It wasn’t long ago that I had never heard of Pursuit Spirits. Then I saw some of their bottles featured on my favorite Bourbon channel on YouTube, SLB Drinks. Then I saw some of those bottles in a local store. Then the owner of my “home store” brought out some to a bourbon share event and polled us about what we would like to have carried in the store. So very quickly, the brand got on my radar and a bottle of Pursuit United Double Oaked Bourbon found its way into my hands. For those that wonder, Pursuit United is a sub-brand where the company “showcases how blending different mashbills and barrel types from different distilleries in different states with varying aging conditions can create a new whiskey that’s worth sharing with others.”
For this blend they combined 2 low-rye bourbons and 1 wheated bourbon from 3 different states (Kentucky, Tennessee, and New York), then aged it all for an extra 36 months in toasted French oak barrels before bottling at 108 proof (54% ABV). In the glass, it was a medium-dark amber with plenty of coppery notes. When I nosed it, I got tons of oak (no big surprise) along with sweeter notes of caramel and vanilla. When sipped, the sweetness bursts through in a big way up front, with caramel and apple and a little cherry. Despite the 54% ABV, it didn’t drink hot; at most I got a cinnamon-like burn in the middle of the tongue that only accentuated the sweeter notes even more.
So to recap, it was just a matter of weeks from the time I heard of this company, to the time I saw them on a review video, to the time I tasted them for myself, brought home a bottle, then proceeded to drink most of it before slowing myself down so I’d have enough to do this review. I really like this Pursuit United Double Oaked Bourbon and can’t wait to crack open another bottle…or maybe I’ll try the Twice Toasted Bourbon next.
