Legend has it that this unique Bourbon resulted from malt shortage at the distillery. Faced with a waning supply of malted barley, these talented distillers grabbed some peated malt to finish the batch. A year later, the spirit was sampled and the results were so delicious that KCD decided to make a thing of it.
To be clear, this is not a classic Bourbon finished in a peated cask. It’s a Whiskey that conforms to the requirements for Bourbon, made with a percentage of peated malt. The malt Kings County use for this Whiskey was grown and kilned in Scotland, and now represents 25% of the mash bill, alongside 75% New York State organic corn.
So, it’s a hybrid Whiskey of the two traditions, flavourful and robust from having aged at least two years in new barrels, with a lightly smoky finish reminiscent of a Scottish Single Malt. While it’s superb sipping on its own, it also makes a killer Old Fashioned or smoky Manhattan (with apologies to the Rye purists).