Calumet Farm 14 Year Old Bourbon
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From a farm with horse-racing history, this high-rye Bourbon offers rich caramel and red fruit on nose and palate. Adding water brings out a creamy mocha note, leading into a spiced finish with drying oak and a final burst of cinnamon. Kara Newman
All tastings reported in the Buying Guide are performed blind. Typically, products are tasted in peer-group flights of from 5-8 samples. Reviewers may know general information about a flight to provide contextvintage, variety or appellationbut never the producer or retail price of any given selection. When possible, products considered flawed or uncustomary are retasted.
Ratings reflect what our editors felt about a particular product. Beyond the rating, we encourage you to read the accompanying tasting note to learn about a products special characteristics.
Calumet Farm Single Rack Black 14 Years Bourbon Whiskey
Calumet Farm Single Rack Black 14 Years Old Bourbon Whiskey represents both the prestigious nature and hard-earned quality of a premium Northern Kentucky straight bourbon. It is painstakingly crafted from extremely small batches of 19 barrels.
All barrels used are aged in a single, center cut rack from the ideal maturation location and conditions inside the rick house. The result of this bourbon craftsmanship is a bold, vigorous and luxurious Kentucky bourbon whiskey.
48.1% ABV / 96.2 Proof
Calumet Farm Single Rack Black 14 Years Old Bourbon Whiskey represents both the prestigious nature and hard-earned quality of a premium Northern Kentucky straight bourbon. It is painstakingly crafted from extremely small batches of 19 barrels. All barrels used are aged in a single, center cut rack from the ideal maturation location and conditions inside the rick house. The result of this bourbon craftsmanship is a bold, vigorous and luxurious Kentucky bourbon whiskey. This expression of the Calumet Farm Bourbon family is a true convergence of craftsmanship and flavor. It is Non-Chill Filtered for added depth of character and color.
Tasting Notes:
Color: Deep, warm amber throughout with shimmering highlights of copper and sun-yellow
Nose: Heavy notes of oak and molasses are rolled back as light scents of fresh corn, wood sugars, field grass, ripe plum and hay present.
Barreled Date: March 2006
Calumet Farm Bourbon Adds A 14 Year Old Bottling
Calumet Farm Bourbon, as weve talked about in the past, is a sourced Kentucky bourbon label thats owned by Western Spirits Beverage Company, an outfit that also happens to own the Sam Houston bourbon brand, among others. Part of the Calumet line up focuses upon its higher end Single Rack Black series, and it is from this a new 14 year old American whiskey has debuted.
The new Calumet Farm Single Rack Black 14 Year Old Bourbon Whiskey, according to those behind it, is typical of the Single Rack Black line up in that it heralds from extremely small batches of just 19 barrels that are aged in a single, center cut rack from the ideal maturation location and conditions inside the rick house.
The bourbons of the Calumet Farm brand
Originally barreled in March, 2006, it has a mash bill of 74% corn, 18% rye and 8% malted barley and is non-chill filtered.
This particular bourbon, bottled at 96.2 proof, looks to be pricing over $100 per 750 ml bottle. Youll find some official tasting notes from the brand below for your consideration. It should be noted as well that Calumet Farm Bourbon, as folklore goes, pays homage to one William Monroe Wright, once-owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company, whose Kentucky farm was famous for its award-winning horses.
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The Birth Of Calumet Farm Bourbon
Not only did thoroughbred racing return to prominence in 2013, but it also signaled the first release of Calumet Farm bourbon. This bourbon was a small batch product with a limited release. They continue to select barrels from a stock of well-aged Kentucky bourbon. By sourcing their bourbon, they can bottle and sell bourbon older than their whiskey brand itself.
Calumet Farms 14 Year Old Bourbon Review
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Prior to 2020, I had never taken the Calumet Farms series of bottles seriously. For starters, their bottle shape was ugly and guaranteed that it would require the real estate of 2 bottles to fit on your shelf. The proof was low . The labels didnt include a distillery name . Instead, it was from a Beverage Company that was from Bowling Green, KY . Initial Calumet products even used the term Product of Kentucky which angered a lot of enthusiasts who pointed out that the bourbon could be from anywhere as long as it was bottled in Kentucky. Those labeling issues were eventually resolved and the secret came out that it was sourced from Barton. It just seemed like they went through a lot of extra trouble trying to disguise the source at the expense of creating a stigma among its potential customers.
