Faultline is the K&L house label, a tongue in cheek reference to the placement of its stores and our whole state on a treacherous earthquake zone. This particular bourbon was blended by Smooth Ambler from whiskey distilled by Midwest Grain Products (formerly LDI, formerly Seagram's) in Indiana. According to K&L, it's a vatting of two MGP bourbons, a ten year old low rye recipe and a seven year old high rye recipe bourbon.
Faultline Bourbon, 50% abv ($40)
The nose is brown sugar with subtle rye notes. The palate is very balanced between sweet and rye notes, coming on first with lots of sweet candy notes and then moving toward rye spice, which occupies much of the finish.
This is a wonderfully drinkable, very balanced bourbon. It's certainly one of the best LDI bourbons I've had, and for the price, it's a very good deal. I wasn't a huge fan of Smooth Ambler's early efforts at bottling LDI whiskeys, but their later stuff has been far better. I give it a 4.5 on the Richter Scale (a California only rating system), a nice little tremor that doesn't do too much damage.
I still have some 14 yr VOS by smooth ambler. Need to pick a bottle up and do a little side by side.
ReplyDeletelove the picture.
ReplyDeleteworking at a bottle-shop on the east coast, I can always tell a Californian walking in by their look of horror upon seeing all of our most extraordinarily expensive bottles perched precariously on the top shelves.