Goldilocks zone”. The balance of spice is excellent as well. The 115 proof point does a great job of lifting up this whole profile, all while creating a very easy drinking sip. This is a delicious double oaked bourbon done right.
Finish
As cinnamon spice lingers, tannins of soft leather and tobacco linger with notes of cocoa, toffee, vanilla and subtle stone fruit. This has an enjoyable medium long finish with no astringency or bitterness.
Conclusion
Although I wouldn’t consider The Holiday Toast to be super complex, I love the overall flavor profile of this batch and how well it’s put together. Before opening it I was hoping that there were similarities to the L7 14 year “The Proprietor” single barrel I have and luckily (pun intended) there are. Lucky Seven offers other selections such as the 6 year single barrel “The Proprietor” and a 6 year blended “The Jokester” so it’s possible that The Holiday Toast could be a blend of 6 year barrels that have been additionally aged. I suppose it’s also possible for The Holiday Toast to be blended using older barrels too. I know that’s wishful thinking but one thing’s for sure, this batch started out with well picked barrels in the first place, then carefully blended and doubled oaked for just the right amount of time. It’s possible that folks who aren’t crazy about doubled oaked bourbons might enjoy this one. The Holiday Toast is by far on the top of my list of favorite double oaked expressions of this year.
Rating: 7.8/10
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
