Preservation Estate Wheated Bourbon Review: Bold Notes Beyond Its Age

BOTTLE DETAILS

• DISTILLER: Preservation Distillery + Farm
• MASH BILL: Corn | Wheat | Dark Toasted Malted Barley, amounts not specified
• AGE: About 6.5 years
• YEAR: 2024
• PROOF: 117.2 (58.6% ABV)
• MSRP: $129.99
• BUY ONLINE: Multiple Online Retailers

STEVE'S NOTES

SHARE WITH: Fans of bourbons who will appreciate a wheated product that's actually bold and complex rather than "light and sweet and not rye!" To fanatics of Weller's wheat-softened manners, this is a whole different animal. Give it a try. You'll thank me for it.

WORTH THE PRICE: It's definitely pricey for a 6.5-year bourbon, but if you want the most unique wheated bourbon I've ever tasted, then pony up the dough if you've got it.

BOTTLE, BAR OR BUST: Bar first. That might convince you to buy a bottle.

OVERALL: Marci Palatella staked her reputation in American whiskey first as a saleswoman tasked with unloading vast stocks of unwanted American whiskey cases to overseas customers in the 1980s. (Good for Japanese and European markets, sad for Americans who didn't know what they'd rejected.) When she learned that a vast ocean of bourbon was languishing in barrels in Kentucky, she began creating her own bold bottlings from them under names such as Very Olde St. Nick, Pure Antique and Old Man Winter.

As demand for those old and neglected stocks grew in step with bourbon's revival, Palatella chose to open Preservation Distillery + Farm in Bardstown, Ky., in 2017. There, her crew began making whiskey in pot stills, which, by 2024, they deemed ready for bottling. But Palatella wasn't convinced.

Last spring, during a group barrel pick at Preservation for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, the one cask we picked from six options was terrific. Yet a few days later, Palatella told us she wasn't happy with it, and since that might become the first of her distillery's own whiskey to be bottled, she asked us to taste some other barrels.

"I know those whiskies are not as old as the brands we're known for, but there are flavors I think ours have to have before we release them," she said. "I just want it to be a little bolder, to have some more complexity."

When I received the sample for this first release, a wheated bourbon, late last year, I instantly understood what she was after. The nose is deep and dark, redolent of espresso-chocolate cookies, powdered cocoa, dried fig, tobacco, barn wood, horse tack and sorghum. The barrels sampled by the KBF team leaned toward rich and fruity notes common to pot distillation while lacking the and denser aromas Palatella wanted. This release? It bears old whiskey notes that belie this liquid's youth. Don't ask me about their origin, but they're there.

The palate is syrupy and rich with textures and flavors of nougat. Burnt orange and orange oil offset the richness with brightness that clears the way for toasted wheat bread, clover honey, toasted oak, fudge and dark caramel.

Palatella may hate me for saying this, but I prefer this whiskey to the Pure Antique 20-year sample sent with this one. (The distillery sent me a courtesy dose of the one crowned Best Overall Bourbon in 2024 at the San Francisco World Spirits competition.) The Pure Antique is terrific in every respect and worthy of its own thumbs-up review. But so much of the Pure Antique's darkness and density . She may disagree with me, but I'm confident those notes are guideposts for all her whiskies, and it's there in that first release.

If Preservation is already achieving that combination of rich fruit and ponderous dark notes at 6.5 years, that's exciting. To enter the Preservation Wheated Bourbon's flavor journey at the trailhead is a fun place to be, and now I look forward to every forthcoming release.

Disclaimer: Bourbon & Banter received a sample of this product from the brand for review. We appreciate their willingness to allow us to review their products with no strings attached. Thank you.