Woodinville Straight Bourbon Aged Eight Years Is Its Best Yet: Review

I should start this review by saying that I’m biased, but not because I have any specific interest or stake in Woodinville Whiskey, the craft distillery located just outside of Seattle. It’s because the distillery’s whiskey has consistently been excellent over the years, so when I heard about the new eight-year-old bourbon, its oldest to date, I assumed it would be very good. It turns out I was right, because this is a fantastic new bourbon that happens to have an interesting maturation story.

Maybe calling Woodinville a craft distillery isn’t entirely accurate anymore, given that it was acquired by Moet Hennessy, part of LVMH, in 2017 (the company also has a stake in WhistlePig). Still, the distillery operates on a pretty small scale, releasing bourbon and rye that can stand with the best from any of the legacy names in Kentucky. The grains come from a local farm in Quincy, Wash., the whiskey is distilled in pot stills, and it’s matured in toasted and charred barrels in Central Washington for a minimum of five years. This new bourbon, however, was aged for eight years, which has had a significant impact on this already tasty whiskey, but there’s a bit more to this than just length of maturation.

The core Woodinville bourbon is made from a mashbill of 72 percent corn, 22 percent rye, and six percent malted barley. This eight-year-old version, however, was made from a higher-rye mashbill of 55 percent corn, 35 percent rye, and 10 percent malted barley. Then there’s the maturation. Eight years ago, founders Brett Carlile and Orlin Sorensen decided to deviate from their usual style and fill eight different barrels built by Independent Stave Company just to see what would happen. Basically, there were a range of different char levels and different amounts of open air seasoning time. After four and a half years, they ran tests on the whiskey aged in the heavily toasted, lightly charred barrel made from staves seasoned in open air for 24 months. They found that the whiskey had the chemical components they desired for flavor, but decided to let it age for another four years to remove some of its graininess.

And that’s what is in this bottle. This is an excellent bourbon, and very much unlike Woodinville’s core release in revealing ways. There are deep notes of fruit on the palate, with flavors like dried apple, peach, and cherry leading the way. There are also notes of spiced nuts, caramel, tannin, pepper, and a strong dose of maple syrup. An eight-year-old bourbon might be industry standard for other distilleries, but for one that has only been releasing whiskey for about a decade it’s a real achievement (and no, age doesn’t always equal quality, something I’ve said over and over again). The flagship five-year-old expression is always a sure thing, a whiskey I would drink any day. But this new older bourbon stands out as being a unique and vibrant new release, and might just be Woodinville’s best yet. The plan is to release nine and 10-year-old expressions over the next two years, and I can’t wait to taste them.

Score: 95

Every week Jonah Flicker tastes the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Friday for his latest review.