*Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Bourbon Whiskey Bottle. Image courtesy of Milam & Greene and Big Thirst Marketing.*

Blending is coming back, baby!

I got to meet Heather Greene, Milam & Greene’s Whiskey CEO, at The Archer in Jersey City earlier this month, at the final of three events launching Milam & Greene’s Unabridged Volume 1 in the New York City area.

Between that and the media event the night before (on which I met David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum, the two “co-authors”), it became clear that blending was the art being performed with this whiskey. Sure, there were bourbons in it from Texas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, some distilled by Milam & Greene’s Master Distiller Marlene Holmes, but the idea is that the final product is greater than the sum of its parts.

I must say, I agree.

I’ll also fully admit that of the three co-authors, I’m most familiar with Heather’s work. Noah and David are authors of the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails and Flaviar’s resident liquor experts, so there is certainly no slight meant to them.

Heather, on the other hand, was first brought to my attention at The Flatiron Room in New York City. She started there nearly a decade ago as the Director of Whiskey Education, teaching others about whiskey and voraciously soaking up knowledge. It’s no surprise that her career and reputation have grown - really, soared - exponentially at each step.

At Milam & Greene, though, Heather has more often taken the role of Whiskey CEO, meaning less time on the floor and on the stills and more time on payroll and cashflow management. In talking to her, it’s clear that that’s a necessary step, but that she also still loves blending. This bottling - and the conversations had with her - vibrates with her passion for blending and drive to retake “blended whiskey” for the future. (Side note: I have no doubt David and Noah have the same passion - Heather has simply been the one from whom I’ve heard that passion spoken about).

*David Wondrich, Noah Rothbaum, and Heather Greene, blenders and designers of Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Bourbon Whiskey. Image courtesy of Milam & Greene Whiskey and Big Thirst Marketing.*

So, what about the whiskey?

Well, according to Heather, she may or may not have had the original idea for the blend a few years ago, waiting a bit before telling anyone about it. Once she decided to, though, she knew David and Noah were who she wanted to partner with. Heather approached the pair last year, and Unabridged was born.

Between the three, there’s a wide variety of whiskey expertise. While each could speak to American whiskey varieties, they also have their favorites: David is usually a rye drinker, for example, and Heather has been pushing for more acceptance for younger whiskies, urging consumers to look past the age and judge the product itself (e.g. instead of saying “this is great for a 3-year-old bourbon”, think “we want this to be a great 3-year-old bourbon - did we succeed?”)

David described the goal best: they wanted a “conversation oil” whiskey, something on which you sip when with your friends, something that’s interesting enough to be a conversation point without being a distraction and, next thing you know, the glass is empty - and you need a refill. At the same time, this had to be a blended whiskey that stood up to the negative connotations of the past. It had to be a blended whiskey of today, not the Seagram’s 7 or Kentucky Gentleman of the past.

Most of all, this had to satisfy its makers. It had to be a whiskey “they would want to drink themselves,” in Heather’s words.

*Composition of Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Bourbon Whiskey. Image courtesy of Milam & Greene.*

To achieve this, Heather started out with the whiskey she knew best: that distilled by Marlene in both Texas and Kentucky using the same mashbills (a bourbon mashbill with malted rye).

Why include both? Because David, Heather, and Noah are all big believers in whiskey terroir. The same mashbill made by the same person in two different states on different stills will taste different, and there’s beauty in exploring each and bringing them together. At the end of the day, that translated to 15 of the 38 casks being of Milam & Greene’s own distillate. The remaining profiles were built using whiskies from Kentucky and Tennessee from four to fourteen years old.

Call it terroir, call it the convergence of three great whiskey minds, call it whatever you’d like: there’s something different here, and something interesting. Ask Heather, and she thinks it’s the malted rye. Noah also thinks the malted rye plays a part, but is less convinced that that’s the main difference. David is happy to have produced a blend of six bourbons that still maintains a strong rye presence.

Unlike most of Milam & Greene’s whiskies, this is also bottled at cask strength, 59% ABV/118 proof. The creators make clear that it’s fine to add water or put it on a cube, but I liked it neat as is (shocker, I know).

The final result is a blend of bourbon whiskies and around 1000 cases of intriguing “conversation oil.” On any metric by which David, Heather, and Noah would rate themselves, the product succeeds in spades. I want to keep talking about it. I talked with multiple people for hours about it (in Jersey, no less!). And at the end of it, all I could think about was what could come next - and how would this trio continue bringing blended whiskey back to glory.

Thank you to Milam & Greene and Big Thirst Marketing for providing this sample for review purposes without restriction.

Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Blended Whiskey: Specs

Classification: Blend of Bourbon Whiskies

Origin: Milam & Greene Distillery (Undisclosed Distilleries)

Mashbill: Undisclosed

Proof: 118 (59% ABV)

Age: 2 ¾ + Years (Components Up to 14 Years Old)

Location: Blanco, Texas

Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Bourbon Whiskey Price: $52

No Official Website (Yet)

Milam & Greene Unabridged Volume 1 Bourbon Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes

Eye: Black iced tea. Thin but solid rims and dripping legs.

Nose: Warm baking spices and a hit of proof. Browned butter in a pan. Toasted brioche. Dark fruit skins start to build, like plums and grapes. A smack of passionfruit acidity hits on the back end.

Palate: Vinous - lots of wine flavors, including chocolate and dark caramel. Barrel char and toasted American oak with a little French oak pepper and perfume. The woods add body as the chocolate turns darker. Hazelnut skins. This keeps adding complexity. Mouthfeel is coating, oily, settling heavily in the corners of my mouth. Not too filling, like chewing on a big piece of taffy.

Finish: Peppery rye and oak emerge here to counter some of the bitter chocolate. Medium length, the caramel sticking around the longest, like how your mouth feels after you finish a Werther’s.

Overall: A dark tone but quite a complex and evolving pour. The chocolate shows multiple facets, all interspersed with red fruits and pepper. Dark-cooked caramel and an oily mouthfeel combine to create an intriguing creaminess that’s reminiscent of whipped honey. No one flavor profile stands out too much, which is a sign of a great blend in this case.

Final Rating: 7.5

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