Our First Single Barrel of 2023 - 9 Year MGP!!

With the barrage of 4 to 6 year old MGP Bourbon casks that have been on the market over the last year, we were taken aback by the 9 year old samples (and the pricing!) available to us from Coppercraft this past Fall. Everywhere you look, 4-5 year old barrels of Indiana Bourbon are on the shelf, many with custom labels and quirky graphics, but with that market as saturated as it is we wanted to find something exciting.

That’s when Coppercraft informed us of a small supply of 9+ year old cask strength Bourbon barrels and we didn’t hesitate. Our selection came in at 55.02% ABV and we couldn’t be happier!

You can really the taste the additional aging with every sip, each note lasting longer on the finish and with more richness than many of the other MGP barrels we’ve selected over the last few years. The integration of flavor is what also stands out. There’s honey, vanilla, oak, spice, and pepper, but each note is seamlessly blended into the next, never losing the harmony from front to back. The result is a whiskey that glides across the palate with weight and viscosity even at the 110+ proof.

Don’t wait too long on this one. It’s been a while since we had something this good for this price in the single barrel market.

Our First Ever Angel's Envy-Distilled Single Barrel

If you followed OUR VISIT TO LOUISVILLE THIS PAST AUGUST, you may remember my excitement in tasting Angel's Envy very own aged distillate for the first time. If you're confused as to what that means, let me clear it up: Angel's Envy has—up until very, very recently—purchased Bourbon from another Kentucky distiller and bottled that whiskey under the Angel's Envy label. In 2017 (or circa), they began distilling their own Bourbon. In 2022, that whiskey passed the five year mark.

We're excited to tell you that this barrel is one of the first from that new DNA. And, believe us, you can taste the difference.

While selecting a barrel, we were able to sample each Port-finished cask side by an unfinished cask of the new Angel's Envy Bourbon as a control. Knowing we were choosing from stocks of the new distillate, we wanted to give our customers the chance to taste the whiskey itself in as pure of a state as possible. Hence, we searched around for the Port cask with the least amount of influence, rather than the richest, most dessert-y expression. There was an incredible specimen that lived up to the hedonistic and supple delight that is Angel’s Envy at full proof, brimming with candied fruit and dark chocolate flavors. However, we chose the one that tasted the most like Bourbon and the least like Port. 

​And let me also tell you: the new Angel’s Envy-distilled Bourbon is GOOD. It's deliciously woody, mellow on the palate, rich up the middle, and seductively sweet on the finish—and that's before the port maturation! That little kiss of red fruit on the back end is most certainly present in this single barrel expression, but it's far from the focus. You may not even know it was finished in Port were it not labeled on the front of the bottle. If anything, it just tastes good old fashioned Kentucky Bourbon with a kick from the 110 proof.

We’re excited to be one of the first store's in America to bring you back a barrel directly from the distillery. We hope you love it as much as we do!

Tournament of Roses Returns

It's a celebration of roses!

As a special commemoration of Pasadena's world famous Tournament of Roses Celebration each New Year's Day, Four Roses has released a limited amount of its single barrel Bourbon to select Pasadena retailers as a special edition this holiday season!

Available only in Pasadena, we're making it available to all our web customers today and anyone who wants to place a pick-up order (if you want to pick up in another location, check out with "Shipping" and you'll see our new Ship to Store options).

While the Tournament of Roses edition doesn't differ from the standard Four Roses single barrel OBSV formula or proof, there is a limited amount of barrels selected and designated for the release. We've got a decent supply for the moment, but we don't expect them to last. There's so much Pasadena pride in our community at Mission, the staff may buy them all before our customers do!

Don't buy yours from a scalper on Ebay next month. Grab one from us today!

Two New Barrels

We've got more new single barrels of Bourbon than we can shake a stick at right now! Two new beauties just landed today, including one that was actually selected almost a year ago and got lost in transit, only to wind up in our warehouse today.

Last December we had the chance to snag an extra barrel of Knob Creek, but there was no time to get barrel samples to make the selection before the year-end deadline. That's when I reached out to Beam and the Noe boys and said: "I will entrust our selection to your fine palates."

Because this one was selected by either Fred or Lil' Book, I decided to have some fun with the name. This latest 9 year, 11 month old (just a month shy of 10) selection is called Noe's Nose Knows.

The nose of this whiskey is like butterscotch candy saturated in deep, dark aromas of oak and cedar. The palate is more of the same with dark cocoa nibs and tobacco leaf fleshing out some of that oakiness. The heat is strong in this one and I needed to dial it back with some water in order to break through to the core vanilla notes that are lying deliciously in wait. Another fun little number to add to the Knob Creek single barrel tally, and one that tastes absolutely nothing like the other two we currently have available.

