Agitator
Agitator Kentucky Straight Bourbon Finished In Red Wine Barrels 43% 75cl
- Details
Jeff O’Neill is a veteran of the wine industry, specifically on the business side. He founded Golden State Vintners in 1985 and led it as its CEO, eventually shepherding its sale 19 years later which gave him the cash to fund other ventures in the industry. In 2004, he founded O’Neill Vintners and Distillers, a company dedicated to building brands within the wine and spirits industry specifically through vertical integration of wineries.
In June of 2019, the TTB approved O’Neill’s company to create the Agitator line of whiskies. Agitator had previously been stood up as a wine brand by O’Neill’s company in 2018, bottling a bourbon barrel aged line of wine, so it was a natural progression to flip the method.However, Agitator don't actually MAKE any wine or whiskey, instead sourcing produced stock to create their own brand. Now, this is common practice worldwide - more than you would think - and in all honesty it doesn't really make if the end result is something of high quality anyway because the people involved care and know what they're doing.
Which is clearly the case here. The Bourbon is sourced from a distillery in Kentucky (not MGP in Indiana which many sourced whiskies come from) with a mashbill that has 21% rye. I suspect it might be Heaven Hill, but I can't be 100% certain. After aging for a minimum of 2 years in virgin oak barrels (a prerequisite to be called Bourbon) the liquid is transported to California to spend at least 3 months in barrels that previously held Californian Cabernet Sauvignon wine.
If you like red wine and you like whiskey, you're gonna love this. The wine influence is clear - in colour, in nosing and on the palate. There's a peppery tannin note but it isn't overly drying the mouth, instead enhanced the rye element of the spirit, adding cracked black pepper to sourdough notes. It's a whiskey to take time over, and I imagine it would be excellent with a cigar (if I actually smoked them). But it's also stunning in a Manhattan - it's pretty much already there anyway so it won't take much Vermouth and an orange peel to get something REALLY special.
- Delivery & Returns
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