The Morning Glory Buckwheat Bourbon
This review is a few weeks late, but I promise it’s worth it.
Coming from the mind of Master Distiller Alan Bishop, The Morning Glory Buckwheat Bourbon takes a widely underused grain and inserts it as the flavoring grain for a new type of bourbon. The Morning Glory is also bottled-in-bond, so at least four years old. Spirits of French Lick generously sent samples of this and the upcoming William Dalton Wheated Bourbon, which I’ll be posting about shortly.
Buckwheat - also known as kasha when roasted - has a nutty flavor all its own. Alan and Co. seemed eager to play up that flavor as much as possible, including both toasted and un-toasted buckwheat in the mashbill and using a char #2 barrel, below the more common char #3 and #4. There’s enough kasha in there to deliver on the nuttiness, reminding me of many a family dinner with kasha varnishkas, buckwheat with bowtie pasta.
The name is a fascinating story - rather than paraphrase, I’ll quote right from Spirits of French Lick (SoFL):
The name comes from a Tavern or Inn that operated near Campbellsburg, Indiana from the earliest of days and up through prohibition. Some even allege during prohibition it operated on the second floor of the Old Clifty Mill. In those days "Inns" were not what we think of now. They typically were on well marked and traveled trails such as Boones Trace or the Vincennes trail and were a stopping point for market rustlers. The Morning Glory tavern was no exception as it was located in the vicinity of multiple well known distilleries in Hop-Thompson district.
SoFL is proud of its Indiana distilling heritage, and keeping the heritage alive through names is a great way to do so. Talking to Alan on the podcast, the pride he has in heritage distilling methods, finding and cultivating recipes and yeast strains, being an iconoclast sometimes on purpose and sometimes accidentally, all come through in every word. He’s also popularized “the shocker” as a viable alternative to the typical peace sign in photos (thank goodness they have their own marketing team, right?).
Alan is a reluctant genius, a mad scientist, an experimentalist, and an historian wrapped into one, though he’d probably dispute at least two of those. After our conversation, he introduced me to friends across the pond who could talk about the origins of Irish whiskey and the chemistry behind Scottish malts, all topics he has studied himself to know as much about his craft as possible. I’ll be asking him for more recommendations soon after I finish the first few publications on the list.
the Morning Glory Buckwheat Bourbon: Specs
Classification: Bourbon
Origin: Spirits of French Lick
Mashbill: 66% Corn, 12% Rye, 16% Kasha (toasted buckwheat), 2% Buckwheat, and 4% Malt
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Age: 4-5 Years Old
Location: French Lick, Indiana
The Morning Glory Buckwheat Bourbon Price: $55
The Morning Glory Buckwheat Bourbon Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Light amber.
Nose: Grainy, not in a bad way. Light nose, smells a little husky, darker than a corn or malt or even a rye. There’s a sorghum quality here, and not knowing what buckwheat distillate should be like I can only imagine this is right.
Palate: Ok - that tastes like buckwheat. Kasha in liquid form with a nice toasted grain profile. Close to a rye in flavor if I had to choose a grain to compare, but less sweet and more full-bodied. Mouthfeel is rich and heavy, settling under the tongue firmly, but also remains lightly coating with a lovely warm, savory spice.
Finish: Medium-length, with the stronger buckwheat notes fading to the toasted grains. A few fruity notes at the end, indeterminate but there.
Overall: The true kasha flavor is most prominent on the palate, and it’s a cool flavor to get. The rest is a good to great bourbon, solid if not overly complex. This show is all about what buckwheat and kasha can be, and SoFL delivers that in spades. Can’t wait to see where this goes.
Final Rating: 6.8
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close (Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel)
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary (GTS, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B518 and B520)
8 | Excellent | Exceptional (12+YO MGP Bourbon, 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 | Sub-par | Many things I’d rather have (A.D. Laws Four Grain, Compass Box “Oak Cross”)
3 | Bad | Flawed (Iron Smoke Bourbon, Balcones)
2 | Poor | Forced myself to drink it (Buckshee Bourbon and Rye)
1 | Disgusting | Drain pour (Virginia Distilling Co. Cider Cask)
More Heaven Hill Reviews