Knob Creek Mission Exclusive "Noe's Nose Knows" 9 Year Old Single Barrel 120 Proof Kentucky Bourbon $59.99

When Vic and I visited Maker's Mark this past September, we spent quite some time trying to find a way to do something new and exciting with the Maker's Mark stave barrel program. Rather than select a single cask like most distilleries, Maker's allows you to choose a custom recipe of different stave types that will be inserted into a new barrel and filled with cask strength Bourbon for an extended aging period. Which staves you choose determines the flavor profile. What I told Vic was this: Maker's is a classic wheated Bourbon and we should try to make something that really accentuates that profile. The resulting recipe included 4 Baked American Pure, 4 Seared French Cuvée, and 2 Toasted French Spice staves: a combination that tasted like apple pie and sweet oak.

We decided to call it American Dessert as a result, and I think you'll all understand why when you taste it. There is nothing even remotely herbaceous about this whiskey. Every single flavor brimming at its core is rooted in cinnamon, sweet oak, caramel-covered apples and nutmeg sprinkled on top. The classic creamy wheated profile completely fools your tongue, tricking you into thinking this is 90 or maybe 95 proof instead of the 109.2 proof it actually is. Never in a million years would I assume this was 54.6% given how velvety it flows from front to back. Wheated Bourbon fans: this is your baby. You'll love this.

Maker's Mark Mission Exclusive "American Dessert" Private Selection 109.2 Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon $69.99

Fourth Floor Vanilla

Knob Creek "Mission Exclusive - Fourth Floor Vanilla" 9 Year Old Single Barrel 120 Proof Kentucky Bourbon $59.99

The second of 10 (yes TEN!) Knob Creek barrels from our most recent trip to Kentucky has arrived at the warehouse and is currently available to order! All of the barrels we selected are named after the floor of the rick house where the barrel was matured and the dominant flavor profile.

The "Fourth Floor Vanilla" barrel is like pancake syrup on the nose with intensely pungent cedar notes that will have you digging your nostrils deeper and deeper into the glass with every whiff. The intensity of the baking spices along with the 120 proof heat will punch you in the palate right off the bat, but after a few sips and a drop of water you’ll realize this is a giant vanilla bomb. Caramel, butterscotch intermixed with cloves and pine. The herbaceous and black pepper notes are almost entirely absent in this one. It’s like a vanilla candy dusted in cloves that was dropped in the forest.

One Helluva Impressive Whisky

I want to talk about a new whisky that really blew me away two weeks ago when I first tasted it, hailing from Tamdhu distillery in the Scottish Highlands. 

Before we talk about the whisky itself, let’s get into the Tamdhu timeline and some important numbers. Tamdhu was shuttered by Edrington (the owner of Macallan and Highland Park) starting in 2009. It was reopened three years later in 2012 after being purchased by Ian Macleod (the owner of Glengoyne and Rosebank). Shortly after, Tamdhu began releasing some of the aged stocks on hand. The 12 and 15 year old whiskies on the market today are still from those Edrington stocks.

For most of the Edrington years Tamdhu was primarily used for Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark (which I loved, especially the Naked Grouse that was pure malt in Sherry). From what I understand about the Edrington stock that was purchased as part of the deal, much of it was first-fill, full-term Sherry in European oak. To give you an idea of why that’s special, I can’t think of another standard release whisky from Scotland right now, other than something from Macallan (also Edrington) and maybe Glenfarclas, that has a whisky expression made up entirely of first-fill, full-term European Oak Sherry butts.

The Edrington stock is important here because a large percentage of the new Tamdhu Cigar Malt is made up of that inherited whisky, and 100% of the marriage is full-term, first-fill Sherry. To give you some context, the great Sherry-matured malts currently on the market—such as Aberlour, GlenDronach, GlenAllachie and Balvenie—are mostly finished for a couple of years in Sherry after maturing in hogsheads and other types of casks. If they are full term, they’re usually not first-fill European Oak butts from Jerez, but rather a mix of Bourbon casks and hogsheads treated with Sherry, then filled.

Maybe you’ll track down a European Oak single barrel here and there, but today it’s rare to find full-term European Oak Sherry in a global release, let alone first-fill Sherry. Those casks are almost always used in a marriage to flesh out the other ex-Bourbon and hogshead barrels. I honestly can’t remember the list time I tasted a marriage of solely first fill, full-term Sherry butts where I am 100% certain that’s the case.

Which is why I’m fired up about the new Tamdhu Cigar Malt. I’ve tasted it both with and without an actual cigar and it is nothing short of spectacular. Even if you hate cigars, you’re gonna love this whisky. If you love cigars, you won’t find a better pairing than this. 

