~$35, 750mL bottle- Purchased at Vine & Barrel, Hixson, TN
Background
Smoke Wagon Straight Bourbon Whiskey was released in 2019 as a way to provide an affordable “every day” bourbon that still had the core flavor of H&C’s higher priced expressions. While the Nevada H&C Distilling Company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, they source their whiskey from MGP in Indiana.
Smoke Wagon uses a high rye mashbill, specifically 36% rye to go along with 60% corn and 4% malted barley. It weighs in at 46.25% ABV, or 92.5 proof.
There is a standard bottling that seems to be ongoing, as well as seasonal bottles. I found a Halloween-themed bottle at a local liquor store in March of this year. It was the last of those bottles, but there were a few Christmas-themed bottles available still.
The back of the bottle reads:
Barrels are first hand selected from the top two floors of the warehouse to create a bourbon that has flavor which is smooth and rich beyond its years. They are then expertly blended creating a delicate balance of rye spice, sweet notes of corn with toasted oak and caramel.
Notes
I didn’t see an age statement on the bottle or on the company’s website. The whiskey was a medium-amber color in the glass and had a subdued aroma of oak and caramel with just a little vanilla overtone. An initial sip was smooth and slightly sweet on the lips and at the front of the mouth. It got a little spicier as it went down and left a nice peppery burn behind, a burn that can’t be completely explained by alcohol vapors as it’s not a particularly high proof bourbon.
The sweetness was less caramel and corn than a hard fruit, like apple or pear, but it was really nice and played really well with the spicy finish. In my reading on MGP-sourced whiskies, it’s agreed upon that this is a really nice example because it really exemplifies the skill and artistry of the blending process, not just shooting out another bourbon from their stores that has a fancy bottle and cool slogan.
The slogan, by the way is “Bibamus Moriendum Est,” which translates into something like “Drink, because we won’t be here forever.”
I paired the bourbon with a Regius Exclusive USA Blue Label and the pairing definitely worked, although the whiskey was good enough that I think it would have gone well with just about any cigar. This is a company I want to explore further. If this is their least-aged offering, I would like to try their higher-end blends.
