Leopold Bros Bourbon 8 Year Inaugural Release

The nose opens with a light, bright and pretty aspect with aromas of fresh grain, orange peel, maple, lavender, caramel, vanilla bean, brown sugar, funnel cake, and rye bread. The palate has a gorgeous balance and a flavor set of blonde toffee, honey, orange peel, white peppercorns, funnel cake, rye spice and dark maple syrup. D&M Tasting Notes

The mashbill or recipe for this bottle is 65% Corn, 20% Malted Barley, and 15% Abruzzi Rye. The grain largely comes from Colorado with the Rye being grown specifically for Leopolds. For the Eight Year Bourbon that we have this month, there were a couple of unique things that Todd and his team have done. (They even did a ten minute video fully disclosing all aspects of their production.) The ABV had remained steady at 50% ABV for the first seven years, but with a warm summer the barrels had naturally increased their ABV to 55% ABV. With that extra heat, Todd and the team decided to finish this release in a freshly emptied Three Chamber Rye barrel for a couple of extra months. This gave them and us the extra sweetness that they were after with spice, heat, and inherent sweetness of Bourbon in tremendous harmony. Each bottle has a RFID tag in the neck that allows for full traceability and open disclosure of all aspects of the distilling process. Michael Kennel, D&M