Review: Jeptha Creed Wheated Bourbon 6 Years Old
America is in the middle of a new golden age of whiskey. The legacy distillers will always be what they are, but America is at the point where a significant wave of craft distillers are host to whiskey at 5 years and older. It doesn’t seem that long ago that craft whiskey meant a grossly overpriced bottle of 18-month product. Expensive young whiskey still exists in the craft sector, but now we also have offerings such as Jeptha Creed Wheated Kentucky Straight Bourbon 6 Years Old. It seems that American craft whiskey is moving to a place where we don’t buy craft because it’s local, but because it’s got good age and it actually tastes good.
Jeptha Creed is a woman-owned distillery known for utilizing Bloody Butcher corn in their whiskey. Heirloom varieties of grain used to be quite common and they produced unique flavors. Due to needing foodstuffs in great supply for World War II, the United States moved away from inefficient but flavorful varieties of grain in favor of varieties that pack less flavor but produce more foodstuffs. The modern United States is largely only familiar with bulk commodity grain that we know as Yellow Dent #2 corn. Jeptha Creed takes a step back to a bygone era and utilizes an heirloom variety of Bloody Butcher corn that produces unique aromas and tastes.
This bourbon employs a mashbill of 75% Bloody Butcher corn, 20% malted wheat, and 5% malted barley. The mashbill is highly unique in its use of heirloom variety corn, but also in the use of malted wheat.
The nose opens with a great amount of sweetness. I was immediately met with a wave of vanilla and black cherry, harkening to amaretto. The nose evolves into a slight hint of caramel intermingled with a slight grassiness. While the nose is mostly sweet, there’s a twinge of black tea after giving the bourbon a few minutes to breathe.
On the palate arrive mild baking spices, perhaps heavier on the nutmeg. These baking spices transition to a soft leather and sweet molasses, where a midpalate brings notes of juicy plum, the kind that requires a napkin because you spilled the juice on your shirt. I picked up a sweet caramel note, but the sweetness on the palate is more attributed to the plum element. The tannins of soft leather blend quite well with the sweeter notes. At last, the finish brings familiar notes in the form of juicy plum and caramel, but the sweetness is balanced by a slight grassy note.
Jeptha Creed put together a quality bourbon. This 6 year old wheater is one of the more enjoyable wheated bourbons I’ve experienced in awhile. The mashbill brings a unique character, and with a suggested price of $60, it lands on the shelf as something that whiskey enthusiasts will want to strongly consider.
93 proof.
A- / $60 / jepthacreed.com
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