Tasting notes

nose

Smoky baked apple and pie crust, with mesquite, mint, cut grass, rye spice and a little charcoal

palate

Caramelized sugar and dried pear give way to mesquite wood, toasted grain and malt, with a pinch of sea salt and soft smoke

finish

Long; singed vanilla and sugary dried fruit linger over dry wood, with a last thread of smoke

Mash bill

60% yellow corn, 35% pumpernickel rye, 5% heritage malt. That is a high-rye bourbon recipe, and the whiskey was distilled and first aged in Ohio, not in Tucson. Whiskey Del Bac's part comes afterward, from its mesquite: staves from its used mesquited barrels and charcoal left over from smoking its malt.

Why it's craft

Sentinel is Whiskey Del Bac's bourbon, and the distillery says plainly that it did not distill it: the whiskey is two- and three-year-old bourbon made and first aged in Ohio. What Del Bac adds is its own mesquite. The bourbon rests on staves from used Del Bac mesquited barrels and is filtered over charcoal left from smoking malt over mesquite, a Tucson step the distillery named for Pima County. Whiskey Del Bac was founded by the Paul family in 2011 and was acquired by No Sleep Beverage in 2026.