You can’t write this whiskey off as another gimmick bottling. Blended from equal parts VDC’s 5-year-old single malt and 4-year-old bourbon sourced from an undisclosed craft Bardstown distillery (take your guess), it’s really delivers on its promise, especially for the price. The best thing about this Split Barrel is that the bourbon is not the centerpiece. VDC knows their bread and butter, and they choose to highlight it here, with timely interludes of bourbon influence here and there. It’s a deep gold/light amber color introduces a nose of graham cracker, light toffee, easy spice, yellow apple, peanut butter cookie, mineral hints, orange peel, and lemon cookie. The palate matches nose quite a lot, with more crisp apple fruit, touches of mineral and malt, tart lemon, a pop of deep bourbon spice on the solid, deep mid-palate, and drawn out, slightly hot finish of golden malt and ginger. Given how harmonious the two components are together, I’m confident this would play well with a lot of different ingredients. They really nailed the stylistic synchronicity here, and the value is just off the charts.
92 points, Andrew Kitz, B-21 Spirits Buyer (Jun 2026)
Top Quality Store
