Bleeding Out with Blood Oath Bourbon

Luxco is a St. Louis based spirits company that markets a number of spirits, including budget, sourced whiskey, much of it from Heaven Hill.  Their bourbon brands include Ezra Brooks (including standard and 12 year old expressions) and the wheated Rebel Yell and Rebel Reserve.

Blood Oath Bourbon is Luxco's attempt to bring a "high end, luxury type bourbon to the market." According to this excellent interview of Luxco's John Rempe by Bourbon & Banter, the company's goal in producing this product was "to bring an innovative and unique tasting experience and bourbon experience to the bourbon connoisseur geared toward the person who really knows what he wants in a bourbon." Er, okay.

The company has said that Blood Oath is a blend of two rye recipe bourbons and one wheat recipe bourbon, presumably a mixture of the bourbons that populate their other offerings. The bourbons in the blend range from 6 to 12 years old.

There's a lot of cheesy atmospherics here including the batches being labeled as "pacts" and a proof of 98.6 (i.e. body temperature) which, according to Rempe, "mixes right in with the blood."  Alright, let's do some blood mixing.

Blood Oath Bourbon, Pact 1, 49.3% abv ($90)

The nose is very light with light caramel and grain notes. The palate is also very light with cane sugar and light caramel notes. The finish is candy sweet (sort of like the red candy on candied apples).

This is perfectly decent stuff; it's light and drinkable, but not very complex and hardly a "unique tasting experience." I could recommend it as a pleasing sipper if it were in the $30 range, but I certainly wouldn't pay anywhere near $90 for it. Blood Oath? I'd say it's more of a pinky promise.

Thanks to John Burlowski for the sample.