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Calumet Farms 14 Year Old Black Rack Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
It is always fun to find something while bourbon hunting that is unexpected, and even more so given that it is fall when most bourbon producers put out their ultra aged and otherwise really good stuff. When I was shopping on the Hokus Pokus app on my iPhone yesterday, I noticed that they had a Calumet Farms 14 Year Old Bourbon available. What is unusual about that is that Hokus does not put extremely limited release bourbons or even limited quantity store picks on the app you have to go in store to purchase those and quantities are limited to one or two bottles per customer, to prevent hoarding. So, after reading a few reviews, I decided it was worth the $100 price tag, given its age and the fact that it is not chill filtered. But, after doing some detective work, this bourbon comes from an extremely great provenance, that, if this had been released by the distillery, it would be trading on the secondary market at two or three times the price. Yes, Calumet Farms is a non-distiller producer that sources their bourbon from an undisclosed source. But what if we can determine the source?
So, what we have here is a 14 year old Sazerac company high rye bourbon that is non-chill filtered, at at healthy 96.2 proof, from a small batch of 19 barrels at $100 a bottle.
Whoa. If this tastes as good as its provenance, this is an incredible find.
Named After Baking Powder
William Wright, the Calumet Baking Powder Company founder, began Calumet Farm in 1924. This Lexington, Kentucky location is in the heart of bluegrass horse county. What started as a small farm is now more than 700 acres dedicated to champion thoroughbreds breeding and training. Even if you are not familiar with the sport of horse racing, you have to admire a farm that has produced many significant champions. Their official winners of the Kentucky Derby include Whirlaway, Pensive, Citation, Ponder, Hill Gail, Iron Liege, Tim Tam, and Forward Pass. Whirlaway and Citation went on to be Triple Crown champions. In 2013, Oxbow won the Preakness Stakes and brought Calumet Farm its first winner of a triple crown race since 1968.
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Fourteen Year Old Calumet Farm Bourbon
by Don Williams | Jan 15, 2021 | Bourbon review, Bourbon Tasting
Fourteen Year Old Calumet Farm Bourbon is one bottle that has a noble look to it, with gold and black details featured on the labeling. A bourbon bottle to proudly add to your collection. Before we discuss the bourbon presented in such a regal fashion, let us talk about Calumet Farm.
Finding a simply elegant bottle led to my first purchase of Calumet Farm Bourbon several years ago. The 86 proof whiskey did not feature an age statement, but at the time, I was fascinated by individual bottles I had not seen locally. I knew there was a connection to thoroughbred horses, but I did not fully realize the rich history of Calumet Farm.
Calumet Farms And Its Associated Brands
Lets look at the background on Calumet Farms before I get into the tasting notes. Calumet Farms is a brand from Non-Distiller Producer Western Spirits Beverage Company. They are part of a larger portfolio of other bourbons bottled by Three Springs Bottling Company located in Bowling Green, KY. The other brands that Three Springs bottles are Sam Houston, Lexington Bourbon Whiskey and Bird Dog. All of these brands still utilize sourced barrels of Barton bourbon. It should be mentioned that they are all related to Castle Brands which is now owned by spirits giant Pernod Ricard. But to explain how it all went down and the timeline of events would require its own article just to sort through the mess. Just know that within all of these brands and labels, Barton-sourced bourbon is at the very center of what they source and looks to be that way for the near future at least until Kentucky Artisan Distillery and Bardstown Bourbon Company achieve large stocks of double digit aged whiskey.
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Calumet Farms 14 Year Old Single Rack Bourbon
When the 14 Year version of Calumet Farms came out, I was happy that the bottle shape had changed. However, the bottle stats seemed less impressive aside from the age. First of all, this bottle ranged anywhere from $110 to $130, which meant that it would be considered a premium product. Dont forget that in 2020, $130 could get you a bottle of Stagg Jr, Weller 12 and most Four Roses Private Selections on the secondary market. All of those bottles had respected backgrounds and taste profiles that people knew. The proof on most of those were much higher too, but Calumet Farms 14 entered the market with a rather low 96.2 proof.
My experiences with Barton-distilled bourbon in the past was that its sweet spot was right around 8 years old. Anything over 12 years began to lose brighter flavors in favor of more oak and vanilla. But as fate would have it, a friend of mine gifted me a bottle of Calumet Farms 15 year bourbon in May 2021 to do a review on it. The short synopsis was that while it was very good, there was nothing exciting about it. In fact, it was kind of boring albeit very competent. Thats fine for most people. I can understand that not everyone drinks their whiskey with the intent to dissect its full flavor profile. Every now and then its fine to drink a bourbon that just is. But when youre paying over $130 for a bottle, it is my personal opinion that it better deliver something unique for the money.