Review: Spirit of America Handcrafted Bourbon Whiskey
Review: Spirit of America Handcrafted Bourbon Whiskey
The flag-emblazoned eagle and red-white-and-blue color scheme aside, Spirit of America doesn’t come across like a pioneering bourbon. Even the promise that it is “handcrafted” obscures the fact that this is MGP-produced juice.
Turns out though that there’s something unique under the hood here: Spirit of America isn’t just a wheated bourbon, it’s the first to be commercially released based on a new MGP recipe.
That recipe is 51% corn, 45% wheat, and 4% malted barley, and this bottling is aged for two years (per the fine print). The finished product is blended and bottled by the Hobson & Roberts Distilling Company in Indianapolis.
Let’s give it a taste.
On the nose, the whiskey is surprisingly muted, particularly for a two year old. Perhaps it’s all that wheat talking, but the expected overtones of popcorn and toasted bread don’t manifest here. While light a grain character appears in time, it takes a back seat to gentle vanilla and caramel, though some light acetone notes later in the game belie its youth.
The body is, again, much more gentle than a two year old whiskey has any right to be. Very light on the tongue, indistinct caramel notes kick things off, followed by notes of cinnamon apples, and just a hint of vanilla cream soda. The experience is short and quick, with the cinnamon leading fast into the finish, which is (ultimately) on the hot side.
While early expectations might be low, just about everything about the actual spirit of Spirit of America is surprising. This young wheated bourbon doesn’t have a whole lot of nuance to it, but it’s much more drinkable (and mixable) than you may expect.
$1 from every bottle purchased is donated to the Hope for the Warriors charity.
86 proof.
B / $38 / soaspirits.com [BUY IT NOW FROM DRIZLY]
Spirit of America Handcrafted Bourbon Whiskey
$38
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This is the first spirit on here that’s warranted an aural element review:
“On the ear there is the unmistakable call of an Eagle, though, like all else, it is muted. Kind of like it is just saying hey rather than a traditional ‘I’m about to come out of the sky and destroy you’ sentiment. Slightly confusing things is the chattering of marketers trying to present a mass produced factory spirit as a craft attempt to be charitable”.