The first 500 numbered bottles of Woodinville Bourbon Sauternes Finish will be released exclusively at the distillery’s Harvest Release on Saturday, October 19 at $69.99 per bottle.
Bourbon Lens Tasting Notes – Woodinville Bourbon Sauternes Finish:
- Nose: smarties candies, fresh sliced apples, and brown sugar
- Palate: warming, baked raisin bread, vanilla, and a nice amount of booziness
- Finish: lingering vanilla and baked apples à la mode.
- Impressions: I have a soft spot for Sauternes cask finishes, given that two of my first barrel picks in this hobby featured Sauternes finishes. This came at a time before I was even fully aware what type of wine that was. I tend to find notes of apples and vanilla when tasting a Sauternes cask finished whiskeys and this Woodinville Bourbon was no exception. The bourbon then veers sharply away from the delicate, lighter flavors I uncovered initially and ends with a nice warming wake-up call from its proof. This fact surprised me slightly in that this bourbon was bottled at 105 proof, which I would typically consider a moderate proof point and within my ideal range for whiskey. While surprising, this does not mean it was not enjoyable. I enjoyed this whiskey immensely. Woodinville’s 2024 Harvest release of Bourbon Sauternes Finish is a great whiskey with ample complexity to help you welcome those cooler fall days.
Details on Woodinville Bourbon Sauternes Finish:
This fall, as part of its annual Harvest Release, Woodinville Whiskey will introduce Woodinville Bourbon Sauternes Finish, a grain to glass offering, priced at $69.99 per bottle.
Woodinville co-founder and distiller Brett Carlile describes it as having “notes of raisins and ripe plum on the nose that give way to vanilla-soaked pears and kiwi on the palate, with a creamy toffee finish, complimenting the traditional Bourbon characteristics.”
Woodinville Bourbon Sauternes Finish earned Double Platinum in Fred Minnick’s 2024 ASCOT competition earlier this year. This small-batch bourbon starts with traditionally grown corn, rye and malted barley. All of Woodinville’s staple grains are cultivated exclusively on the Omlin Family farm in Quincy, Washington. The grains are mashed and distilled in the Woodinville, WA distillery, then trucked back over the Cascade Mountains for barreling and aging in their private barrel houses, where Central Washington’s extreme temperature cycles promote the extraction of natural flavors from the oak. Prior to being coopered, the barrel wood is seasoned in open air, rain, wind, sun, and snow for eighteen months, softening the wood’s harsh tannins. The barrels are then slowly toasted and heavily charred to further enrich the wood’s desirable flavors. After the whiskey was fully mature, it was transferred into freshly emptied Sauternes casks.
The Harvest Release will also feature Woodinville Whiskey’s Founder’s Find, priced at $129.99 per bottle (107 proof). The first 500 numbered bottles of this whiskey will also be available that day, when Brett and Orlin will be joined by Fred Minnick to taste the whiskeys and sign bottles.
Both Harvest Release whiskeys will be available online at a later date.
About Woodinville Whiskey Company
Woodinville Whiskey Company is a craft distillery founded by two longtime friends and residents of the Woodinville area, Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile under the mentorship of an industry icon, the late David Pickerell, former Master Distiller for Maker’s Mark. Woodinville is Washington state’s largest craft distillery. It was reported in Forbes that Woodinville Whiskey “may just be the best craft whiskey in America.”
The distillery and tasting room in Woodinville is home to exclusive new launches like its annual Harvest Release in the fall. Private tours led by a distiller are available, when scheduled in advance. The distillery is open daily.
Thank you to the team at Woodinville for providing this sample for review and feedback.
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