Review: Peg Leg Porker America 250 Bourbon
Review: Peg Leg Porker America 250 Bourbon
Chances are pretty good that there is barbecue in your future this holiday weekend, and Tennessee’s Peg Leg Porker, founded by award-winning pitmaster Carey Bringle, has the whiskey to pair with it. Warning: like the barbecue you’re probably planning to eat, it’s quite the mouthful. The new Spirit of America Limited Edition Summer Series – America 250 Bourbon is the first in a planned series of annual patriotic bourbon releases that are intended to “celebrate the people, traditions and milestones that define America every summer.” The inaugural release celebrates where it all started 250 long years ago, America’s birthday.
Details about this celebratory bourbon are a bit sparse. It’s sourced from an undisclosed distillery and bottled in bond, meaning that it was aged a minimum of four years and bottled at 100 proof, among other criteria. Like Peg Leg Porker’s other offerings, the mature whiskey was filtered through their signature hickory charcoal before bottling. Thoughts follow.
Peg Leg Porker Spirit of America Limited Edition Summer Series – America 250 Bourbon Review
The golden color indicates this isn’t much older than its legally mandated four years. The nose suggests the same with the hickory charcoal clearly influencing top notes of dusty wood spice and a hint of caramelized barbecue sauce. It’s pleasant, if a bit undercooked, with a budding, butterscotch sweetness that helps along more youthful notes of canned corn, cut grass, and fresh oak.
The palate is bright and sweet and well-balanced for a younger bourbon. There’s nothing sharp here or overly green. The texture is light and a bit oily but not thin. Complexity is limited, however, to notes of caramel corn, maple syrup, and a muddled mix of baking spice heavy on the cinnamon sugar. An easy white pepper warmth simmers into the finish which is, once again, sweet and simple with a medium-length flourish of brown sugar and a bit of candied orange peel. There’s more here than you’ll find in the average younger bourbon. But not a whole lot more. It’s not exactly an extra special birthday pour, but it should pair just fine with the weekend’s ‘cue.
100 proof.
B+ / $60
Peg Leg Porker Spirit of America Limited Edition Summer Series – America 250 Bourbon
USD60
