Rebel 12 Year Old Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon
Rebel 12 Year Old Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon Whiskey Bottle. Photo respectfully borrowed from Thebourbonwhiskeylibrary.net, whose review is referenced in the writeup.
This distillery-only release from LuxCo was, to put it bluntly, one of my biggest failed hunts of 2022.
I don’t get FOMO for every distillery-only release (mostly because I have a day job), but this one had me curious right off the bat.
This bottle was one-per-person, a single barrel bottled at 12 years old and at 63.25% ABV/126.5º. How could I not be interested in a wheater at that proof and age? We’re in William Larue Weller territory stats-wise here, with the same mashbill as Heaven Hill’s Larceny and Old Fitzgerald wheated bourbons (68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% barley).
Thankfully, some other friends of mine had better strings to pull and thus I found myself with a sample. I held off on tasting it until I felt I was ready - this was a special bottle, after all. I might try to blind my pours as frequently as possible, but what do you put alongside a 126.5º wheated bourbon that could throw you off?
The day arrived to taste it and…meh. I was viscerally disappointed.
It’s not bad by any means. There are no off flavors, no minerality, no funk, nothing that shouldn’t be there. The proof holds up right where it should, and there are plenty of brown sugar and caramel corn profiles that cycle through.
There’s just something missing, though. I didn’t notice at first because the nose is frankly award-worthy, everything I expected the pour to be extracted into my nostrils. The wheat bread, dark honey, dried cherries, caramel corn, and toffee sauce all entranced me and had me salivating for the sip.
The sip was also quite flavorful at first, with a clove-spiced caramel corn and brown sugar bomb hitting the palate. That’s where things started to go wrong.
A barrel proof whiskey at 12 years old in new oak cooperage should have oak on it, and more than just some. This bottle didn’t have to be woody, per se, but I definitely expected oak and wood creaminess with some tannin from the older wood. As someone who generally doesn’t enjoy woody bourbons, I found myself strangely nostalgic, missing the oak as a necessary component of longer-aged whiskies. The flavors were there, and what I could get of them were delicious - but that oak was completely absent, perhaps excepting only the pepperiness on the tip of my tongue.
I’m torn on this review: on one hand, I know my palate and know it was working when I tasted this (otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it!). On the other, the release was near-universally loved, and while the flavors match to what I found, not a single other review, formal or anecdotal, mentioned an absence of oak or feeling like something was missing. See The Bourbon Whiskey Library’s review for a great example of this.
Oh well. Maybe this one just didn’t hit me right. Again, the flavors of brown sugar-coated popcorn and cloves are incredible - I wish there were a backbone to hold them up.
Rebel 12 Year Old Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon Whiskey: Specs
Classification: Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Origin: Lux Row Distillery (Sourced Heaven Hill)
Mashbill: 68% Corn, 20% Wheat, 12% Malted Barley
Proof: 126.5 (63.25% ABV)
Age: 12 Years Old
Location: Kentucky
Rebel 12 Year Old Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon Whiskey Price: $199.99
Rebel 12 Year Old Single Barrel Wheated Bourbon Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Bronzed amber. Medium rims, no drops or legs.
Nose: Warm - whole wheat bread and dark honey. Hazelnuts, dried cherries unsweetened, then a burst of caramel corn coated in brown sugar. Toffee sauce adds to the party that somehow falls short of being too sweet. Delectable.
Palate: Clove-spiced Cracker Jacks minus the peanuts. Black pepper, proof hits at face value initially before dropping down. Mouthfeel is far thinner than I expected, too, though the proof helps prop up the present flavors. Brown sugar, cloves, unsweetened chocolate, roasted corn all settle under the tongue, but without any oak behind them the flavors are painfully thin.
Finish: The caramel corn is joined by Dr. Pepper syrup, but there’s still something missing. Short side of medium, stays hot throughout.
Overall: There’s something missing here. For a 12 year old bourbon, there should be oak, and not a small amount, yet I find zero. The top-shelf nose shows what could be, yet the lack of oak/wood severely undercuts what could be a great if not excellent bourbon.
Final Rating: 6.0
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
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