Kentucky Boy, a Brown-Forman bourbon that blends three premium whiskeys

Creating a blend with some of the most coveted bottles among collectors, such as Pappy 15, Michter's 20, or Boss Hog, seems like an expensive experiment with uncertain results. Brown-Forman tried it anyway.

Kentucky Boy combines three of the company's most revered whiskeys: Birthday Bourbon, King of Kentucky, and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. It was conceived by Old Forester's assistant master distiller, Caleb Trigo, and Woodford Reserve's master distiller, Elizabeth McCall, as a tribute to Chris Morris, master distiller emeritus, for his 50th anniversary at Brown-Forman. The name comes from an old brand they discovered in the company archives, a young bourbon released regionally after Prohibition.

The whiskey caused a sensation at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. According to Morris, he spent several hours signing bottles for fans who waited in a line that snaked around the block. Released as a limited edition, it has become very popular: it's available in Kentucky stores and on Old Forester's online store, which ships to some states, but bottles are already being resold on resale sites for three times their $100 price.

According to Morris, it's literally a blend of those bourbons. Morris didn't know the exact percentages, but he assured everyone they weren't equal parts. Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is that distillery's bourbon, with secondary maturation in a new set of charred oak barrels. King of Kentucky is Brown-Forman's annual single-barrel, barrel-proof release, which has become a collector's item. Birthday Bourbon is Old Forester's annual expression, released to celebrate founder George Garvin Brown's birthday. According to Morris, the other two bourbons are set aside after barrel aging for their own labels, so their allocation and aging process are separate.

The bourbon is well-aged, with notes of oak, dark chocolate, tobacco, and leather, but without being overpowering. It feels like a Brown-Forman product, with ripe fruit and banana emerging on the palate, while the mouthfeel fills with caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, cherry cola, and a light touch of black pepper and nutmeg. It has a slight spiciness at 100 proof, and the reviewer is glad it wasn't released as a high-proof edition.

Combining such coveted brands is undoubtedly a marketing strategy, but the result speaks for itself. With a score of 95, Kentucky Boy is a truly excellent bourbon. Even so, it costs less than many bourbons highly prized by collectors, and the reviewer considers it a bottle well worth the investment.