Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series
Although Penelope Bourbon only began in 2018, there has certainly been a buzz around the brand over the past couple of years. With the introduction of their Architect Bourbon, a Toasted Series Barrel Strength Bourbon, and a Rose Cask finished Bourbon, there is a lot of variety in this up-and-coming brand. If you are a whiskey enthusiast you’ve likely heard of Penelope despite their short existence. The recent buzz around their whiskey is what led me to purchase a bottle and try the Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series for myself.
Penelope Bourbon
Penelope Bourbon started when Mike Paladini found out he was expecting a daughter. He wanted to create a special whiskey to commemorate the occasion. Paladini teamed up with his neighbor, Danny Polise, to create Penelope Bourbon, named after Mike’s soon-to-be daughter.
If you are a whiskey enthusiast, you may have considered creating your own whiskey. With a number of companies that source whiskey to startups, it wouldn’t be terribly hard to accomplish. You simply identify a source, purchase the whiskey, and take it to the market with your unique branding.
Whiskey sourcing is common and there are several brands that exclusively source their whiskey from a distiller, including Penelope. To get Penelope off the ground, Paladini and Polise sought help from MGP.
MGP
Famously called the “largest distillery you’ve never heard of,” MGP is one of the largest whiskey producers in the US. On average, they distribute 1 million cases of bourbon per year. MGP is considered one of the best rye whiskey distillers in the country, but their rye distribution numbers aren’t included in the 1 million cases. In a nutshell, MGP makes a LOT of whiskeys. There is a chance you are drinking an MGP whiskey and you might not even know it. If the label mentions Lawrenceburg, Indiana it probably came from MGP.
If you decide to start your own whiskey brand, MGP can help in two ways. One, they can distill a custom mash bill for your upstart. The downside to distilling a custom spirit is that you are going to have to wait a long time for it to be ready. At a minimum, you are going to wait for 2 years before your whiskey is ready to bottle.
The other way MGP can help a brand get started is by selling one or more of their standard whiskeys to your brand. They can sell you the whole barrel, they can dump the barrel and sell you the whiskey inside, or they can blend their whiskeys to create a spirit unique to your brand. MGP does a good job blending their whiskeys to create spirits that are a little different from each other.
MGP whiskey sometimes gets a bad wrap, but I feel that’s a little unfair since no two brands are alike. The company is focused on helping brands create their own unique products. Just because you’ve had one MGP-sourced whiskey, doesn’t mean the next one will taste exactly the same.
Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series
I happened to pick up Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series batch #43. The bourbon inside is a blend of three types of four-grain bourbon. Penelope uses a four-grain whiskey that consists of corn, rye, wheat, and malted barley. According to the information from their website, Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series is a blend of a 21% high-rye bourbon, a 99% corn bourbon, and a 45% wheated bourbon. The other details of the mash bill nor the percentage of each whiskey in the blend are not disclosed.
Penelope Bourbon Toasted series is a blend of bourbons aged four to five years. According to my bottle, the whiskeys are aged in a level 5 char barrel. The whiskey is then finished in a medium-toasted barrel. A toasted barrel is different from char. The process involves slowly heating the wood to brown it rather than burning it to create char.
A good way to think about the toasted barrel process is to consider a wood fire. The wood exposed directly to the flame becomes blackened. The flames cause the wood to split, and eventually, it begins to look like charcoal. That’s char. The wood that was near the heat, but not directly exposed to the flame usually has a dark brown coloration and has yet to fracture into charcoal. That’s toasted. Toasted barrels are quickly becoming a trend in the whiskey world.
Tasting Notes
Our bottle of Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series batch #43 clocks in at 115 proof and you can tell right away. I picked up strong notes of ethanol on my initial sniff which left a hefty burn in my nostrils. I let my pour sit for a few minutes in hopes that it would mellow out the ethanol, but it was still very powerful when I returned to my glass.
Upon taking a sip, I was hit immediately with that whiskey burn we refer to as “intensity.” If there were any flavors to pick up, I missed them all. The intense alcohol burn quickly dissipated and left and nice warmth on my tongue, but I couldn’t discern much flavor. I opted to add a splash of water to open it up hoping it would reveal the flavor since I wasn’t getting much straight up.
Alie noted the aroma of smoked cherry wood. I often use cherry wood when I use my smoker for fish or ribs, so she noted the familiarity of the experience. Alie also picked up the intense burn that fades very quickly into warmth. We both agreed that Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series would be better with water.
After adding a splash of water, I was able to pick out the flavor of wood, with hints of cherry that validated Alie’s palate. She noted it has a very dry finish compared to other whiskeys we’ve tried. Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series wasn’t particularly sweet, or flavorful. It landed really flat for both of us. For me, the most pleasant part was the warm tingle it left on my tongue and lips. It reminded me of the feeling I get when I put on my Natural Ice Lip Balm after a long day in the sun; the spice lets you know it’s working.
We returned to this bottle two weeks after we initially cracked it. We wanted to see if allowing it to breathe changed it in a way that made it more enjoyable. Penelope Toasted Series still hit very hard, but it left a nice lingering warmth once we got past the flash of whiskey intensity. Alie noticed hints of caramel, but I still picked up wood with just the slightest sweetness that disappeared in an instant.
Our Ratings
Drinkability: 2.8
Personal Preference: 3
Intensity: 4.5
Beginner Friendly: No
Availability: 3.2
Overall: 3.4
Final Thoughts
Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series is a high-priced, average whiskey. It set us back $70 for a bottle from my local liquor store. It is very intense without the flavor. Adding a splash of water helped, but we found it to be a little flat for our liking. For us, this bottle is proof that price does not equate to quality. It begs the question: If I bought it for $40 would I like it more? For me, the answer is yes. Alie pointed out that she’d be less critical if this were a $40 bottle compared to our expectations about what a $70 should be.
Even after trying Penelope Toasted Series a couple of weeks after we initially opened the bottle, it still wasn’t our jam. Although it was slightly less intense, there isn’t much flavor to enjoy. I might get more nuanced flavors if I chewed on a stick than I do from Penelope Toasted Series Bourbon. The one positive is the high proof.
Generally, I wouldn’t suggest using a $70 bottle of whiskey in a cocktail. However, for Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series, it does make a great base in our Brown Sugar Manhattan. It gives it a little kick, while the BSB provided the sweetness and complexity this bourbon is lacking. You can find the recipe here.
One aspect worth noting is that Penelope Bourbon Toasted Series will vary from batch to batch. If I saw a different batch of this whiskey that was aged at level three or four char, I would consider giving it another shot. I’ll likely let this bottle sit for a few more weeks before I come back to it to see if it improves. Perhaps by the time we get to it as part of our video reviews, it will be more pleasant than our initial sample.
Happy Exploring!
