Kentucky Owl Confiscated

Kentucky Owl Confiscated
Kentucky Owl Distillery
Bardstown, Kentucky
ABV: 48.2%
96.4 Proof

Trader Joe’s will occasionally get a few bottles of something I haven’t seen before at a high price. Usually that high price is still lower than the average when I look it up online at other local liquor stores. So sometimes I gamble thinking I’ll get a good deal, but the few times I have done it the bourbon ends up being a disappointment at the price and this is one of them. What is odd about this bourbon is the research I ended up doing to write this. It was harder than usual to find the origin of this brand.

In 1916, just before Prohibition, my family’s entire Whiskey inventory was seized by the Federal Government never to be seen again. CONFISCATED Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a tribute to the vanished barrels of Bourbon and to opportunities lost.

I keep coming across these prohibition tales and I’m starting to realize they are all just marketing gimmicks to stand out against the competition. Sometimes they are really good though and I roll with the embellished storytelling. Sometimes they are not so good and are very expensive and when you read up on it the whole thing feels off and really artificial. It looks like in 2017 the Stoli Group acquired the Kentucky Brand. So much for the personal family origin. The group has ambitious plans to build a distillery in Bardstown by 2025 and create some kind of Disneyland experience for bourbon. You can read more about it in this article on Distillery Trail.

Seems very ambitious, best of luck to them. The pyramids are crazy concept. As of right now they are using the Bardstown Distillery to age and bottle. How is the actual drink though? The smell is pleasant, I got subtle notes of vanilla, cut grass, and caramel. The taste is really harsh though. Not much flavor here, just an intense heat that permeates. Unfortunately for me, it feels like this company is trying to artificially enter the high end bourbon market not having a product that matches the price. When I factor everything, especially that high price tag, I would not recommend this bourbon.