Old Elk is a Fort Collins Colorado based distillery founded by Curt Richardson whose claim to fame is creating those very sturdy OtterBox cell phone cases in the 90’s. Long story short, in 2013 Curt created Old Elk and hired Greg Metze, who was a long time master distiller at MGP. Instead of purchasing MGP whiskey stock, Old Elk worked out a deal with MGP for Greg to distill whiskey at MGP for Old Elk. Though Old Elk now has their own still, MGP is still the main source for Old Elk’s products.
The bottle I’m reviewing today is a 6 year single barrel, wheated bourbon at 58% ABV, selected by Jay West for the r/bourbon single barrel program. This selection uses the MGP 45% wheated bourbon mash bill. Let’s begin!
Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested about 10 minutes.
Distillery: Old Elk Distillery.
Proof: 116.
Age: 6 Years.
Barrel: “Cosmic Wheat” Picked by Jay West.
Mash bill: 51% Corn, 45% Wheat, 4% Malted Barley.
Retail price: $86
Appearance: Dark caramel.
Nose
Crème Brule, peach, apricot, sage, pecans, orange, dough, allspice and oak. The nose on this bottle is amazing. It’s like a sweet cake dripping in caramel with some spice on top.
Palate
Excellent viscous mouthfeel. Matches the nose with what you would expect with caramel, plums and berries, toasted pecans, clove and orange peel at first. Then comes a slow buildup of allspice that tingles the palate and lasts into the finish.
Finish
Baking spice stays on the mid palate and lingers in the cheeks for a long time. As allspice settles down you are left with oak tannins that become soft leather, along with pecan, stone fruit and cloves coming back around and lasting for a long finish.
Conclusion
This is an incredible bottle. If a spicy crème brulee flavored cake transformed itself into a bourbon, it might taste something like this. It’s not super complex but what it delivers is delicious. It’s become one of my favorite wheated single barrel bourbons.
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.
