HER WHISKEY REVIEWS

A dark and mysterious four grain Kentucky Bourbon named for the Queen of Bootleggers

What You Need to Know

Kentucky Artisan Distillery / Lythgoe (Nondistiller Producer)

• Type: 4 Grain Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Mashbill: 67% corn, 12.5% rye, 12.5% wheat, 8% malted barley
• Proof / ABV: 94 proof/47% ABV
• Age Statement / Range: 9 years
• MSRP: $89.99
• Availability: Limited
• Distilled At: Kentucky Artisan Distillery

Review Summary – Our Take, Straight Up

This isn’t your standard vanilla/caramel/baking spice Bourbon. The four grain mashbill lends a lot of complexity, from roasted coffee beans to honeysuckle.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: 8/10

Saddle soap, creme brulee, honeysuckle

Flavor: 8.5/10

Roasted coffee bean, orange zest, walnuts

Texture: 8.5/10

A great balance of oily and dry

Finish: 7/10

Short and sweet!

Unique or True to Style?

Most of the releases from this brand will be unique, as they are choosing barrels and blending to create the best possible product from the barrels available to them.

Behind the Bottle

• Four grain Bourbon, while gaining in popularity, is still pretty rare. Most Bourbons are made from either corn, rye, and malted barley or from corn, wheat, and malted barley. This Bourbon has both rye and wheat in the mash bill.
• Lythgoe is a nondistiller producer brand, which means that the brand itself does not own a distillery but rather contract distills or buys barrels from an established distillery, in this case Kentucky Artisan Distillery.
• This brand was named for Gertrude Cleo Lythgoe, a Prohibition-era bootlegger in the Bahamas.

Best For / Skip If

• Best For: anyone who loves deep, rich, and unusual flavors in Bourbon
• Skip If: you tend to like one-note “caramel bombs”

Our Recommendations

• Suggested glassware: Glencairn
• Atmosphere : Speakeasy
• Suggested for cocktails or as neat sipper: I always prefer neat, but this would be great in an Old Fashioned
• Suggested food pairings: barbecue
• Gifting suggestions: $90 is totally reasonable for a 9 year Bourbon!
• Would I pour it for my peer: totally
• Would I pour this for my bestie: for sure!

The Last Sip (Closing Notes)

88

You never know what you’re going to get in a 9-year Bourbon, and that’s especially true for four grain Bourbons! This one has a lot of interesting character thanks to the nonstandard mash bill and the sweet-spot aging. To push this Bourbon to a higher age statement it would have to be put in a lower level of the rickhouse for most of its tenure.

FAQ Box

• Is Lythgoe worth the price? Yes! $90 is totally reasonable for a 9 year age-stated Bourbon.
• Is Lythgoe a women-owned whiskey? Yes! Lythgoe is women-owned and women-run. The Founder is Dina Coker and the Master Blender is industry veteran Steffani Scheurich.