The Last Call

Maker's Mark Cask Strength 7 Year Bourbon Whiskey Review.           As 2025 winds down, Makers Mark surprised everyone with what appears to be a limited-age-stated run of their beloved cask strength bourbon. I’ve always had a soft spot for Makers Mark. It wasn’t a brand I fell in love with immediately, but somewhere along the way, it became a comfort bottle, a pour I reached for between bigger, flashier releases. Their lineup consistently offers strong value, and while I still haven’t tried the Cellar Aged, the rest are genuinely solid. Seeing this on the shelf at standard cask strength pricing made it an easy pickup.      This release is still their classic wheated bourbon, although Makers Mark doesn’t publish the exact mash bill. The side label offers some intriguing production details: a 110-proof barrel entry, 378 hand-rotated and hand-selected casks, and the note that each batch is “aged to taste.” That wording alone hints at future vari...

West Fork Whsky Co. Tailored Barrel Cask Strength Rye Whiskey.      West Fork Whiskey Company has been quietly building one of Indiana’s most respected whiskey programs through in-house distilling, aging, and bottling, and now they’re adding another layer with a brand-new label: Tailored Barrel. This release represents their vision of finding truly unique barrels outside of their core lineup and releasing them in their purest form. When I got the opportunity to attend the release event and pick up one of the very first bottles, saying no wasn’t an option.      This particular bottling immediately catches your eye with its elegant presentation and refreshingly honest label. Every detail is there, mash bill, age statement, proof, and source. Transparency like this is still scarse in whiskey, and it’s something I’ll always champion when a brand gets it right.      This bottle is sourced directly from MGP and uses their well-known 95% rye and 5% ...

Watershed Distillery Uncut Unfiltered Bourbon Whiskey Review.       Watershed Distillery, based out of Ohio, has quietly been building a strong reputation across several spirit categories, from gin and brandy to finished whiskeys and now straight bourbon. This uncut, unfiltered straight bourbon comes in at a bold 61.1% ABV and carries a stated age of four years. Batch No. 3 was one of the bottles I brought home after a trip to Ohio in early 2025, picked up with genuine excitement after having some excellent past experiences with Watershed releases. Between prior barrel picks and a maple cask-finished expression I really enjoyed, this felt like a safe purchase walking out of the store. For the full video review visit the link here:  https://youtu.be/uWqsQNQvJ3Q . Age Statement: 4 Years. (Batch 003). ABV: 61.1%. Mash bill: N/A. Area of Distillation: Columbus, Ohio. Appearance: Light golden hue. On the nose:      The nose is surprisingly restrained...

Angel's Envy Botted in Bond Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey Review.      Angel’s Envy is one of those distilleries you instantly recognize—whether it’s the distinctive winged bottle or their reputation for unique cask finishes. For me, it was one of the first brands that pulled me deeper into the whiskey world, particularly their rum cask–finished rye. Over the years, I drifted away from their offerings, often finding more affordable finished whiskeys on the shelves. But this release caught my attention: their first-ever non-finished Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, bottled in bond, at cask strength. It’s a bold step from a distillery known for finishes, and I was curious to see how it would hold up.      Released in 2024, this bourbon is a blend of two bottled-in-bond bourbons: one distilled at a lower entry proof, and another at a higher proof, married together to land at exactly 50% ABV. That means it follows all the bottled-in-bond rules—aged at least f...

 Peerless Toasted Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Review.      Peerless has never been shy about pushing bold, barrel proof whiskey with a style all their own. Their sweet mash process, eye-catching bottles, and dedication to non-chill filtration have earned them a loyal following, myself included. I’ve long been a fan of their Double Oak Bourbon and Rye, and when I heard a toasted version was hitting the shelves, I knew I had to track one down. Originally a distillery-only release, Batch 03 finally made its way to Indiana, and thanks to my buddy Rich over at Holly’s Package Store, one found its way into my hands.      Peerless takes the extra-labor route of sweet mash fermentation, fully emptying and cleaning the fermentation tanks between every batch. It’s a slower, more meticulous approach, but it allows each batch to develop its own unique fingerprint. This release takes their Kentucky Straight Bourbon and finishes it in toasted barrels, a techni...

Old 55 Distillery Single Barrel Cask Strength Sweet Corn Bourbon Whiskey Review.           Old 55 Distillery is a small craft operation tucked away in Newtown, Indiana, just south of Lafayette, and they’ve built a name for themselves by doing something very few dare to try, making bourbon with 100% sweet corn. I’ve crossed paths with a few of their spirits before and have always respected the level of care they bring to the table: all distilling, aging, and bottling is done in-house, with a heavy emphasis on local grains. Their Bottled-in-Bond Sweet Corn Bourbon is the bottle most people around here know, but this release, a single barrel, cask strength version, was something I’d only ever seen at the Market District in Carmel, Indiana.       Sweet corn isn’t just a novelty for Old 55, it’s an expensive, labor-intensive choice. A bushel of the common yellow dent corn runs about $4 (2020 prices), but the sweet corn they use costs over $1,...

 Old Hamer Single Barrel Cask Strength 8 Year Bourbon Whiskey Review.      There’s something oddly charming about Old Hammer. It’s like the quiet cousin of West Fork Whiskey Company—same bloodline, just a little more rough around the edges, and a lot more likely to knock your socks off with cask strength heat. This particular bottle is a single barrel pick selected by the in-house whiskey club over at West Fork, and while I wasn’t lucky enough to be on the tasting panel for the pick, I  was  there on release day. One pour in, and I knew it deserved a closer look. Here’s the deal: Old Hammer leans hard into the MGP pipeline, and this bottle is built on the classic 99% corn, 1% malted barley mash bill. That’s the sort of recipe that usually doesn't see much love, so to see it dressed up in an 8-year-old cask strength expression is great. Due to the mash bill you highly rely on the barrel, age, and proof to do the lifting scene there's really no other grains B...

 Three Chord Single Barrel Double Oaked Bourbon Whiskey Review.      Three Cords has been on my radar for a while now, they’ve put out some fun finished bourbons, and the toasted/honey combo they released before was downright phenomenal. So when I spotted this six-year, cask strength, single barrel double oak pick from Lake Liquors, I knew it was coming home with me. Double oaks are a personal weakness, and this one had that “buy it now or regret it later” kind of look. At $50, it was an easy decision.      This one’s sourced from Indiana, yep, we’re talking MGP. It was barreled January 18, 2016, and bottled May 22, 2023, then given the double oak treatment in a fresh new charred barrel for extra depth and sweetness. That six-year age puts it right in MGP’s sweet spot, where the bourbon still has some liveliness but has built up enough oak character to really shine. The proof sits at 55.4%, giving you all the richness you want without tipping into pala...