The Bourbon Review: Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey

Tom Bulleit oversaw the first modern distillation of Bulleit Bourbon in 1987 and it’s apparently distilled using the same mash bill that his great-great grandfather Augustus Bulleit was using in 1830 up until his death in 1860 when Augustus sadly passed away.

I say ‘apparently’ regarding the mash bill because there is no historical evidence to back up this claim. What can be confirmed is that Mr Bulleit set up the Bulleit brand to sell sourced bourbon to the Japanese market.

In 1997 Seagram’s bought the brand and it was finally introduced to the US markets in 1999. A year later Diageo bought Seagram’s and they subsequently contracted Four Roses distillery to distill the whiskey, an arrangement that lasted until 2013. After that date it’s unclear who was producing the whiskey. 

In 2017 Diageo celebrated Bulleit’s 30th anniversary by opening the Bulleit distillery in Shelbyville, Kentucky with it’s visitor centre opening in 2019. There is a 10 year old version of Bulleit available so clearly that’s still sourced whiskey. The core release is no age statement.

You can watch my YouTube review below:

Bulleit Frontier Bourbon 45% abv (68% corn, 28%rye, 4% malted barley)

Nose: Light honey, sliced apples, vanilla, peach. Cherry lips candies, liquorice, mild oakiness and a little cask char. Cinnamon, fennel and a light pepperiness.

Palate: There’s that honey again with baked apples, vanilla beans, fennel, clove and rye spice. Tinned pineapple too. Some orange peel now along with toasted oak and a slightly dry bitterness.

Finish: short to medium, with rye spice, clove, tinned pineapple and oak tannins.

Score: 5 out of 10

Overall: A pretty good nose that sadly the palate doesn’t quite live up too. It’s well enough balanced and I guess what make’s it feel a little different to other bourbons in this price point is the very high rye content. A decent enough sipper although I’d probably recommend a Four Roses or Wild Turkey over this for an easy sipping whiskey but I’d say the real strength for this bourbon is in being a cocktail base with that punchy rye spice.

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