Review: Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Batch 002

Review: Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Batch 002

You know you’ve hit peak whiskey when Coors gets in on the game. Molson Coors, in fact, started its whiskey operation in September 2021 with the launch of Five Trail Blended American Whiskey. This eluded us at the time, but now the brand is out with batch 002, a blend made in partnership with Bardstown Bourbon Company. It’s a somewhat different blend, made from 6 year old Colorado single malt, 4 year old Kentucky four grain bourbon, 4 year old Indiana wheated bourbon, and 12 year old Kentucky bourbon, all cut to proof with pure Rocky Mountain Water. (The previous version had a 4 year old Colorado single malt and a 13 year old Kentucky bourbon in it.)

Two additional Five Trail expressions were also launched this fall, including a barrel proof edition and the first of a cask finish series, this one rested in Imperial porter beer barrels (naturally).

Let’s get started with Five Trail and give blend #2 a whirl!

It’s an easygoing whiskey, offering a pleasant and gentle nose of banana, honey, and sweet breakfast cereal. Ample vanilla caramel sweetness makes gives this a mostly bourbon aromatic construction, though there’s considerably less of a wood influence here than you’ll typically find in a typical bourbon bottling. Again quite soft on the tongue, the malt component shows its face by offering up plenty of those amber waves of grain, touched with brown sugar and honey. Slight notes of nougat and almonds showcase a side that evokes a mild candy bar, with a touch of milk chocolate on the finish. There’s just a hint of spice that builds late in the game — the whiskey could surely use a bit more on that front — though it sprinkles in cinnamon and nutmeg to excellent effect. There’s no sense of alcoholic burn whatsoever throughout the experience, the whole thing coming across more like a well-made tea, for better or for worse. Mostly, it’s for the better, and this proves to be surprisingly good stuff.

95 proof. Reviewed: Batch 002CWC22-A.

A- / $60 / fivetrail.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]

Five Trail Blended American Whiskey Batch 002

$60
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.

1 Comment

  1. Corky Gullo on October 27, 2023 at 2:48 pm

    I was fortunate enough to have David coors sign a
    Bottle or two for me, and i was skeptical about
    Buying a bourbon, from a beer family, but i did
    Like it enough to buy several bottles. With that
    Said i wouldn’t compare to a nice tea, lol. Its
    As he said, it suprises you, with its complex flavors
    I would have to, put it up there with any $60 dollar bourbon out there in the market, and i have tried them
    All.
    Bare non.

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.