Bottled at 53.8% ABV and oozing with Oloroso goodness, this is a robust, tobacco-laden Sherry malt that falls short of what most would consider a “Sherry bomb,” but does so in the name of both complexity and balance. There’s a lot more going on here than just Sherry. There are no specifics on the NAS label, but I can let you in on the insider details. From speaking with the folks at Ian Macleod, the understanding was that the age range of first-fill Sherry butts was 8 to 18+ years of age for the marriage (there may be some 20+ in here too, if I remember correctly) so you’re getting a level of complexity from the combination of casks that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

To be clear, however, this is NOT a sweet, supple, soft Sherry sipper. This is a dry, robust, spicy, and thick malt that is equal parts savory. You get rum cake, dark cacao, anise, diesel, blood orange, Christmas pudding, and all sorts of other goodness. Throw in the right cigar and now you’re really talking!!! It takes those notes and elevates them to new levels of deliciousness.

As much as I enjoy this whisky, the cost of the Tamdhu Cigar Malt is not cheap. It’s $279.99 a bottle. But before you freak out, ask yourself how much a marriage of 53.8% ABV, full-term European oak Sherry butts between 8 and 18 years of age from Macallan would cost you. I use this analogy because the same Edrington Sherry butts that Macallan utilizes were used to age the majority of this whisky. It was made by Macallan’s parent company and aged in Edrington warehouses before Ian Macleod took over.

Because of how tremendous this whisky is, I’m giving the Tamdhu Cigar Malt my highest possible recommendation right now. If you want to know what bottle I’ll be treasuring over the holiday evenings, it’s this one. If you miss the days when you shelled out $200+ for a bottle and it actually fucking delivered, this one’s for you. I can’t imagine anyone not being impressed with this.

-David Driscoll

Rye Whiskey For Bourbon Drinkers

I've been surprised by how many customers have told me they love Bourbon, but don't really appreciate rye whiskey because of the intense herbaceousness and peppery character of the rye itself, so I took it upon myself to find the sweetest, creamiest, and most Bourbon-like rye that I could get my hands on. This is rye whiskey for Bourbon drinkers. 

Templeton “Mission Exclusive” Single Barrel #15 Rye Whiskey $46.99

If you like Graham cracker pie crust, cinnamon-dusted oatmeal, and other combinations of sweet baking spices on top of grain-based goodies, then this bottle is for you. Bottled at 47.5%, it's neither too hot, nor too soft. It's right where it needs to be: completely in balance with every facet working in utter harmony. The oak spices on the nose and on the finish are also charming. This won't be our fastest-selling barrel of the year by a long shot, but I'm positive it will be a fan favorite amongst those who appreciate good whiskey.

-David Driscoll

Bordeaux's Last "Affordable" Luxury

In the Spring of 2016, I travelled all over Bordeaux with a group of colleagues for the annual en primeur tastings; a preview of the 2015 wines. I'm going to tell you now what we were telling each other back then: the 2015 Domaine de Chevalier is the wine of the vintage. Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, from the complexity of the flavors to the elegance in the glass, the 2015 Chevalier outshone its first and second growth Bordeaux colleagues, many at more than four times the price. No other Cabernet came close in our minds.

We all ordered cases for our personal collections upon return. We still talk about the wine to this day. Hence, when I saw five cases available direct from the domaine earlier this year, I jumped all over them. They've now arrived and quantities are scarce, but we have a few cases in both the Pasadena and Sherman Oaks locations at the moment.

What makes the 2015 Domaine de Chevalier so special? I'll do my best to succinctly explain.

2015 Domaine de Chevalier, Pessac-Léognan $99.99

First off, Domaine de Chevalier has been owned and farmed by Oliver Bernard since 1982 when he bought the property. His family's commitment to excellence over the last four decades has been widely documented. Vinous's Antonio Galloni remarked in 2014: "Olivier Bernard owns one of the crown jewels of Bordeaux, as these wines clearly make evident."

Second, Chevalier's terroir is completely unique in that it's one single square block, rather than a winding network of vineyards or series of parcels. It's a contained and isolated ecosystem that, as Oliver once told me, "is free from outside contamination." It's actually known by many as "the secret garden," as it's planted in the middle of a forest that protects it from extreme weather.

The result is an early-ripening cabernet that's often as aromatic as it is finessed, defined by mineral notes and hints of graphite—the calling card of the Graves—with light accents of pepper and spice. The 2015 Domaine de Chevalier holds a very special place in my heart, but you can read the reviews on the product page to see that I'm far from alone. Do not miss this bottle.

-David Driscoll