PURE KENTUCKY XO
Batch 14-44 (2014)MASH BILL – Unknown
PROOF – 107
AGE – NAS (rumors from its era suggest ~10 years)
DISTILLERY – Pure Kentucky Distilling Company (i.e. Willett sourcing from who knows)
PRICE – $60 at a corner store in 2024
WORTH BUYING? – Yes, even at that offensive price
In 2023 I posted notes on a 2016 batch of Pure Kentucky XO. I was not impressed by that bottle. Its impact was marred by irritatingly gritty herbal and wood spices that overwhelmed its appealing caramel and orange zest notes. Bottled four years into Willett’s 2012 distilling resumption, one can reasonably assume that 2016 batch was a blend of new young Willett and the older sourced stuff on which they’d built their reputation.
This was particularly disappointing given a batch I’d picked up on sale for $22 in 2018, which blew me away in a good ol’ fashioned bourbon sorta way. Like the 2016, it is logical to assume any 2018 batch also featured a blend of Willett’s own with sourced bourbon, given the label still did not yet state “distilled by” Willett. But the 2018 and 2016 experiences couldn’t have been more night and day. And, actually, I don’t know the batch year of that bottle I bought in 2018. It could have been a 2018 batch, or some previous year’s batch that sat there until finally being put on sale…
And so I’d been regarding this 2014 batch with a mix of anticipation and wariness, since picking it up for the too-high price of $60 in 2024. The corner store where I found it knew older Kentucky bourbon batches warrant mark-ups, given the geeks like me out there prowling for dusties. I paid the pirate’s toll.
Worth it?
Here we are, six days after uncorking and three pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using both a simple brandy glass and traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – lovely medium oranges ranging from pumpkin to russet
NOSE – allspice and toasted cinnamon, coarse sugar crystals, burnt vanilla, orange rind and zest, something syrupy like a well-aged brandy, fresh water in a brushed steel bucket, wheat toast crusts, dry oak wood and bark
TASTE – a peppery prickle from the ABV, toasted vanilla, black pepper, that fresh water / brushed steel bucket note, drying caramel, burlap, dark chocolate, diner coffee
FINISH – lingering prickle and warmth from the ABV, toasted vanilla, brushed steel bucket, allspice, touch of orange rind, drying caramel, dark chocolate
OVERALL – a rustic bourbon of the kind old-schoolers might either toss back in a saloon or sip near the campfire in contemplation of life’s rough trails
Neither amazing, fancy, nor refined, this is good ol’ rough bourbon. The sweetness of the candy and citrus notes is pushed to the background by the spice, oak, and other elemental notes. It has grit to it, though it’s not at all the irritant that 2016 bottle was.
Not quite at home in the Glencairn, where it feels like a cowboy forced into a suit, I find this bourbon tastes best in a simple brandy glass or tumbler. I also tried it in a tumbler on ice, which neither ruined nor improved it, until time passed and dilution nudged the sweeter aspects even further into the background. This is a bourbon that wants to be sipped neat from an unfussy vessel.
I wouldn’t pay $60 for a 2014 Pure Kentucky XO again. But for the sake of exploration, I’m not mad that I did in 2024. I wish I knew the batch number and year of that bottle I enjoyed so much in 2018, and that I still had some around to compare. Looking back on my notes, I seemed to have enjoyed that bottle even more than this 2014.
And I do enjoy this. It’s solid. It tastes classic in that rough way, conjuring images of hard travelers on hard times, soothing their souls in the saloon or under the night sky. It will no doubt make a solid Old-Fashioned, where I expect a nice wedge of orange zest will pull the bourbon’s citrus notes to the fore.
In any case, they don’t make it like this anymore. As my long journey with Willett comes toward its end, touching base with this early outing of theirs, from before they were ready to stamp their name on it, feels somehow fitting.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 