Louisville’s Four Gate Whiskey Company is launching Batch 18 “Saint Charente,” a straight bourbon finished in cognac casks.
Four Gate began this batch with a 7-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon with a mash bill of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley, which then then finished in cognac casks for a rich, fruity whiskey.
“I absolutely love the nose on this batch,” Said Chief Blending Officer, Bill Straub. “It has tons of orchard fruits from those cognac casks and the French oak gave it some great baking spice notes as well. It’s like apple pie.”
The Cognac region of France (which distills the specific type of brandy known as Cognac) is home to the River Charente. The Four Gate group loved the name so much, they borrowed it for this batch.
“All the little towns in that area are called ‘Saint’ this or that,” Said Chief Barrel Officer, Bob D’Antoni. “We added the Saint in front of Charente in homage of that.”
Four Gate Whiskey Company launched in 2019 and has since released 18 batches of barrel strength bourbon and rye, most of them finished in secondary casks ranging from incredibly unique gin-curaçao barrels to classics like sherry and port barrels.
Just 2,365 bottles of Four Gate Batch 18 “Saint Charente” were bottled at a cask strength 119.2 proof and distributed to Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas at a suggested retail price of around $200.
