Initial Thoughts
I know, the first thing you think of when read the title was…”What the heck is MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon?” That’s a fair question, I’m not gonna lie. Well to answer your question, it’s a great craft distillery at the southern border of Kentucky. It’s damn near in Tennessee. This distillery is about an hour and fifteen minutes from my house in Nashville. So it’s pretty close which is awesome for me. Might not be as awesome for you guys, but you can live vicariously through me if you want.
I came to find out about this distillery through my father in law. He works in Clarksville, TN at the military base, he’s a civilian contractor there and he kept hearing people talk about this moonshine distillery in Pembroke which is about 5 minutes away from where he works. So one day he went up there to check it out. He did the tour and got to sample some of their ‘shine. He’s since become a big fan of their’s and talks about them fairly regularly so I figured I’d go check it out with him one time. I actually a really awesome tour and some great booze while I was there. One of the questions I asked when I was on the tour is when are you going to release some aged bourbon? I enjoyed their white dog (white whiskey) and thought that it would age quite nicely. They said they would release it fairly soon. Well last week the word got out that they would be releasing their aged bourbon this week sometime and they had a limited amount so everyone needed to get there by 2 if they wanted some. Well it was a work day for me so I wasn’t going to be able to run up there and get some. Luckily, my father in law was able to get a couple of bottles. One for me, and one for himself. I was incredibly eager to try it, so when he sent me a picture of the bottle I got really excited. There’s not a lot of backstory behind this bourbon, because honestly they haven’t been around that long. I do know they’ve been aging this bourbon in smaller barrels to speed up the time it takes to age it and get it more bourbon-esque. So I’m ready to dive into the review of this MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon if you are?
Looks
Taking a look at the packaging on this bottle I immediately love it! It has a cool retro kind of burnt paper look to it. It’s not all polished with gold trim, it’s actually the exact same label as all their moonshine, just with different accent colors. Which to me is kind of cool. On the front of the label in big bold words you see “Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey” and below that all the specs and good-to-knows about what’s inside the bottle. My favorite part about the label is where it list the char numbers and it gives you some idea about the barrel. For a single barrel, that’s pretty cool to know. This MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon is 106 proof which is very exciting to me. On the label it states that it’s single barrel and barrel proof. So they didn’t cut it. They took it right out of the barrel and put it right into the bottle. No watered down flavors or anything. So I’m really excited to crack this bottle open and see what we’ve got.
The coloring on this bourbon is very dark. I’m not sure how long it’s aged, but I feel like it picked up quite a bit of coloring from the barrels. It’s a dark caramel color, not the typical amber color that I’ve been seeing in my bourbons as of late. So I’m definitely interesting in seeing the flavors on this whiskey to see what I’m dealing with.
Reviewed Neat
Nose
First thing I notice right out of the gate is the intense sweetness this bourbon gives off. It’s very similar to their moonshine. It has a high corn percentage and that’s the reason it’s giving off a lot of those sweet notes. Once the sweetness is taken away I’m hint with some spice, and some notes of rye. I’m actually surprised I can pick up on the rye that much after the intensity of the sweetness. It’s a very unique aroma profile thus far. The last few wafts I picked up something of a cinnamon note. It’s not as noticeable, but it’s definitely something that I picked up on. It’s not quite the aroma I was expecting, but it’s got me more than intrigued right now so I’m ready to take my first sip.
Palate
I take a bit first sip and hold it on my tongue to really soak it all in. Immediately I’m hit with some great fruity notes. I’m picking up something reminiscent of cherries, but they seem to have a bit of a kick to them. The more I let it set on my tongue, it’s like a piece of toffee is sitting there melting and rolling down the sides of my tongue. Very interesting flavors notes. It’s the got syrupy sweet flavor, followed by that heat that a bourbon should have. I’m not getting the typical maple flavors, to me it’s more of a fruit flavor and the cherries are the closet thing I can come to pinpointing it. It’s very unique and actually quite enjoyable. I took down my first glass of this MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon must faster than I probably should have. But that let me pour another dram to enjoy!
Finish
The finish is also unique, I keep saying that word and I by no means use it negatively. It’s actually a good thing. I’m always excited to try new bourbons and see what else is out there because lets be honest sometimes things get boring. The finish isn’t hot, but it does have some burn to it which I like. This MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon has a nice lingering finish to it. The mouthfeel is exceptional and gives a nice complete feeling to the entire bourbon. The spice and sweetness is there in the finish they aren’t really combative with each other, in fact that are quite harmonious.
Conclusion:
MB Roland Single Barrel Bourbon: 9/10
There you go, my review. To me this bourbon is more expensive than I’d like to pay for it. It is however a craft small batch distillery and they aren’t mass producing yet so they’re having to charge a little more for their bourbon. To me though, the price is worth it to get that uniqueness of the flavor it gives. I’m not exactly sure how wide their distribution is, but if you’re ever around the southern part of Kentucky, stop in and check them out. It’s always neat to see how a craft distiller operates, and of course you can sample some of their product. I doubt they’ll have any of this to sample, but there might be some on the shelf if you’re lucky.
