The Bourbon Review: Pinhook 9 Year Old Straight Bourbon Whiskey Review

Pinhook came into existence in 2011 when three friends Sean Joseph, Charles Fulford and Jay Peterson bought 20 casks from Lawrenceburg Distiller’s in Indiana (now MGP).

The name Pinhook comes from the horse racing world and is a term for buying young foals and nurturing them into champions. When visiting their barrels that they had moved to Kentucky and monitoring their progress the lads saw this parallel between horse racing and whiskey production.

In 2017 Castle & Key restored production at the Old Taylor Distillery in Kentucky and this is where Pinhook now get their custom mash bills distilled under the purview of Sean Josephs.

Pinhook Vertical Series 9 Year Old 57.2%abv/114.3 proof. 

Unfiltered/NC          $109/£85.25/€103.50

Mash Bill: 75% corn, 20.5% rye, 4.5% malted barley. Distilled by MGP

An exploration of age on whiskey following a group of 1350 barrels as they age from 4 years to 12 years.

Nose: A nice glace cherry note straight away. Nougat, vanilla, caramel. Cinnamon and dusty oak. Cream soda and foam banana sweets. Water – toasted coconut, taffy, car polish and marshmallow.

Palate: A sweet arrival – brown sugar syrup, sweet cinnamon rolls, cherry cola and then a chilli flake heat and rye spice. Plenty of oak. Surprisingly thin mouthfeel. Water – the body has thinned out a bit – now some orange oil but not much else.

Finish: Short but with rye spice of pepper, clove, dusty oak and caramel.

Score: 5 out of 10

Overall: An average bourbon and frankly a poor return on the outlay, I’ve definitely had better for much less. If this was the best whiskey from Pinhook for 2024 then it’s not a great advert for the brand.

I will say that I’ve enjoyed a few of their High Proof Bourbon range more than this and they rock in at around the $60 mark, so a much more wallet friendly price point. I probably won’t be chasing anymore of the vertical series, part of that is probably because it’s sourced and rightly or wrongly that affects my view of the brand and all sourced whiskey brands to be fair, after all you are charging a premium for a product you haven’t even distilled and you don’t have the associated costs that go along with the production…..no construction outlay for a distillery or warehousing, no maintenance outlay, a much reduced staff level, no sourcing barrels. 

It may be an unfair comparison but Wild Turkey can put out the Rare Breed for $55 and it’s an excellent product. If Pinhook owned a distillery and had all the associated extra startup and running costs I could probably overlook the price, but as they source the liquid I feel the price was a bit rich.

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