Origin: Kentucky (USA)
Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Strength: 40%ABV
Ageing casks: Toasted American virgin oak
Chillfiltered: No
Added colouring: No
Owner: MGP Ingredients
Average price: € 75.00
Official website: penelopebourbon.com
Vote: 77/100
As the story goes, Michael Paladini and his wife Kerry wanted to celebrate the birth of their first daughter, Penelope, with something very special, and thanks to their joint efforts with their friend Daniel Polise, they founded the company bearing the same name as the baby girl in 2018, releasing their first bourbon.
The distillate is sourced from a third party, more specifically MGP Ingredients, a true colossus in American whiskey production that makes practically every profile in existence, supplying a multitude of international brands (including High West, Angel’s Envy and Templeton Rye) with Diageo among its biggest customers. Midwest Grain Products just this year acquired the Penelope brand, which has thus become another of its directly managed labels.
Four basic bottlings of which this Straight Bourbon was the first to be distributed, made in small batches and the result of three different mashings that combine to create the final composition that gives it its name: 75% corn, 15% wheat, 7% rye and 3% malted barley.
A curiosity: for the ageing of their limited editions, they use casks from the Speyside Cooperage in Scotland.
Tasting notes
Lots of youthfulness in the nose of this bourbon, notes of acetone and cereals immediately rise from the glass and take some time to subside, giving way to spices (nutmeg, cinnamon), caramel, maple syrup, chestnut honey, freshly cut grass. Slight menthol impression along the length. Rather light.
Alcoholic exuberance on the palate, despite the minimal alcohol content, with flashes of tabasco and ginger on a body of little substance in which corn dipped in nutmeg and cinnamon again dominates, a bit like spiced popcorn with a good dose of butter. There is little else to dig into the glass that you haven’t already found on the nose: honey, caramel, treacle, more pronounced vegetal notes and a breath of mint. Acetone more evident in length.
Rather short finish of spices, vegetal notes, corn, caramel.
Lots and lots of levity in this bourbon, with little soul or personality, easy to drink and flowing away without leaving great memories. In the US it has the benefit of being quite cheap, here in Italy not so much: if you want to try bourbons, there are far more affordable and interesting options.