Review: Gambit No. 6 Bourbon

Chip Tate, the mastermind behind Balcones whiskey and now a sort of whiskey ronin, just arrived with his latest project, Gambit No. 6. Why number 6? Not because there are five gambits before it, but because it’s a 6 year old Kentucky bourbon that features 6 different finishes: in wine (Sonoma chardonnay and Sonoma cabernet sauvignon), apple brandy, oloroso sherry, muscatel, and Tokaji casks.

If that sounds like a lot, it is. But that, as Tate says, is “the gambit.” Well, let’s pick up said gambit and see how it fares in the glass.

Gambit No. 6 Bourbon Review

A curious shade of reddish-orange-maroon, the whiskey is aromatically insane. It doesn’t smell like bourbon. It barely smells like whiskey. Rather, the melange of wine casks makes for an almost confounding aromatic experience. Spiced apples, orange peel, lavender, and incense all create an experience that hits closer to brandy than anything else, notes of floral-scented clean linens evoking an early encounter with many a bottle of Cognac.

The palate has more overt, whiskey-like sweetness, featuring caramel and vanilla, later butterscotch, though the whiskey’s boldly floral and fruity elements are never out of sight. Caramelized and spiced apples — very pie-like — offer a cocktail-like experience, with the midpalate quickly taking a much more brooding position. Turkish rug shop, glazed walnuts, and intense oxidized wine notes build significantly, the finish really digging into that sherry character, coming across as almost Maderized. Chocolate and cinnamon also appear on that lengthy back end, but it’s the fortified wine that ultimately becomes almost all-encompassing. In the end, the whiskey drinks more than a little like a bottled Manhattan, and your opinion of that cocktail will directly impact your enjoyment of this whiskey.

For my money, I think I’d like to see how this fared more as a Gambit No. 2 or 3 (finish-wise, that is).

92 proof.

B+ / $60

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