Red River Texas Bourbon: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Calandro's Supermarket

Red River Texas Bourbon Whiskey

Who says you can't make bourbon in Texas? Nobody, I hope. The fact of the matter is that bourbon can be made anywhere in the United States, it just has to follow certain guidelines that define what is bourbon and what is just whiskey or grain spirits. The Red River Texas Bourbon Whiskey is indeed a bourbon, but unfortunately we didn't think it was a very good one. The aroma is very chemically like a pool room at a hotel, though it is light and has just a hint of what might be some cinnamon. The taste is boring and inoffensive like the nose. It is weird and medicinal and very blah. The finish brings on a touch of cherry and fruit but is nothing special. There's no balance to the flavors that are present and it has very little complexity in the first place. I feel bad bashing an artisan whiskey, but Red River might need to go back to the drawing board on this one. I'd be happy to try it again from a different bottle to see if anything changed between batches, but I wouldn't pay for this again.

Red River Texas Bourbon Whiskey

Average Score 38.0

Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by Calandro's Supermarket. Calandro's has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, Irish, and other whisk(e)ys as well as wine and craft beer. This WW feature was scored by Jay Ducote, Eric Ducote, and Jeremy Spikes. Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own proprietary scoring system. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss and anything above 90 is rather extraordinary.