Bourbon Dose

Penelope Barrel Strength is strong, complex, and delicious. Read our full review for Penelope’s Barrel Strength bourbon, along with tasting notes, rating, and background.

Barrel Strength Age, Composition, and Proof

• Mashbill: 74% Corn, 16% Wheat, 7% Rye and 3% Malted Barely
• Age: 4-5 Years
• Proof: 116.0
• Parent Company: Luxco

Penelope Barrel Strength Bourbon is a product of Penelope Bourbon, a company founded in 2018 by two childhood friends, Michael Paladini and Daniel Polise. Named after Michael’s daughter, Penelope Bourbon has been one of the country’s fastest-growing whiskey brands. Penelope’s “core” is a series of straight bourbon whiskey expressions that are all uniquely blended from three different mash bills sourced from MGP. Penelope Bourbon has its own distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, where it bottles and labels its products. The distillery is situated on a plot of land that was originally part of a large plantation, and has been in continuous operation since the Civil War.

Penelope Barrel Strength is one of the 4 “Core Series” of Penelope Bourbon. This offering is a “Four Grain” bourbon, consisting of corn, wheat, rye, and barley as the core ingredients.

One interesting note is that while this has a four-grain blend, this is still technically considered bourbon. According to federal law bourbon must contain at least a 51% corn composition to meet the legal definition.

Penelope Barrel Strength has a mash bill of 74% corn, 16% wheat, 7% rye, and 3% malted barley. The bourbon is aged for 4 to 5 years in new charred oak barrels, and is bottled at cask strength, which varies from batch to batch. Typically, the average proof is around 115. Penelope’s four-grain approach gives the bourbon a uniquely complex pallet. This is balanced especially by the small presence of rye in this blend.

Penelope Barrel Strength Review

First off, the least important stuff: The bottle is nice. There’s a flower on the bottle, and we here at the Bourbon Dose have reached out to Penelope to figure out exactly what the backstory is on that.

[Update: We just heard from Penelope that these flowers are peonies.]

Nose

Spicy rye and honey hit you right up front, with a touch of oak and vanilla. It’s actually a pretty strong nose, all things considered. A little overpowering, but still delicious. At the end of the nose, there’s vanilla, and a lingering essence of ethanol.
Score: 6.7/10

Palette and Finish

Complex. Carmel-y wheat hits you first, then a huge dose of spicy rye. Penelope Barrel Strength runs around 116 proof, which is pretty strong. Because of this, you get a pretty solid hit of ethanol, subdued by cinnamon and vanilla.
Score: 7.3/10

Value

Bourbon Dose paid $61 for this bottle. Per booz.app, this bottle typically runs around $80-$85 – so this was a steal. Penelope generally is hit or miss on availability, so this is a bottle you might want to grab if you see it. At barrel strength and 116 proof, $61 ain’t bad.
Score: 9.0/10

Bourbon Dose Final Score

We liked this bottle. The nose is complex, the value is excellent, and the flavor is complex. Buy this if you see it for a bargain, but there’s other bottles that we like better.

Final Verdict: 7.7/10.Nice bottle. Nice flavor. Worth buying.