Tasting notes

nose

Crisp red apple and white grape lead, with honey, molasses and a soft leather note behind them, then vanilla, cola and ripe cherry over warm oak

palate

Brandy-soaked fruit and caramel arrive first, with overripe apple, grape skin and dried fruit filling in, and honeycomb, almond and rye-bread spice building toward the back

finish

Full and lingering, it replays the dried fruit and spice before settling into honey, toasted bread and drying oak tannin

Mash bill

A high-rye bourbon mash of corn, rye and barley; the split for the whole bottle is not published. The base is Breckenridge Bourbon Whiskey, which blends the distillery's own bourbon (56% corn, 38% rye, 6% barley) with bourbon bought from other distilleries. The large rye share in the house recipe gives the spice that runs under the Cognac fruit.

Awards

• Gold, Best American Blended Limited Release — World Whiskies Awards 2023
• Double Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023

Why it's craft

This bottle spends more than two years in casks that held XO Cognac blended from Grande and Petite Champagne. The distillery imports the casks from France itself and chooses them by the Cognac they held. The base is the house high-rye bourbon, which joins spirit from Breckenridge's own still at 9,600 feet with bourbon it did not distill.