Buttered sourdough bread | Maple butter | Faint baking spices | Light table syrup | Fresh oak | Plain popcorn

White peppercorn spice | Gentle cinnamon spice | Dry oak | Vanilla powder | Dash of graham cracker | Gentle nutmeg

Cinnamon stick | Light oak | White peppercorn | Short

Bushwood Spirits is a golf-centric spirits company created by Brad Carpenter. An injury 13 years ago prevented him from playing golf, and the idea for Bushwood Spirits sprang while he was recovering. The company was formed in 2016 and sold its first bottle in October 2021. Bushwood Spirits bottles are adorned with a heavy metal golf ball topper and other golf-related iconography on their labels. The company’s bourbon releases often carry the name “Long Ball” or “Back 9,” while their ryes fall under the “Stillwater” moniker. For the company’s first-ever wheated bourbon release, the company was more straightforward, naming it just “Wheated Bourbon.”

Bushwood Wheated Bourbon starts off with promise, as an intriguing aroma delivers wheat-fueled scents. Buttered sourdough bread and maple butter lead the way, while lighter scents of baking spices, maple syrup, and plain popcorn form a pleasing supporting cast. The palate turns more towards gentle spice, as white peppercorn and cinnamon spice charge ahead, followed by dry oak and vanilla powder. The finish is straight and to the point, delivering notes of cinnamon stick, light oak, and white peppercorn before quickly parting ways. Bushwood Wheated Bourbon is a straightforward, no frills wheated bourbon that, while it’s not hitting a hole in one, it’s also not getting a double bogey either.

The bourbon in review is bottle number 192 of 242 from barrel #12.