Fermented blackberry | Sugar | Black currant | Pie crust

Sugared blackberry | Vanilla | Sweet oak

Fermented blackberry | Mild oak

Purple Toad Winery & Distillery is located in Paducah, Kentucky, approximately 200 miles west of Bardstown, Kentucky. The company opened their doors in 2009, initially only selling wine from grapes grown on their vineyard. Only recently did they build an on-site still, unveiling their first clear spirits in December 2024. To make their fruit whiskeys, Purple Toad Winery & Distillery blends their homemade fruit wines with sourced Kentucky bourbons.

Instead of finishing their sourced bourbon in a wine barrel, Purple Toad tried something that is far less common. They took their blackberry wine and blended it directly with Kentucky-sourced bourbon. The result is an 80 proof sip that drinks more like an amplified fruit wine than a wine-finished bourbon. The resulting question then is: who is this for?

At $25, it’s priced more in line with a party drink than a typical sipping bourbon. Its flavors also reflect that, as this is a sweet and extremely fruity affair, to a significant fault, and will turn off those expecting a sip more equivalent to a barrel finished bourbon. Sipped neat, the blackberry wine flavors will overpower your palate. Sipping with ice helps mellow the sip considerably, making it more of a mixed cocktail. Finally, mixing in extra bourbon to find a better balance is a fruitless endeavor (pun intended). If you’re partial to blackberry wine, your mileage may vary. I found the company’s Purple Toad Peach Whiskey to be a more enjoyable experience, but the concept of blending fruit wine with bourbon remains an unproven practice.