Review: Chicken Cock Garden & Gun Double Oak Barrel Select

Billed as a Kentucky Whiskey, this expression of Chicken Cock is a unique offering of 12 barrels, made in partnership with the magazine Garden & Gun.

What are you getting in the bottle? It’s a bourbon mash… but double aged, first in used bourbon barrels for 7 years, then in new oak for another 2 years. Presented at cask strength — 12 barrels each bottled at their own cask strength (so abv will vary).

“It has the mash bill recipe for bourbon,” explains Chicken Cock Whiskey’s Brand Ambassador Will Woodington. However, due to the American white oak barrel shortage in 2014, the spirit was aged in bourbon barrels for seven years. “Then we finished it in new American white oak barrels to elevate the whiskey to our standards.” For this reason, the spirit cannot be qualified as a bourbon, but rather a Double Oak Kentucky Whiskey, though all other aspects of it align with those of a classic bourbon. Only 12 barrels of this exclusive spirit will be bottled and available for purchase.

This came out earlier in 2024, but we just obtained a sample. Bottles may be quite hard to find now, unfortunately. Nevertheless, let’s give it a try.

Immediate, big peanut notes on the nose are spiced up with cinnamon and cloves. Fruit builds with time in glass, finally landing on a slick of apple butter. This fairly straightforward attack finds plenty of solidarity on the palate, where the peanuts get a dousing of red pepper and some candylike elements come into focus. Ample vanilla and caramel, layered with a touch of milky cafe au lait, provide a soothing respite from what is a pretty toasty experience at nearly 60% abv. Butterscotch and milk chocolate notes build from there, taking you to a racy finish that evokes red berries and some blueberry notes. Water tames the heat but also tempers the fruit too much: With H2O, the finish is all gooey Nutter Butter cookies, with an echo of honey. Ultimately, I preferred the experience at cask strength.

Solid stuff, and an interesting experiment to boot.

119.2 proof. Reviewed: Barrel #12.

A- / $150 / chickencockwhiskey.com

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