Review: Green River 1885 Bourbon

One thing the bourbon world needs more of right now are value pours. Not slow sipping bourbons with quality surpassing their MSRP (a real rarity these days) but bourbon that was always intended to be someone’s daily drinker or mixer and priced accordingly. Once upon a time, the industry catered almost exclusively to those customers. Well, Owensboro’s own Green River is resurrecting the lost art of middle shelf bourbon with its latest offering, 1885.

One might assume Green River would just bottle a younger blend of its standard bourbon mashbill and be done with it, but this is reportedly an entirely new recipe designed with the on-premises and home bartender in mind. It’s made from 76% corn, 15% rye, and 9% malted barley and carries no age statement, although the side label indicates it is four years old. And you can only get it in a one-liter bottle, which makes the more-than-reasonable price point even more appealing. Let’s check it out.

The straw gold color is a giveaway that this is younger bourbon, but the nose is less suggestive of youth with a surprisingly well-formed aroma of butterscotch, candy corn, and cinnamon sugar. There isn’t very much in the way of grain or overbearing oak. It’s certainly simple but quite pleasant. The palate is where things strike a more cocktail-friendly profile with an impressive amount of spice and body for the proof. An initial hit of baking spice transitions quickly to black pepper and fresh oak before a simmering finish of caramel apple and vanilla pudding. In an Old Fashioned, it’s bright and balanced, not stealing the show from the citrus and Angostura, but with more elaborate modern cocktails, the lower proof leaves some flavors muted. For the everyday classics, however, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better (and better priced) mixer.

85 proof.

B+ / $22 (1 liter)

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