The Story

When we first heard about Jos. A. Magnus & Co. relocating to our home state of Michigan, I got a little giddy. For starters, there aren’t a whole lot of distilleries in our state – comparatively speaking – and we were very familiar with their namesake product and Murray Hill Club, as well as the ever-sought-after Cigar Blend. Far as we were concerned, this was a big deal.

So you can imagine our excitement when we heard that a new brand called Fox & Oden was hitting the scene, under the Magnus family of products. What new spirits could we expect? What type of whiskeys would they produce? Fortunately it didn’t take long before we had our answer; they quickly released a namesake bourbon as a Michigan-only exclusive. Eventually one became available at one of our favorite stores, so we seized the opportunity to grab it and do an in-depth tasting.

Our research tells us that this bottle is a blend of 8 and 15 year MGP barrels, which is fairly impressive out of the gate. Barrels of that age are becoming increasingly harder to come by as aged whiskey stock trends younger and younger. Fox & Oden also states that this expression was made with higher-rye mash bills, including 21% and 36% rye. Could it be a bit spicy? Well, that’s what we aim to find out, so let’s get into the tasting.

Nose

It’s not shy in giving up its secrets, and that was clear as soon as we smelled it. Some lighter sweet notes of honey, caramel and chocolate, and other notes of pecan and stone fruit. Not much alcohol on the nose, either.

Palate

On the palate, it’s initially sweet with those prominent caramel notes, but rather quickly transitions to spicy, featuring black peppercorn. Once some of the spiciness fades, you’re left with a smoky, charred oak note and some bittersweet chocolate. Just before the finish it mellows out a bit and features that caramel sweetness again, along with some very nice baking spice notes.

Finish

The finish is medium in length, but still gives an admirable Kentucky Hug. It continues on with a tinge of smoke, caramel and baking spice.

Verdict

We’re impressed with Fox and Oden’s first bottle release, and it mostly comes down to the fact that they blended a pretty good product here. 8 and 15 year barrels of MGP aren’t easy to come by, so we understand the higher price tag on this one; we were just hoping that the whiskey inside would match up to the price it commanded, and we think it does. The flavors play off each other quite nicely and it did have some of the more unique flavors we like, such as bittersweet chocolate and smoke.

We would have liked to have seen a little bit longer of a finish as it’s just a touch quick, and some of the deeper notes we got just barely made an appearance as opposed to lingering on the palate. But hey, it’s their first release and it’s more than solid enough to make us excited about what other products they have in store.

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