Distillery: Stitzel Distillery
Region: Louisville, Kentucky
Aging: No Age Statement
ABV: 45.5%
Proof: 91
Mash Bill: Undisclosed
Non-Chill Filtered: No
Price: $50
Appearance: Golden Honey
Blade and Bow Tasting Notes
Nose: Brown sugar, toasted oak, vanilla, light citrus, orange and lemon zest, cinnamon
Palate: Light and pleasant caramel up front followed by a balance of oak, light fruit, earthy notes, and rye spice
Finish: Medium finish with light heat but settles in with a bit of fruit and spice and leaves you with a lingering oak finish
Is Blade and Bow an Approachable Whiskey?
Blade and Bow is a pretty easy whiskey to drink. It has a nice balance of caramel, brown sugar that mixes well with light citrus fruits, oak, and finishes with a bit of spice
Is Blade and Bow Complex?
Blade and Bow isn’t particularly complex, but it does have a nice balance. You get a lot of the typical flavors you want in bourbon and they balance each other out quite well.
What are Blade and Bow’s strongest attributes/flavors?
Blade and Bow’s strongest flavors are fruit and rye spice. It’s an interesting combination of flavors because neither really dominates the flavor profile.
Is Blade and Bow a go-to whiskey?
Blade and Bow would not be a go-to whiskey for me just because I have other bottles in the same price range that I prefer a bit more, but I could easily see this being a bottle for anyone who likes a little rye spice in their bourbon.
Is Blade and Bow priced accurately to its quality?
Blade and Bow costs about what I would expect it to. It delivers on the $50 price tag.
However, it is a little controversial whether Blade and Bow is worth this price because it uses something called the Solera Process to age its whiskey.
The Solera Aging Process is a way to continuously age and keep a consistent quality on your whiskey.
Essentially, a barrel is emptied halfway to produce a batch of whiskey to sell. Then new (younger) whiskey is added to the original barrel to continue aging.
This keeps the original aging whiskey to age longer but also blends it with brand new younger whiskey.
Blade and Bow is branded that it uses the last bourbon ever produced by Stitzel-Weller and uses the Solera Aging Process.
This means that the original barrels keep getting more and more diluted as they continue producing them.
Whether this is misleading marketing or not is up to the customer to decide.
Conclusion for Blade and Bow
As mentioned above, I do think Blade and Bow delivers on a $50 price tag.
However, I would be much more likely to buy another bottle if it were in the $35-40 price range since I can get whiskeys like New Riff Single Barrel and Old Forester 1910 for $50.
Let Us Know What You Think
I hope you enjoyed reading about this tasting experience with me.
If you decide to buy yourself a pour of this, please let me know what you think of it on social media via Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
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