First Landing Bourbon
Intro:
From Tobacco Barn Distillery website:
Named in honor of the brave souls who left England seeking a better life and finding it here, in Maryland, in 1634. With the First Landing on what’s now known as St. Clements Island, and then the more permanent establishment at St. Mary’s City, religious freedom was brought to the new world. Thanks to you, we completely sold out of First Landing within days of its release.
Review:
Now that Rob and I have lived in Maryland for a few years we get excited anytime there is a prospect for decent bourbon distilled within the state. We came across Tobacco Barn bourbon at an Amish market, which are popular within the area and a great opportunity to market a new product. The price was a bit offputting for an unknown and unproven product. If I recall it was $45 for a pint. We bit the bullet on the price in hopes Tobacco Barn had created an elixir that was truly remarkable.
We got home and poured a couple samples. The odor (or I should say stench) was enough to make me want to dump the entire bottle over my head in order to set myself ablaze, in hopes of scorching my olfactory system and gaining relief from the rancidity I had just experienced. It smelled like tequila had been used to bathe a dead skunk. Our reactions reminded me of the Sex Panther cologne scene from the movie Anchorman.
Somehow, following the awful nose of the liquid (I refuse to refer to it as bourbon), we got up the nerve to sample the flavor and it was even worse than the smell. I can only imagine the distiller used old tobacco leaves from the floor of a tobacco barn in the mash bill and cut the finished product with turpentine. This is by far the worst attempt at bourbon I have ever experienced. It has become a running joke between Rob and I...whenever we are competing against one another, the loser typically is threatened with a shot of Tobacco Barn. I can think of no better motivation to win. I might use that on my daughter whenever she gets into sports. She will have a full ride scholarship to her college of choice and her sport of choice if I use the fear of Tobacco Barn to press her!
Is it worth the $?
$45 per pint.
All in all, if you happen to run across a bottle of this in the store, I encourage you to pick it up and wing it at the store clerk for peddling such hot garbage. Better yet, force them to take a drink.