A $23 bottle of close to cask strength bourbon is unheard of. So it is fitting they have added a 125 proof bottling to the Benchmark lineup. If this ultimately becomes something I can get all of the time I could see this being my everyday cocktail hour bourbon.īenchmark Full Proof – Sazerac has really made full proof one of their go to products in the 1792 and Weller lines. At 100 proof this would be a go to for a cocktail. Yes, this $20 screw top bottle of bonded bourbon is perfectly quaffable neat. On the finish, vanilla and clove linger and linger, although there is a slight youthful bitterness of the finish. On the palate, the citrus notes are met with brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, and some nice baking spices. On the nose is lots of caramel, some vanilla, and citrus notes. On the swirl is a thin film but with very slow almost gravity defying legs. The color on this is a medium amber, with some shimmers of straw and mahogany. The bonded designation also assures that this whiskey is four years old. In other places you might see these marked up a little bit, but probably no more than $30.īenchmark Bonded – The label reminds us of an element of the Bottled in Bond Act, meaning that the whiskey must be distilled by a single distiller during a single season, which now means a year. The Bonded was no kidding $20 and the Full Proof was $23. What is absolutely stunning is the price.

Hokus Pokus recently got some of these new releases in, and being the proof hound I am, I bought the Bonded and Full Proof. Now there is Top Floor (86 proof), Small Batch (90 proof), Single Barrel (95 proof), Bonded (100 proof, of course), and Full Proof (125 proof). In line with Buffalo Trace’s expanding warehouses and even the addition of a new still, they have expanded Benchmark from a single bottle to a collection of different bourbons. Benchmark is labelled as a straight bourbon whiskey, meaning that if there is no age statement, it is at least four years old. Even at 80 proof, it has a lot of great bourbon flavor. I used Benchmark when creating my Bourbon Baller daiquiri recipe. Until recently, it had only been offered in an 80 proof version. Benchmark is made from the same low rye mashbill for which Buffalo Trace and Stagg are famous. They recommended Benchmark, which is a bourbon they own, while Ancient Age, like Blanton’s, is owned by the former owners of the distillery, Age International. After I got introduced to the good folks at Buffalo Trace by a friend who worked for Sazerac as an accountant, I had asked them which of their low end bourbons they would recommend, Benchmark or Ancient Age. Benchmark has been by go to cheap mixable bourbon for a long time.

Benchmark full proof age