Indie Bottled Bourbon: Breckenridge Bourbon

There has been a lot of scuttlebutt lately about bourbon bottlers who don't distill their bourbon but buy it from other distilleries and bottle it.  In Scotland, these are called independent bottlers.  Chuck Cowdery calls them Non-Distiller Producers or NDPs.  Given all the attention they've been receiving, I thought I'd sample a couple of  independently bottled bourbons this week.

Breckenridge Distillery is an actual distillery (meaning one that actually distills) in Breckenridge, Colorado.  The current Breckenridge Bourbon is a sourced Kentucky bourbon made from 56% corn, 38% rye and 6% barley aged from two to six years old (note that their website says two to three years but they told me that was out of date).  Breckenridge is making their own bourbon but they haven't marketed any of it yet. Once theirs is ready, they plan to blend it with the sourced whiskey and eventually transition to using only bourbon made at the distillery.


Breckenridge Bourbon, 43% abv ($40)

This smells like a high rye bourbon with strong briny/minty rye notes. The palate follows suit with lots of mint and spice rounded out by some sweet caramel notes and a tinge of banana, like a good Bananas Foster. The finish is spicy/briny.

I'm so used to all of the LDI sourced bourbon that it's nice to have something from Kentucky.  This one has more balance than most of those LDI bourbons though it still has strong rye notes.

My only complaint about this is the price which is quite high.  At $20 it would be a great deal, at $30 worth a try, but $40 seems a bit steep.