Review: Boathouse Distillery Colorado Bourbon Whiskey

Review: Boathouse Distillery Colorado Bourbon Whiskey

boathouse bourbon

Boathouse Distillery is based in Salida, Colorado, from which Colorado Bourbon hails. The back label copy of this whiskey alone is worth the price of admission: “Colorado Bourbon is especially formulated for Western women and men. We like adventure and the great outdoors.”

And that’s it!

Colorado Bourbon is sourced whiskey from whereabouts unknown, aged four years. As Boathouse proudly proclaims, “Our craft is in the finishing of spirits.”

Whatever they’re doing, it seems to be working pretty well. Boathouse is slightly smoky, slightly sweet, with a nose that offers curious notes not of the expected vanilla and wood staves but rather of match heads, beef vegetable stew, and celery salt. I mean all of that positively, offering intensely savory possibilities.

The body offers a nice combination of smoke and baking spice, some butterscotch, and lingering notes of roasted meats. Touches of red pepper and pencil shavings come along on the finish. Ultimately it’s hard to put your finger on it exactly. Boathouse rolls round and round, mingling a surface-level frontier character with a surprising sophistication and complexity deep down. At this price, it’s undoubtedly worth exploring.

80 proof.

A- / $35 / boathousedistillery.com

Boathouse Distillery Colorado Bourbon Whiskey

$35
9

Rating

9.0/10

Christopher Null is the founder and editor in chief of Drinkhacker. A veteran writer and journalist, he also operates Null Media, a bespoke content creation company.

3 Comments

  1. John S. Steidler on January 26, 2015 at 7:06 am

    I like fine bourbons and this one sounds like a dandy. I would like to try some when I get a chance, but you all need to try some whit lightening too!!!!

  2. daniel on January 26, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    Christopher.
    >is sourced whiskey from whereabouts unknown

    Non-disclosure is a clear signal to me not to buy.

    I want to know who made the juice I am buying. Certainly aging and “finishing” is important but isn’t the starting point, the actual spirit even more so? Whenever I go to a retailer and complain about this issue, they invariably respond, well, if it’s good, who cares who makes it? Well, I do, and so do lots of other folks.

    I hope that the government begins to enforce the label rules that require folks like this re-bottler to state from whom and where their juice came. There is no other way that a consumer can make an informed decision in the market if sellers do not disclose what it is that they are selling. This kind of enforcement is long overdue.

    There are so many whiskies and bourbons to choose from now. Whenever I see a new bottle on the shelf I immediately look at the label. If they do not distill themselves, they ought to say whose juice they are using. If they don’t I will never buy from them.

    -Dan

  3. Elsie on November 8, 2019 at 11:23 am

    Hello! i am Elsie , from the Barricas Cobar Company in Mexico, i am looking for customers intrested in purchase white oak barrels. We are a company dedicated to sell white oak barrels of excellent quality and price. With capacities from 1 liter up to 200 liters and also have freshly emptied tequila and whiskey, i will appreciate to receive your kindlly response, so i can send you my complet info

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