It’s one of my favorite seasons of the year — the time when George Dickel releases its annual release of bottled-in-bond Tennessee Whiskey. By regulation, bottled-in-bond requires whiskey to be selected from a single distilling season and bottled at 100 proof after aging for at least four years in a bonded warehouse. Dickel has traditionally dug much deeper into their stores of aged whiskeys for its three previous releases of bottled-in-bond, from 11 to 14 years of age.
The 2022 release is no exception, distilled in the fall of 2008, meaning it’s a 13-year-old product. Distiller Nicole Austin didn’t have a hand in the actual distilling of the alcohol before it entered the barrel, but her stamp is all over the final product.
My sample arrived a little late this year (damn it!), so while I waited and watched out the window for my FedEx delivery person like a kid watching for Santa’s sleigh, I did a little advance research from some of my spirits writing friends who had already celebrated Whiskey Christmas. One of them described Austin as one of the most talented makers of bottled-in-bond whiskey working in the industry today.
While I certainly didn’t doubt the assessment of Austin’s talent, I questioned if she really is “the maker” of this product. After tasting it, I am fully convinced that she has assembled a product that expresses exactly what she intended, even though she was nowhere near the state when it was created.
There’s no question that George Dickel has some robust stores of older whiskey in their rickhouses. Just the fact that there are several companies out there selling 13- to 15-year-old products marked as Tennessee whiskey is a testament to the fact that there are enough barrels in and around Tullahoma that Dickel is willing to sell them. I’m confident of that because 13 years ago, there were only two distilleries in the state making whiskey, and I’ve never known the other one to outsource any product outside of their own company.
But just because there’s a lot of it and some of it goes out the door to be bottled and marketed by other companies doesn’t mean that Austin isn’t being very conscious about what she lets go of and what she keeps. One of the first things she did upon moving to Tullahoma to run the distillery was request hundreds of barrel samples from older inventory so she could run them past her talented palate to decide how best to utilize them.
Between the bottled-in-bond program and her fun series of Cascade Moon products, Austin has managed to turn these stores of adolescent whiskey into unique products that exhibit special characters. She always sets out to draw something unique from each project, and the fascinating thing about the current Bottled in Bond Whisky Series with George Dickel Bottled in Bond Fall 2008, Aged 13 Years is that these barrels came from the same distilling season as the 2020 bottled-in-bond release.
Nicole Austin
Photo: Daniel Meigs
It’s rare that everyday drinkers without a deep library of ancient whiskey bottles can actually taste spirits this old to discover what the extra two years in oak can do to whiskey that is already more than twice as old as regular releases. If you demonstrated the almost superhuman self-control (like I did) to still have a little of the 2020 release on hand, you can definitely tell what those extra two years have contributed to the whiskey. Even if you didn’t, you can experience some amazing well-aged whiskey at the ridiculously low price of an MSRP of $44.99 a bottle.
In 2020, the whiskey was already showing unusual fruity characteristics and a long complex finish, but I was surprised that the woodier elements of the oak barrels were still muted in the background. Not many whiskeys can stand up to that much time in oak without tasting like a toothpick, so the distilling team of the late Aughts was definitely on top of the game.
That extra two years in charred oak certainly brought more wood to the party, but Austin has leaned into it with her selection of this particular lot of barrels to blend. Even though the liquid inside the bottle is the same 84 percent corn/8 percent rye/8 percent malted barley as every barrel of George Dickel, this year’s bottled-in-bond is nuts — literally! The nose exhibits elements of pecans and almonds, plus the cherry notes that I liked back a couple years ago. On the palate, I did pick up the element that I like to describe as “cedary,” even though that might only make sense to me. It’s kind of a tannic tightness on the side of my tongue that is drying but not unpleasant. I mark it as a familiar characteristic of older Dickel, and I quite like it.
If it was just wood, I would describe this whiskey as overaged, but that’s not at all how I felt about it. The combination of oak, cedar and nuttiness along with the dark cherry and plum fruit flavors reminded me of the pipe tobacco my grandfather used to smoke, and it took me to a happy place as I sipped it. (The 100 proof didn’t hurt, either.) At this price point, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it in a cocktail in the way that I probably wouldn’t want to with a more expensive sipper. I have to imagine that it would make a fantastic Manhattan with some Carpano Antica and Angostura bitters. (Wait a minute! I have all those things in this very room! Be right back ... yep, I was right.)
I can’t think of a more affordable whiskey this old that I would recommend to a friend, but I always encourage hoarding when you see this on the shelves. Fortunately, it seems like Dickel has more bottled-in-bond to offer each year, and they’ve managed the release of their inventory so that it has been available at least most of the year.
I’m still hoarding, though. I can’t always depend on that self-control.
