Oak | Leather | Rye grain | Light caramel sauce | Earthy

Sweet vanilla | Rye spice | Lightly charred oak | Cinnamon stick | Green peppercorn | Faint yellow cake

Rye spice | Extremely dry charred oak | Leather | Touch of vanilla powder | Extremely dry

The name Branch & Barrel is a cheeky yet literal nod to how the company got started. States Distillery Director Mitchelle Nester, “We started in one of the owner's garages distilling out of a turkey fryer and a hot water heater still while aging our product on tree branches from the owner's backyard for friends and family.” The Colorado-based distillery focuses on local through and through, utilizing local grains and trucking in water from their private well. Additionally, they focus on keeping scrap metal out of local landfills by building all of their equipment in-house from of scrap metal. While the company’s Flagship Bourbon utilizes only two grains, the high rye bourbon adds San Luis Valley rye to the mix.

Craft distilleries always bring a new perspective to the broader bourbon landscape. Whether it’s local grain or aging conditions, or in this case, homemade distillation equipment, they all add something to the resulting sip. In the case of Branch & Barrel High Rye Bourbon, the whiskey delivers a more earthy pour, which is noticeable right from the start. The midpoint continues the theme, weaving in light, sweet notes before it veers 90 degrees right into a wall of dryness. The finish focuses on traditional flavors; however, the oak notes are overpoweringly dry, resulting in a hard stop to the end of the sip. The end result is a bourbon that, while unique, leans too much into its earthy nature due to its dry finish. 

The bottle in review comes from batch HRB1.