Crème brûlée | Vanilla frosting | Yellow cake | Oak | Light ethanol

Rye spice | Bing cherry | Oak | Mixed peppercorn spice | Leather | Dry baking spices | Thin mouthfeel

Rye spice | Light vanilla | Peppery oak | Leather | Faint lingering spice

Oaklore Distilling Co. was founded by neighbors Tom Bogan and Matt Simpkins. What started out as discovering a shared love for whiskey while walking their children to elementary school has evolved into a full-time distillery in Matthews, North Carolina. Eventually, the pair picked up Travis Masters to round out their partnership. The company currently does not distill, instead sourcing whiskey from Jackson Purchase Distillery in Kentucky and Southern Distilling in North Carolina. The company ages their whiskey in North Carolina’s Piedmont area, which they state “is an ideal climate, particularly when it comes to barrel aging.”

Oaklore Four Grain Bourbon’s background is one that needs to be pieced together through various data sources. While the company states that they utilize bourbon from their sister distilleries in Kentucky and North Carolina, it is really contracted distilled whiskey that is being utilized. From there, the whiskey is aged for 4 to 6 years before being blended together. The company goes on to take one final step with the blend, as Bogan and Simpkins, “re-barrels them for additional aging of approximately eight to twelve months in palletized,  non-temperature-controlled warehouses in the North Carolina Piedmont, a plateau of gentle hills between the flat Coastal Plain and the state’s majestic mountains” Oddly enough, neither the bottle itself or the company’s website discloses that the whiskey is rebarreled for final aging, which seems like a point they’d want to capitalize on in today’s current market.

Oaklore Four Grain Bourbon showcases its wheated bourbon and rye bourbon components throughout, however, they come across as more disparate versus comingled. The bourbon opens with sweet, pleasing dessert notes along with oak and a dab of ethanol. From there, it leans into its rye grain, pushing rye spice, peppercorn spice, and baking spices along with an intriguing Bing cherry note. The mouthfeel is thin, but the flavors are defined and lead into a dry, spice-filled finish with a focus on rye spice and peppery oak, which transitions to a faint lingering spice. For the price, I would have liked to see more cohesion between the wheated and rye bourbon components; however, Oaklore Distilling Co. accomplishes its goal of delivering a four-grain bourbon to those who may be new to the category.

The bourbon in review is from Batch 005.