When we visited Limestone Branch Distillery in October of last year, we were told a story of the Ragnar Road Bourbon Chase, a team running event where participants tag-team their way through a 200 mile network of roads in Kentucky, with pit stops at distilleries along the way. To celebrate the race, the employees at Limestone Branch were allowed to do a barrel pick and they chose a 7 year old bourbon, barrel number 7975637. It was barreled in March of 2018, before being dumped in 2025 and bottled at 119 proof (59.5% ABV). This is part of what they call the “Hand Picked Collection,” an initiative by founder and master distiller, Stephen Beam, the restore the Yellowstone Bourbon name back to its former glory. The bourbon actually has nothing to do with the television series, although you might be forgiven for thinking so…it was founded in 1872 to commemorate the founding of the first national park in the USA.
Despite a decent number of years in the barrel, I found the color of this Yellowstone Bourbon Chase Single Barrel to be about a medium amber, more like what you might expect in a 4 or 5 year age. Swirling the liquid around in the glass produced legs that were slowly developing at first, but then ran more quickly down the inside of the glass. I noted aromas of vanilla, oak, and light caramel. Taking a sip, the sweetness hit the tip of my tongue full force, giving up caramel, vanilla, and apple. It quickly developed into more oak and a mix of pepper and cinnamon spices, at least some of which was due to the relatively high proof.
I had the standard Yellowstone Bourbon release a couple years back and was generally unimpressed with it. This is the same mashbill, but keeps everything at the 7 year level (their regular release reportedly is a mix of 4 and 7 year). This expression is head and shoulders above the standard release to me and I’d definitely be interested in another single barrel expression like this…because this one is sure to be long-gone before I get back to the distillery!
