Taste Test: One of America’s Best Craft Distilleries Nailed the Tequila Cask Finish on Its Bourbon

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

In a world of endless cask-finished whiskeys, there are triumphs and there are failures. Sherry, port, and rum barrels have all been used for decades in categories ranging from scotch to Irish to bourbon, and the results are usually solid. Brazilian amburana wood, on the other hand, mostly makes whatever liquid is put inside taste like potpourri. Tequila casks fall somewhere in between, with an equal proportion of flame-outs and fireworks, and fortunately the new tequila barrel-finished bourbon from Woodinville Whiskey lands squarely in the latter category.

Woodinville isn’t technically a craft distillery anymore—it was acquired by Moet Hennessy, the parent company of scotch distilleries Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, in 2017. But it still basically operates like one, and is currently making some of the finest bourbon outside of Kentucky. The whiskey is distilled in copper stills, proofed to 55 percent ABV, and aged for a minimum of five years in barrels that are shipped to central Washington State which has hot summers and cold winters (unlike the greater Seattle area which is more temperate). The core bourbon is made from a mashbill of 72 percent corn, 22 percent rye, and 6 percent malted barley, and bottled at 90 proof. There are other cask finishes to try as well, and many are quite good (although some of the wine barrel expressions go a bit overboard for my taste).

The new Tequila Finish Woodinville Flagship Bourbon starts out as the core expression that was aged for almost six years. The whiskey was then put into extra añejo tequila barrels for eight months in the distillery’s Warehouse 1 (where other experiments in maturation have taken place), until it was deemed ready by co-founders Brett Carlile and Orlin Sorensen. This is not a novel cask finish by any means, but as mentioned before the results can be strikingly different. The new Cellar Collection release from Angel’s Envy is a rye whiskey finished in extra añejo Patron tequila barrels, and it does a decent job of combining the flavors of those two spirits. Blood Oath Pact 11 from Lux Row is a blend of bourbons, one of which was finished in añejo tequila barrels, and it too is a balanced whiskey. On the other hand, there are expressions from distilleries and brands like Mary Dowling, FEW Spirits, and World Whiskey Society that are less successful examples of this type of secondary maturation.

Fortunately, Woodinville’s new bourbon strikes a nice balance between the flavors that these disparate spirits are known for. The nose is rich and grainy, with an earthiness that reminds me of the smell of grass after it rains. That transforms into sweet (but not saccharine) notes on the palate, with flavors like caramel, butter pecan, milk chocolate, raisin, fig, cherry, and peach that end with a spicy, lingering finish (the fact that it’s bottled at 100 proof helps). Woodinville’s new Tequila Finish is a really good bourbon, albeit one that is being released in small numbers—less than 2,000 bottles total—so it might be hard to find. You can still purchase a bottle at the distillery’s website if you’re interested in trying—and I strongly recommend that you do, whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to the high-quality whiskey that this small Washington distillery continues to make.

Score: 90