Doc Swinson’s Bossa Nova Bourbon Finished in Amburana Casks
I’ll come right out and say it: I don’t like amburana.
I get the appeal: another oak variety (Brazilian oak, to be specific) to play around with, one that brings a strong baking spice profile and an exotic mystique. You can make it into full-fledged casks, you can use chips in a makeshift tea bag, you can toast those chips, you can put a stave or five in a barrel. Many ways to use it, and the beer and whiskey industries have gone full-in on it.
Please, please: stop.
Including this bottling from Doc Swinson’s, I’ve had exactly two publicly available whiskies that have come within a mile of amburana that I’ve thought got close. I’ve tried cachaça, a Brazilian sugarcane-based spirit traditionally aged in amburana, and while that fit better it was still a stretch.
The rest? I’m sorry…they were not good. Some were outright undrinkable.
Here’s the problem…well, the main one…amburana is like peat. Human taste buds are equipped to taste peat as low as 1 part per million (ppm). For reference, that’s about what you’ll get out of an Old Pultney 12, a low-peat Bunnahabhain, or a Talisker. Talisker’s malt is peated to about 5ppm during the kilning stage. Through malting, mashing, and distilling, about half of that peat will be lost before the spirit enters a cask. Let’s be generous and say it’s at 3ppm before casking. Peat levels drop during maturation, and the spirit is diluted with unpeated water before being bottled. It’s not a bad estimate to say that a final Talisker 10-12 will be around 1ppm by the time it hits your glass, and you’d still notice the peat.
Amburana is like that. It takes so little to affect anything it touches. To me, it tastes like cinnamon essential oils verging on artificial, an extremely potent perfume that blows away every other flavor like a bunker buster. In the five years since Whistlepig brought the first amburana-influenced whiskey to market, few producers seem to have grasped this fundamental concept: when you’re dealing with a new, exotic, powerful flavor, less is more. Less time, less wood contact, more frequent tasting, and less time. Did I mention less time?
Besides this Doc Swinson’s Bossa Nova, the other product I thought came close was Starlight’s Cigar Blend, the first bourbon to use the wood. Batch 2 was preferable to batch 1, probably because the casks had already seen some action and the first batch had taught some lessons. In between then and now, a dozen-plus brands have brought out the amburana.
Three years later, Jesse and the team at Doc’s used full-sized casks that took between a few days and a week or two to achieve the affect they sought.
I had a candid conversation with Jesse about this release. In a rarity for a Doc’s product, I didn’t think the whiskey and finish were in balance. Whenever I get a product to try that I don’t enjoy as much or about which have reservations, I talk with the producer to make sure I have all the facts before opening my mouth. Without disclosing the full conversation, it’s fair to say that Jesse understands how powerful amburana is. And I gave him credit for coming close, as close as Starlight did and closer than anyone else.
At the end of the day, though, I came to the same conclusion: amburana, even used sparingly, is not good. It does not deserve to be this hyper-popular fad without end. Producers shouldn’t be lionized for using it, especially when whatever whiskey is underneath is indeterminable under the oaky cinnamon challenge that is amburana. Maybe I’m in the minority and I’ll get a few emails about how wrong I am. Maybe some people will come out of the woodwork (no pun intended) and agree.
Either way, here’s where I’m planting my flag: Doc Swinson’s - Jesse and his team - are the best finishing house in the US right now, and it’s not close. They got me to enjoy a tequila finish and a rum-finished bourbon. Even with the amburana, they did it the right way: literally day by day with a product they understood. I was waiting to make a final determination until I tried their Bossa Nova.
If they can’t make it work, I consider the matter closed. So, knock it off, let the amburana regenerate, and onto the next fad.
A sample of this bottle was provided at no cost by Doc Swinson’s. All opinions herein are my own.
Doc Swinson’s Bossa Nova Bourbon Finished in Amburana Casks: Specs
Classification: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Producer: Doc Swinson’s
Mashbill: Mashbill 1 - 60% Corn, 36% Rye, 4% Malted Barley | Mashbill 2 - 75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley
Proof: 112.8 (56.4% ABV)
Age: 5+ Years Old
Location: Indiana and Washington
Doc Swinson’s Bossa Nova Bourbon Finished in Amburana Casks Price: $84.99
Doc Swinson’s Bossa Nova Bourbon Finished in Amburana Casks: Tasting Notes
Eye: Dark black tea. Thin to disappearing rims, medium drops hold on.
Nose: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, buttery cinnamon sugar toast (real Southern style), but not as powerful, perfumed cinnamon like others. Bourbon still hard to make out, but at least you know there’s something there.
Palate: Cinnamon bark steeped in bourbon tea. Front tongue heat but not on the tip, indicating proof rather than rye or oak spice. Slightly burnt barrels, toasting baking spices - especially cinnamon. Cinnamon rice pudding and flan custard with the caramel catching. Mouthfeel is coating, cooling, piquant and moderately filling, some mint or eucalyptus growing from the throat.
Finish: The mint grows stronger and clearer, lending an essential oil quality to this as it moves forward in my mouth. The amburana fades just enough to allow some bourbon vanilla to bloom, but that coating is always there.
Overall: Still not a perfect pairing, but by far the closest. The cinnamon has a clear flavor and complexity in addition to being a sledgehammer. The bourbon is dominated throughout, peeking through the curtain as the lights go up.
Final Rating: 6.6
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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