American Whisky Review #45: Peerless Bourbon Single Barrel 4 Year San Diego Costco Pick

Distillery: Peerless Distilling Co.

Region: Kentucky

Price: $7.50 for a 2 oz sample

ABV: 55.65%

Age: 4 Year

Color: 1.5, Auburn/Polished Mahogany.

Nose: (according to the wife) It smells like a slice of pecan pie. You get a bit of nuttiness, a bit of brown sugar, a little bit of caramel. There’s a lot of oak as well, all of which smells lovely.

Palate: It’s light and sweet up front. It’s full of flavor: there’s a bit of baking spice, bits of brown sugar, some cherry along with vanilla, and a lot of the corn mash “bourbon” flavor. All in all, it tastes like if you were to take a warm slice of cherry pie and infuse booze into it.

Finish: Mercifully short. The only thing here is ethanol and it’s fairly unpleasant.

Conclusion: To celebrate the Fourth of July, is there a better fit than a four year old American whiskey? I’ve seen Peerless, generally their rye, here and there but I haven’t had a chance to try any of them. This bourbon from them starts off with the inviting smell of pecan pie and then goes into a lovely boozy cherry pie in the palate. So far, so good. Then the finish hits. And it’s awful. The ethanol is strong and unpleasant but mercifully short. Overall, it’s fairly good but you almost don’t want to down this and just swirl it around in your mouth forever. Happy Fourth of July everyone, stay safe!

Final Score: 79.

American Whisky Review #45, Bourbon Review #32, Whisky Network Review #270

Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.