Review: Metze’s Select Indiana Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Review: Metze’s Select Indiana Straight Bourbon Whiskey
It’s not the end of an era, it’s the beginning of one. MGP Ingredients, the Indiana distillery where oh so much bourbon is produced and sold to other companies for bottling under their own label, is finally — for the first time — releasing its own whiskey.
Metze’s Select “2015 Medley” is a limited release of 6,000 numbered bottles. The company is being quite straightforward about what’s inside — which includes three different bourbons made over the years at MGP. Those bourbons are all rye-based and include 38% 2006 bourbon (21% rye), 3% 2006 bourbon (36% rye), and 59% 2008 bourbon (21% rye). For the math disinclined, that about half 7 year old bourbon, half 9 year old bourbon, all relatively high rye in composition.
Metze’s tastes familiar, probably because you’ve had it before in some form or another. Super sweet from the start, the nose is loaded with butterscotch notes, chocolate, and a touch of menthol. The palate takes that sweetness and runs with it, offering a big creme brulee character with a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, brown butter, and some cherry on the finish. Slightly overproof, it’s got bite, but it’s wholly manageable without water — and the alcohol really just serves to boost the spicy component.
This is a fun bourbon, but its nearly singular focus on sweetness (with a minor in rye-driven baking spices) comes at the expense of nuance. Hard to complain too loudly, though. I can’t wait to see what MGP decides to pull out of its archives next.
93 proof.
A- / $75 / mgpingredients.com [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]
Metze's Select Indiana Straight Bourbon Whiskey
$75
