Bardstown Bourbon Fusion Series #8

My last two reviews, I covered two classical and historical whiskeys in Old Forester and George Dickel. Today, we’re talking about a newer whiskey company that’s located in the bourbon capitol of the world, Bardstown Bourbon Company – and specifically their Fusion Series #8.

We’ll talk about the Bardstown Bourbon Company and their beautiful, state-of-the-art facilities before diving into the specifics of the Fusion Series. We’ll discuss what it is and the price and flavor profile of Bardstown Bourbon Fusion Series #8.

There is a lot of hype surrounding this company and their whiskey, and I, for one, am very excited to try out their bourbon.

Bardstown Bourbon Co History

Bardstown Bourbon Company was founded in 2014 by Peter Loftin. In 2022, Pritzker Private Capital, a private equity firm, purchased Bardstown Bourbon Co.

Like most new distilleries, Bardstown Bourbon Company began be sourcing and blending whiskey. These whiskies were a part of their discovery and collaborative series.

Recently, though, their own in-house whiskey has become of age. They started with their Fusion Series, which we’ll touch upon next, and recently released their Origin Series. The Origin Series is 100% whiskey distilled at Bardstown Bourbon Co and is aged 6 years.

They are also very open and transparent about their whiskey mashbills, so all of this information as available at their website.

Bardstown Fusion Series

The Bardstown Fusion series is a collection of 9 different bourbons. They were continually releasing more bourbons in this series as their whiskey aged, and the line came to conclusion with Fusion Series #8 and #9 in the fall of 2022. The Fusion Series is a blend of their younger in-house whiskey with much older, sourced whiskey.

For example, the Fusion Series #1 blended their own 2 year bourbon with a sourced bourbon that was aged 11 years 7 months. Fusion Series #8 and #9 feature their own bourbon that’s now been aged 4 years.

Bardstown Bourbon Co Fusion Series #8 Overview

• Spirit: Blended Straight Bourbon
• Owned By: Pritzker Private Equity
• Distilled By: Bardstown Bourbon Company and sourced from Kentucky
• Aged: A blend of two 4 yr old bourbons and a 12 year old bourbon
• ABV: 47.75% ABV, 95.5 proof
• Mashbill: A blend of 3 bourbon mashbills (full details below)
• Price: $65

The two four year bourbons are distilled by Bardstown Bourbon, and the twelve year bourbon is sourced from a Kentucky distillery. I mentioned that Bardstown is very transparent about their whiskey. Not only do they give you the mashbill of each bourbon in the blend, they also tell you the percentage of each bourbon used.

• 58%, 4 year bourbon. 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley
• 12% 4 year bourbon. 70% corn, 18% rye, 12% malted barley
• 30% 12 year sourced bourbon. 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley

If I’m still half decent at math, that should result in a final makeup of 75.3% corn, 17.34% rye, and 7.36% malted barley. So, a fairly heavy corn mashbill, but still maintains a pretty high rye percentage as well.

It’s nice to see that Bardstown is using a generous amount of the twelve year sourced whiskey, and we’ll be looking for that age to show up in our tasting.

Bardstown Bourbon Fusion Series #8 is bottled at 95.5 proof, or 47.75% ABV. It’s certainly not as strong as some people may like, but 95 proof should satisfy most without being too strong for others.

Lastly, all the bourbon in the Fusion Series MSRP @ $65, but the price may vary depending upon individual store and location.

Bardstown Fusion Series #8 Tasting Notes

Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time to jump into the important stuff…. the liquid inside the bottle. Is Bardstown Bourbon good? Is it worth $65? Let’s find out.

Nose: A buttery vanilla, a little bit of honey and green apple, a touch of sugar, wet oak, some cherry and spice.

Palate: There’s still plenty of sweet vanilla mixed with sugar, but it tastes fairly spice dominant with a lot of white and black pepper. Cherry and apricot sit behind some of that pepper, but still noticeable. Very pleasant mouthfeel.

Finish: The finish was my least favorite part. It was the pepper, spice, and the wet wood all coming together which left a weird taste in my mouth. A touch of water smoothed down some of the pepper and spice and brought out more of the dark fruits.

Taste Summary

I had two or three glasses of Bardstown Bourbon before sitting down for this review, and I was very conflicted about it. The mouthfeel was fantastic and the flavors were rich, but there was just something I didn’t like about the finish.

During this review, I felt the same way. So, I decided to add a touch of water and it solved the problem. Fruits and sugars came out more and some of the spice mellowed out. This gave it that pie crust flavor with a touch of red fruits that turned this into a really nice whiskey.

The nose let off a buttery note which led to a nice viscosity but ultimately ended a bit dryer than anticipated.

Value

Bardstown Bourbon Co uses their own whiskey in the Fusion Series and Origin Series. The Fusion Series, specifically #8 and #9, are sourcing a 12 year old bourbon for 30% of their whiskey, so $65 is a fair price. The quality, flavor, and mouthfeel match the price as well.

I’m going to be very interested in trying their Origin Series Bourbon, 100% in-house whiskey, which is aged for a minimum of 6 years and MSRP’s for $45. It’ll be interesting to see how much of the older sourced whiskey has an impact on the Fusion Series, as well as to see how much the extra 2 years helped their own bourbon.

I know a lot of people won’t spend $65 on a bottle, but if you regularly do, this isn’t a bad option.

Summary

I’ve never visited Bardstown Bourbon Company, but their distillery looks amazing. They, apparently, offer a fabulous bar/dining/tasting experience, and it’s certainly on my list of places to visit. Of course, I’d have to stop by all the other distilleries in Bardstown and the bourbon trail as well.

Kentucky has a rich history with Bourbon, and I love to see that there’s still room for growth. Bardstown Bourbon started out like many others, sourcing whiskey until their own distillate was aged and ready for bottling.

However, they didn’t start by sourcing cheap or young whiskey. They went after top of the line, aged bourbon and partnered it with some expensive casks as well. This is a statement that Bardstown plans to make and produce fine whiskey themselves for many years to come.

In terms of their Fusion Series #8, it’s a fine bourbon that warrants the $65 price tag, and I really look forward to trying their Origin Series next.

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