Writing bourbon and whiskey reviews is a joy, and I truly love getting the chance to try new things all the time.

That being said, it’s easy to become burnt out, and I admit I’ve been feeling that a bit recently. How many different notes can you write before the vocabulary narrows, and how many new offerings can be tried before the hand gets tired of typing. I’ll be honest - I’ve been struggling to keep up and to write my 3-4 reviews a week. It’s not that the tastings have been less exciting, just not new enough to always merit a full writeup. And if you’re a distillery/producer who has sent me something and think I’m talking about you, I’m not - just speaking broadly.

A similar sentiment came up in fellow Bourbon & Banter contributor and accomplished whiskey writer Brett Atlas’ review on Ben Holladay Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon. In short, he had gotten bored, reviewing pours few would be able to try and wondering “at this point, do we really need more bourbon brands?”

It’s a valid question. It’s damn near impossible to keep up with the deluge of new brands, variations, and limited releases coming out on a daily basis (and I do mean daily). Some brands stick around; some are flash-in-the-pan money grabs; some are celebrity-backed brands that are simply a bigger distillery under a different label.

Differentiation is the new name of the game: how is your product different? how does your product represent something new or add something new to the conversation? How many times can you write that a bourbon has flavors of vanilla, caramel, coconut, and oak? How many stories start to blend together?

I love doing this, but it’s damn hard to keep up and harder to find new things to write about.

That’s why this bourbon has me so excited.

Very few distilleries have the financial backing or patience to wait until their first product is ready. Even fewer wait four years with the intention of creating a bottled-in-bond whiskey. A six-year-old Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon? Unheard of. The closest comparisons off the top of my head are Wilderness Trail and New Riff, both of which waited until they could sell a bottled-in-bond product. Still, those were only - and I use that word somewhat facetiously - four years old. Holladay Distillery waited an additional two years, and boy was it worth the wait.

Holladay Distillery is Missouri’s oldest distillery, the oldest business in the Kansas City area, and the namesake of a man who, according to the Distillery, was the largest private employer in the US in the 1860s and controlled much of the stage and freight traffic to the West. Named the “Stagecoach King”, Ben Holladay (and his brother, David) founded the distillery in 1856. The brothers came from Kentucky and knew even at that time what made good bourbon: limestone-filtered water, seasonal change, and good grains.

The history of the distillery is for them to tell, and I look forward to welcoming them to the Whiskey Ring Podcast to tell it. As far as the bourbon goes, though, there’s a part I want to highlight.

In the beautifully designed box in which the bottle and ephemera arrived came a brief flip-book. In this, on the page titled “Tradition,” a bourbon-centered story begins. Today’s Ben Holladay Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon uses the same mashbill as the one from 1856, still uses a column still with a doubler, and two cookers, one for corn at a high temperature and one at a lower temperature for the other more “delicate” grains.

Of course, it is impossible to recreate the exact bourbon put out by the Holladay brothers. Too many variables have shifted irrevocably. But, under the guiding eye of Master Distillery Kyle Merklein, the process has been resurrected. Often, the process - the temperatures, the still types, the fermentation times, things written and documented - are the closest we can get to recreating the conditions of the past.

Merklein and the Holladay team are transparent about not trying to recreate exactly what the distillery produced in the Antebellum South, nor what it produced under the McCormick name for decades. That’s not the point.

The point is to take what is known and apply it to today. Granted, the Holladay team clearly has the financial backing to sit on distillate for six years, a rare luxury. They can be picky about which barrels go into the batch, in this case 80% from the fifth floor of Warehouse C and the other 20% from the first floor of the same. The bourbon is non-chill filtered after being aged in Missouri white oak barrels with a char #3.

All of their bourbon conforms to the “Real Missouri Bourbon” designation, being mashed, fermented, distilled, aged, and bottled in Missouri, aged in oak barrels manufactured in Missouri, and using only Missouri-grown corn (other grains are not required to be grown solely in Missouri). The aging happens in my favorite large-type rickhouse, two metal-clad seven-story behemoths.

Why is all this enough to make me excited enough for a long-form entry like this? It’s new and old, using old techniques with new realities. It’s a six-year Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon and the first whiskey to come out of the distillery in 30 years. It’s a renewal and rebirth while being its own legacy-builder. It hits the classic bourbon notes while emphasizing flavors I would consider differentiated - perhaps this will be a new Missouri-style of bourbon.

And it comes with a screw top. Bless them.

This is an excellent start for the Holladay Distillery. This six-year-old Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon can stand up to similarly aged and proofed products, focusing on light brown sugar, peppery oak, and black tea. At $59.99, it’s on the higher end of the spectrum, but not out in left field. Don’t add water, it doesn’t need it, trust me.

The only thing that would make this better for me is to try the higher proof version, but that’s for another time. I do have questions about the proofing process, and look forward to asking the team about that and other facets. For now, I’m more than content to sip this bourbon, anticipating its future and excited to write about bourbon once again.

Thank you to Noelle and the Holladay team for providing a bottle for my review free of restrictions.

Ben Holladay Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey: Specs

Classification: Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Origin: Holladay Distillery

Mashbill: Undisclosed

Proof: 100 (50% ABV)

Age: 6 Years Old

Location: Missouri

Ben Holladay Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey Price: $59.99

Official Website

Ben Holladay Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes

Eye: Amber hued apple juice. Irregular rims and beady droplets.

Nose: Brown sugar caramel chews, Mary Janes, barest proof kick. Black tea, especially a London Fog with vanilla. Pomegranate molasses adds a tart, rich, and dark background tone.

Palate: Peppery oak kicks in right away, with astringency and barrel char. Follows with toasted vanilla, light brown sugar, and stone fruit fresh off the tree. Mouthfeel is silky if a bit thin, proof coming through well, carrying the brown sugar and peppery creamy oak to the finish.

Finish: Brown sugar lays heavily on the palate the longest, with oak settling into the corners of my mouth and under the tongue on a short-to-medium length finish.

Overall: Great flavors and well-placed proof. I do think there was a single element missing, perhaps a stronger mouthfeel, but for the first product out of the distillery in 30 years this portends great things.

Final Rating: 6.9

10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close (Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Old Label Batch 4 or 2, Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel)

9 | Incredible | Extraordinary (GTS, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B518 and B520)

8 | Excellent | Exceptional (Stagg Jr. Batch 10, Highland Park Single Barrels)

7 | Great | Well above average (Blanton’s Original, Old Weller Antique, Booker’s)

6 | Very Good | Better than average (Four Roses Small Batch Select, Knob Creek 14+ YO Picks)

5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary (Elijah Craig Small Batch, Buffalo Trace, Old Grand-Dad Bottled-in-Bond)

4 | Has promise but needs work

1-3 | Let’s have a conversation