One of the latest additions to the Dragon’s Milk bourbon line from New Holland Brewing is Dragon’s Milk Origin, a small batch 5-year straight bourbon whiskey. It joins the year-round bourbon lineup and recently the company sent me a sample to review; here’s a couple of paragraphs from the press release talking about the process to craft this whiskey:

Origin’s unique status among modern bourbons is owed to the distilling process that made it possible; namely the near 100 year-old prohibition-era pot still that resides at New Holland’s production facility is used to produce all of their bourbon recipes. This traditional still imparts fruit forward character and a balanced body, while allowing New Holland to produce true small-batch bourbon, always bottled at the pinnacle of flavor in batches of 100 barrels or less. The recipe features corn, rye, and a high ratio of malted barley.

“Origin’s high-barley mash bill and 5 year maturation in char 3 oak barrels offers the drinker a one-of-a-kind experience” Dickerson said. “We are particularly enthusiastic about Origin’s four signature tasting notes of stone fruit (namely pear and apricot), citrus, baked pastries, and vanilla wafer. The marriage of these flavors with the myriad of additional sub-flavors forms a truly memorable bourbon and presents you with new tasting notes to uncover each time you revisit.”

It may be marketing, but I rather like the Prohibition-era post still story that New Holland attaches to their bourbons.

Origin is 95 proof (47.5% ABV). It is not flavored, like the two of the company’s Beer Barrel Bourbons that I reviewed previously.

My notes: It has a look like amber-colored honey, bright and attractive. The nose is appealing, with notes of graham cracker, Corn Chex cereal, vanilla bean, milk chocolate, caramel, booze, light oak, sweetened condensed milk. On the tongue it’s very smooth with a pop of heat, with subtle flavors of vanilla cream caramel, creamed corn, mild (white?) peppercorn spice, slightly nutty oak. It’s a bit hot, this would be good on ice or with a few drops of water sprinkled in, but even for that it’s creamy-smooth. It’s really quite nice and would make for a nice after-dinner nightcap.

I enjoyed it; it’s flavorful and well made, and I think it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a new bourbon to try. Recommended.