As far as I know this is the first independent release from FEW Spirits. There have been private bottlings, like that Cask Strength bourbon for Master of Malt, but this time they pushed a bit further.

Not only is it an independent bottling, but it’s made to a different mash bill (grain recipe) than the regular bourbons released by the Evanston, Illinois distillery. Contrary to the regular recipe (70% corn, 20% rye and 10% barley), this is a wheated bourbon where the rye has been replaced by wheat.

This makes the recipe similar to the White Dog, but as I’ve been told it’s not an exact vertical if you would taste them side by side.

Of course, That Boutique-y Whisky Company wouldn’t be TBWC if they didn’t have some geeky label. Luckily they got away from the inside jokes that nobody understood. What I did expect, though, was that they would have changed their brand text on the label to have an ‘E’ in whisky.

Anyway, only 67 bottles were produced of this spirit so the window in which to order was tiny. Luckily, I got a little heads up just before it got released and I knew the bottle-share was going to fill up quickly. Which it did. 40 minutes or so…

Sniff:
Still young, but the youth is far more pronounced in the rye recipe whiskey. I’m not getting the extra 2% abv much, but there is a big chocolate not in here. Milk chocolate, or those Kinder eggs. The corn is present too, in a sweet popcorn way, and I’m not getting the celery sticks (spelled correctly this time).

Sip:
The palate is very dry but not really spicy. The corn is here, as is that slightly youngish note. There’s also bread, some chili pepper heat, sweetness. It’s very smooth and takes a while to develop a slight burn. Slightly burnt crust of Waldkorn bread. Syrupy and the sweetness almost goes to wine gums.

Swallow:
The finish is gentle too, with a short burst of heat. The chocolate makes a return and I think I get a hint of cappuccino. It’s quite long.

This is quite a different whiskey from the original FEW Bourbon. The smoothness and the lack of spices make this a much more chocolaty dram. It’s nice, but I slightly miss the extra oomph the original brought.

Having said that, if this was still available, I’d gladly buy a bottle for ‘future reference’. Normally that translates to ‘more drinking’. Anyway, tasty stuff and well picked by Master of Malt.

On a side note, I am very happy that Master of Malt, or Maverick Drinks like they call their bottling business now, apparently have found the cause of the heavy fennel flavor that got into a lot of their previous blended stuff. Strangely this was only in what they blended, and not in the single casks. I had a hard time with that, but I haven’t found it in their recent stuff. Kudos for that. Me happy.

FEW Bourbon, 48.4%, batch 1, That Boutique-y Whisky Company. Sold out, obviously, but it used to be some € 70.