Kings County Distillery is New York City’s oldest operating whiskey distillery, the first since Prohibition. Founded in 2010, Kings County uses New York grain and traditional distilling equipment to produce whiskey in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, just steps from the former waterfront distillery district and the legendary site of the 1860s Brooklyn Whiskey Wars. Every drop the distillery sells is made in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Kings County Barrel Strength Bourbon is blended from older barrels than their flagship bourbon, aged anywhere from four to seven years. Bold and complex, this is their most consistently acclaimed limited-release offering. Among many awards, Breaking Bourbon listed it as a “Best Craft Whiskey” of 2020.
Batch 17 is a chocolate fudge round oak bomb. Underlying with luscious caramelized sugars with wafts of red and purple fruits.
Cinnamon and black pepper spices immediately before big malty goodness. Cocoa powder tumbled truffle, dark fruits, and massive waves of dry oak.
The finish is big, spiced, and filled with oak.
After evaluating their inventory of Empire Rye in preparation for this year’s annual blend, the blending team determined that the bulk of their Rye inventory had matured — and concentrated — in ways that resembled many of their best cask-strength bourbon offerings.
Whereas last year’s multiple-award-winning Batch #7 aimed to articulate the complexity of their New York-grown Danko rye, this year’s Batch #8 emphasizes the complexities also gained through lengthier small-format barrel maturation. This blend features a diverse split of 10-, 15-, and 53-gallon barrels between the ages of 3 and 6 years old.
French vanilla, toffee, butterscotch, chocolate milkshake, grape juice concentrate and oak – slightly herbal underneath. A fantastic nose that doesn’t remind me of a rye.
Big caramel, butterscotch, and chocolate ganache bomb. Luscious and complex spices tingle but always balanced with creamy, malty, oaky goodness.
The finish trails long and spiced with ripe cherry, blackberry, maple syrup, and allspice.
If you’ve been wanting to try a bourbon or rye with a slightly higher malt content, or been looking to try Kings County for the first time, you don’t want to miss out on these fantastic releases.
