Whiskey Advent Calendar Tasting: Blinking Owl Four Grain Bourbon

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 · 3 min read · whiskey bourbon advent calendar whiskey tasting Blinking Owl featured  ·
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This is part of my series on tasting notes from the 2021 Drinks By The Dram Bourbon Advent Calendar.

How this is going to work

As this is the first tasting let's do a quick rundown of how I do this. All whiskeys will be poured into a rocks glass and tasted neat. They'll be tasted again with some small amount water added depending on their proof. Whiskeys will be evaluated on their look, their nose, and their taste. I don't give ratings, I'll just be writing down what I think of each thing.

I'll try to give a quick intro about the whiskey based on what I can find online about the distillery and the bourbon specifically. Everything will be wrapped up in a neat little bow with a summary in case you don't care about my specific notes. Cheers.

Whiskey #1 for December 1st, 2021: Blinking Owl Four Grain Bourbon

The distillery

Blinking Owl Distillery is located in Santa Ana, CA and seem to have some specific goals around being completely California sourced. Their owl story section on their web page states:

We have ACCOMPLISHED the neurotic goal of becoming a 100% California product by working with the local grain community. As of FEBRUARY 2018, all grain used is certified organic and from California farms.

They make a lot of other spirits including vodka, aquavit, and gin. The staples of a young distillery that's waiting for their whiskey supply to age.

The whiskey

Blinking Owl Four Grain Bourbon

The sample I have for today appears to be their Four Grain Straight Bourbon. Their website helpfully provides a mash bill, but unhelpfully provides no ratios or percentages. The mash bill is:

We know from this being bourbon we're at least 51% corn, but we're in the dark with the rest.

Look

The color is a honey gold with absolute clarity. Swirling results in lovely glycerine legs that hold onto the side of the glass forever.

Nose

The nose is very strong with bright orange and cherry notes. There's milder peach or apricot smells hidden beneath the initial stronger fruits. The nose is positively delightful and like in an orchard on a warm summer day.

Taste

The initial taste without water is wildly different from the smell. It's very forward with rye and oak making it almost unpleasant. It has an odd funk that leaves you with a vegetation taste in your mouth that lingers. It's almost musty. There's some alcohol burn, but nothing out of sorts for a young bourbon.

After water

The nose turns to something very similar to Lemon Pledge after adding a few milliliters of water with most other smells stepping into the background. Similarly, the taste becomes more muted as well. The alcohol burn becomes more prominent, weirdly. The wheat in the whiskey becomes more prominent with the other flavors muted. In general there's not a lot of complexity going on in this bourbon.

Summary

I can't recommend this bourbon. It feels kind of flat and one dimensional. The initial nose is lovely, but the flavor is a big turn off. I really don't like the vague mustiness and find the supporting flavors to be fairly coarse and uninteresting.