The Story

Back in 2019 we went for a full-tilt Kentucky Bourbon Trail circuit, hitting 12 distilleries in 5 days. Being unabashed whiskey nerds we were on cloud nine as we rushed from distillery to distillery to ensure we made it to each of our scheduled tours on time (thankfully we allotted ourselves enough time in between tours).

By the time we’d reached the last day, we were pretty bushed.  We had planned on Buffalo Trace being our last tour for the parade of distilleries we marched through, but as we were in Frankfort, the question came up: “Should we see if we can visit Castle & Key?”

We were pretty tired, but it wasn’t too far off so we decided to go. And we were sure happy we did. The full story on Castle & Key is a post for another time, but suffice it to say it was a really beautiful place to be.

And that’s where Pinhook is made. According to Pinhook’s website, Castle & Key distills, ages, blends and bottles Pinhook – all under the direction of Pinhook Master Taster Sean Josephs. We know Castle & Key got off on the right foot when they began operations under the well-known Distiller Marianne Eaves, and so it would stand to reason that Pinhook is of the same quality of the products that come from Castle & Key.

So what’s the story with this bottle? This was our first Pinhook product and we were pretty excited to pop it open. It comes in at 119.9 proof and is non-age-stated. It has a mash bill consisting of 75% corn, 15% rye and 10% malted barley. 

One thing we particularly loved about it was the artwork, so we did some digging and found out a little more about the label. Pinhook has a design system for their bottles, which is intended for fans to easily identify the expression and vintage. For example, our bottle here is a high proof bourbon which is purple, the geometric shape on the bottle denotes the year or vintage – in our case, 2021 – and the horse tells us what lot of barrels that the blend comes from. In this case, our horse’s name is Bourbon Heist.

Ok, so now that we’ve talked about about the background, let’s get into the tasting.

Nose

On the nose we get plenty of sweet aromas including vanilla, caramel and some honeysuckle.

Palate

The palate begins sweet with honey and corn, and transitions to some white pepper spice that lingers for some time before transitioning back to sweet notes for the finish.

Finish

The finish is rather sweet – we detected some pear and nectarine notes and some cinnamon spice at the end.

Verdict

Our bottle of Pinhook Bourbon Heist cost us $49.99 and we think it’s definitely worth it for the price. It delivers a lot of great flavor and it’s certainly not breaking the bank at that price point. So it’s no surprise that we would suggest a buy rating on this one. For a reasonable price range, we would suggest anywhere from $50-$65.

Overall, we’re giving Pinhook’s High Proof Bourbon – Bourbon Heist an 8.0 out of 10. It’s nice to have a pour that swings from sweet to spicy and then back to sweet but maintains a good balance while doing so, and we think they did a wonderful job on this one.

Do you own this bottle? Then surely you’ll want to add it to your inventory using our web app! It’s free to use. Sign up here to get a handle on that unruly home bar.

Cheers friends!