Oak | Red berries | Vanilla | Light grain | Faint honeycomb | Ethanol

Red fruits | Oak | Black peppercorn spice | Rye spice | Spiced honey

Dry oak | Rye spice | Baking spices | Lingering dry heat

Old Hillside Bourbon Company was founded by Brian Burton, Courtney Tucker, Emmanuel Waters, and Jesse Carpenter. The company is a Black-owned and Veteran-owned bourbon brand that derives its name from Hillside High School in Durham, North Carolina.

For their latest limited edition release, the company highlights the Harlem Hellfighters. The 369th regiment was the first African American infantry unit to fight in World War I and served on the front lines for 191 days longer than any other American regiment in WWI. The whiskey features one of three distinct labels that honor James Reese Europe, Henry Johnson, and Benjamin O. Davis Sr. from the Harlem Hellfighters. The whiskey is finished for 191 days in French oak wine barrels as an acknowledgment of the 191 days the regiment spent on the front lines in France.

The whiskey’s time finishing in the French oak wine barrels is evident right from the start, with scents of oak and red berries leading the way. Joining them are sweet notes, along with a dollop of slightly off-putting ethanol. The midpoint reveals more red fruits and oak, along with various forms of spice that ramp up the heat. These spices focus their efforts and hone in on rye spice and baking spices along with dry oak to cap off the sip.

While the Harlem Hellfires have a well-documented history, the whiskey representing them does not. Little is provided in terms of background on this finished blend of whiskeys, including the mashbill, overall age, and source(s). Consumers deserve to know at least a little bit more about the whiskey when being asked to pay over $100 for a release. While a lack of information can be forgiven with a strong underlying sip, unfortunately, Old Hillside The Harlem Hellfires Whiskey is unable to provide that. Instead, its ethanol, bold spice, and dry oak components tend to clash, resulting in a whiskey that has trouble deciding exactly what it wants to be.