Peerless

Dating back to the 1880s, Peerless Bourbon was a victim of Prohibitoin and disappeared into obscurity until Corky and Carson Taylor refurbished a building in downtown Louisvilla, Kentucky, obtaining the original plant number (DSP-HY-50) to enable them to use the Peerless name, filling their first barrel of whiskey in March 2015. Peerless Small Batch Bourbon was first released in June 2019 with an undisclosed mashbill, but research indicates it's between 65-81% corn 10-20% rye and 9-15% barley.

This Single Barrel release was picked by Marcia Wells, owner of 1st Avenue Liquors in St. Petersburg (and also depicted on the side label), along with members of the Tampa Bay Bourbon Boyz, who all travelled to Kentucky in Summer of 2022 to tour a number of distilleries and sample individual barrels.

They dubbed this particular 5 year old pick 'Cream Of The Crop' as it was one of the best all-round whiskies they had encountered to that point in the trip. Having tried it myself, I can see why - to start with there is a distinct chocolate-y note on the nose, but one that is slightly dry - Hershey's chocolate as opposed to creamy Cadbury's milk. The palate has a distinct red fruit note which gives hints of some kind of red wine barrel involvement (even though there hasn't been any!) alongside dried chili flakes and a good oaky thwack on the finish. It's incredibly complex - a drop of water opens out the red berry notes and lengthens the warm oak - and not one for the faint-of-heart!