Review: Wyoming Whiskey National Parks No. 4 Limited Edition Bourbon (2024)
Craft bourbon pioneers Wyoming Whiskey recently dropped the fourth installment in their limited-edition National Parks Series. The previous release honored Grand Teton National Park, but for this latest offering, the Kirby-based distillery is returning to perhaps the most recognizable stretch of federally protected wilderness, Yellowstone. In particular, they are celebrating one of its most well-known features, Mammoth Hot Springs. The deets:
A blend of over 70 carefully chosen barrels, the whiskey is aged for a minimum of 5 years and showcases flavors of vanilla, candied ginger, crème caramel and a honeysuckle finish. The straight bourbon whiskey celebrates Yellowstone National Park, a place of natural wonder boasting half of the world’s known hydrothermal features, including Mammoth Hot Springs. This ever-changing system of travertine terraces has been formed over thousands of years, and Wyoming Whiskey’s National Parks No. 4 release is a tribute to the park’s unique and evolving landscape.
Let’s see how this latest addition stacks up.
I typically get a malty, woodsy funk on the nose with Wyoming Whiskey’s bourbons. Previous releases in the National Parks Series have definitely had it, but this is a different animal and significantly tamer. Notes of cinnamon sugar and coconut cream are light and elegant with undertones of butterscotch. With time in the glass, the aroma seems to evaporate away even further, leaving only a dusting of cocoa powder and traces of oak. The palate is more animated with sweet top notes of candy apple and pie filling packed with soft baking spice. Things sweeten even further on the midpalate with pear candies, orange marmalade, and green Jolly Ranchers. The finish is buttery but still syrupy sweet with notes of ginger, candy corn, and lingering Werther’s Originals. A high tone sweetness has often been a feature of these bourbons, but this takes things to another level and without some of the moderating oak and barrel char of past offerings. Wyoming Whiskey fans with a serious sweet tooth will dig it, but I personally prefer last year’s release.
David Tao weighs in with his own tasting notes:
The nose starts off with a significant pop of banana candy. That dissipates pretty quickly and is replaced by cinnamon sugar-coated toast, vanilla extract, and caramel drizzle. A little baked pear and apple lingers just under those sweet/spiced notes, which pushes the remaining aromas into cobbler territory.
Similarly, the early palate is heavy on Dutch oven cobbler: baked orchard fruits, grated cinnamon & nutmeg, spiced caramel, and melted vanilla ice cream scooped on top. Flavors get more tannic along the midpalate, the bourbon carrying oak beyond what I expected given the five year age statement. Here, there’s a little disconnect between the drying oak influence and other flavors, tannins drying out the tongue enough that the next sip brings a slightly too-hot wave of cinnamon chewing gum.
Things settle back toward the finish, thick vanilla and chewy caramel tempering the oak and spice for a lengthy, complex final act.
98 proof.
Both reviewers: B+ / $80
Wyoming Whiskey National Parks No. 4 Limited Edition Bourbon (2024)
$80
