Welcome back Modern Thirst readers! Today we’ll be taking a look at MB Roland’s Still and Barrel Proof Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. But first, a little backstory on this product taken from their site:
“MB Roland Distillery is a completely “grain to glass” craft distillery located in Pembroke, Christian Co. KY. We’re actually outside of town and affectionately refer to our exact location as “downtown St. Elmo.” We use local white corn to hand make each of our products ranging from our very unique “distillation & barrel proof” Kentucky Bourbon to our naturally-flavored Kentucky Pink Lemonade.
The distillery was founded by Paul & Merry Beth (“MB”) Tomaszewski in 2009 as Kentucky’s first completely “grain to glass” craft distillery. Paul is a native of southeastern Louisiana and arrived to the area via nearby Ft Campbell, while MB is a local native. An Amish dairy farm came up for sale and proved to be a wonderful foundation for a Kentucky craft distillery. One of the major benefits of the location is our proximity to our local grain supplier, Christian County Grain, located in nearby Pembroke.
The operation started out with Paul as the one and only full-time distiller in 2009. Since then our team has grown to more than 14 total employees, including MB coming over full time from her previous career. The one constant with us with both our production process and our location is that we love what we do and strive to make that come through in our products, the distillery, and our onsite events.”
This bourbon is composed of a 72% white corn, 17% rye, and 5% barley malt grain bill and is aged for two years, bottled at 113.2 proof. Now that we have established the whiskey, let’s get on to the review shall we?
Appearance
- Medium brown to dark amber, nice long legs on the glass.
Nose
- Citrus, strawberries, butterscotch, deep oak/wood, and toasted corn.
Taste
- Very corn-forward in the best possible way with all the aforementioned notes of the nose coming through as well, brown sugar caramel, banana, a hint of spiciness, and a faint malt towards the end.
Finish
- A long, chest warming finish with loads of vanilla and caramel.
Score
- 87
MB Rowland Still and Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon
MB Roland has a very nice product here on their hands. With more age, it can be improved even further, and I fully expect that to happen as time goes on. The high proof lends itself to standing up to a bit of dilution when drinking it on the rocks, but it is very smooth if you choose to drink it neat also. Some distilleries just get their base spirit right and this bourbon is proof of that fact.
