Review: Dark Arts The Empyrean Vol. II Bourbon Finished in Red and White Port Casks 7.5 Years Old (2026)

In the cosmology of the medieval world, Heaven was not conceived as a single destination. It was ordered, ascending, arranged in spheres. Aristotle described it. Dante charted it. Beyond the stars, beyond time, beyond material existence itself, sat the Empyrean: pure fire, pure light, the point at which all things reached resolution.

It is an ambitious name for a bottle of bourbon.

Dark Arts’ The Empyrean Vol. II begins with a straight bourbon aged for 7.5 years, distilled by MGP in Lawrenceburg from a mashbill of 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley. From there, the whiskey divides into two entirely separate finishing paths. One portion enters red Port casks. The other enters white Port casks. Each matures independently before the two are brought back together through blending.

That distinction matters. This is not a secondary finish stacked atop another cask influence. It is not a double-finished bourbon in the conventional sense. Two separate finishing programs produce two separate whiskeys before they meet in the final blend. To understand why that approach matters requires leaving Kentucky for Portugal’s Douro Valley.

Port wine traces its origins to the 17th century, when British merchants began exporting fortified wines from the Douro’s steep, schist-covered hillsides. The most repeated account credits a local abbot with discovering that the addition of grape spirit during fermentation halted the process before all sugar converted to alcohol. The resulting wine retained sweetness while gaining enough stability to survive long sea voyages without spoilage. From that practice came one of the Western world’s great wine traditions.

Yet Port was never singular. From early on, two traditions developed alongside one another.

Red Port and white Port are not variations separated merely by color. They begin with different grapes, different production choices, and entirely different outcomes in the glass. Red Port relies on dark-skinned varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz, fermented with skin contact intact. That process extracts tannin, pigment, and concentrated fruit notes associated with classic Port: plum, fig, cacao, and density.

White Port follows another path entirely. Produced from grapes such as Gouveio, Viosinho, and Malvasia, it is fermented without skin contact, eliminating the tannic grip and dark pigmentation found in red Port. The resulting wine moves in another direction altogether: citrus, honey, orchard fruit, floral aromatics, and sharper acidity. Same valley. Same fortification method. Entirely different identities.

The history of white Port remains comparatively obscure. Documentation places it at least as far back as the early 19th century, though its exact beginnings remain uncertain. Even now, it accounts for only a small fraction of total Port production. It has spent much of its existence overshadowed by red Port despite possessing its own historical significance.

That makes it an appropriate choice for what Dark Arts attempts here.

Medieval cosmology placed fire and light together within the Empyrean, not as opposing forces, but as complementary expressions of the same higher order. Dark Arts approaches these casks in much the same way. Red Port contributes richness, tannin, dark fruit, and density. White Port supplies citrus, floral notes, honeyed sweetness, and brightness. Rather than forcing one finish to dominate the other, each whiskey is allowed to develop independently before the final blend brings the two into alignment.

What arrives in the glass is not conflict. It is resolution.

The Empyrean was imagined as the place where all things finally aligned. Did Dark Arts succeed in alignment? Let’s find out!

Dark Arts The Empyrean Bourbon Vol. II Finished in Red and White Port Casks 7.5 Years Old (2026) Review

The nose opens with an aroma I have not encountered since childhood in the 1990s: a cloth bag packed with cherry pits, heated in the microwave and used as a therapeutic heating pad. It is an unexpected starting point, though the memory attached to it proves oddly enjoyable. From there, dried cream soda residue clinging to the inside of a glass comes forward alongside tangerine zest. Given another moment in the glass, Dr. Pepper Cherry enters the mix. The dual Port finishes both make themselves known without either one taking over, and the profile avoids slipping into anything jammy or syrup-driven. Altogether, the nosing experience delivers something original and genuinely entertaining to explore.

The palate begins with red Swedish Fish candy and brown sugar. More immediately noticeable, however, is the mouthfeel, which arrives flatter than anticipated and lacks much momentum through the opening stretch. After several seconds, Luxardo cherries and chai spice begin to develop, with the spice slowly building into a low simmer that finally injects some energy into the sip. That late shift gives the whiskey a stronger sense of direction, though it never entirely escapes the dullness that defines much of the mid-palate.

The finish transitions into buttered cinnamon toast, specifically the kind made in an actual kitchen rather than the cereal aisle version. Less-sweet raisins and nutmeg close things out, with the raisins ultimately taking center stage in the final moments.

Overall, this remains an enjoyable pour and an easy bottle to discuss with fellow enthusiasts. Dark Arts deserves considerable credit for pursuing something unconventional by pairing white Port and red Port finishes, particularly given how rarely white Port appears in whiskey maturation. Both styles contribute clearly identifiable elements to the profile. Even so, the mouthfeel falls short of matching the creativity behind the concept, and that shortcoming ultimately prevents the whiskey from reaching the heights I anticipated. Dark Arts has established a remarkably high standard with previous releases, which naturally raised expectations here. Even with that disappointment, this is still a release I will gladly share with friends, and it does nothing to diminish my anticipation for whatever inventive direction the brand explores next.

111.5 proof.

B+ / $100

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