Whiskey Advent Calendar Tasting: Few Bourbon

This is part of my series on tasting notes from the 2021 Drinks By The Dram Bourbon Advent Calendar.

Whiskey for December 15th, 2021: Few Bourbon

The distillery

We've already covered Few when I tasted their Rye.

The whiskey

Similar to the Rye, Few offers very little in way of details. Their description is:

This spirit, distilled through timeless liquor-making techniques, utilizes a three-grain recipe that infuses generations of southern tradition with the spiciness of northern rye and a touch of malt for smoothness. Few is hand-crafted through a small-batch process in charred oak barrels to age its bourbon whiskey.

So that's what we know.

Look

Few's bourbon is a lovely coppery copper with gold highlights. It's dark and turns quickly to thick legs when swirled.

Nose

Bright citrus and cherry are at the forefront of this and are carried well by just enough alcohol. There is a little bit of grassy rye is hanging out in the back. It's relatively simple nose, but very pleasant.

Taste

This might sound odd, but right at the beginning is a little bit of Sweet Tarts. The very first hit on your tongue is a little tart, like a sour candy, and it carries through the taste all the way to the finish. The bourbon is also sweet with brown sugar and caramel flavors, but that tartness is really stealing the show by being so unusual. The middle is full of rye spice and black pepper that really swells up to try and meet that unusual tartness. The finish is long and minty. A truly unusual bourbon.

After water

The nose weakens a little after water, but the character stays the same. You might lose a little of the rye and the alcohol. The tartness is still found all through the taste, but it doesn't hit as hard. It's almost more astringent, like tannins, but not in an unpleasant way. Everything just really smooths out, but is largely the same. The big black pepper hit now takes the show since it doesn't have the tartness to contend with. Still sweet and layered, the mint takes longer to show on the finish, and we get more black pepper at the beginning of it.

Summary

I like this Bourbon, but not as much as I liked the Rye. I enjoy this being unusual in a way that I think works better than, say, the Sonoma Distillery Cherrywood Rye. Diluted the tartness fades back and makes me think this would work really well in a cocktail. It would actually make a great whiskey sour, but it's such a nice bourbon otherwise, that stomping on it seems a shame. I think the right call is to drink this neat with just a small splash of water and really enjoy that peppery hit in the middle.