Dog and Shrub Bourbon Review & Tasting Notes

 

I love small, local, off-the-radar distilleries. First of all, the discovery is cool all by itself. Second of all, imagine, if you will, the opportunity to try something before anyone else you know has had the chance. And, there you are, sipping something potentially amazing, and you get to tell your buddies all about it.

 

Lake Mills, Wisconsin, is a stone’s throw from the Whiskeyfellow World Headquarters, and the ground was broken a few years ago for Dog and Shrub Distillery. It is a family-owned craft distillery located in a business park.

“Dog and Shrub Distillery is named after our love of dogs and cocktails. 

Dog is reference to all of the long-haired dachshunds in our life including Pippin, Mabou, and Digby. Also, unaged whiskey is often referred to as white dog.

​Shrub is reference to fruit-based sugar/vinegar syrups used in some of our cocktails, offering a sweet/tart balance to the drink. Shrubs were used as a way of preserving fruits and vegetables prior to refrigeration and capture their essence at its peak.” – Dog and Shrub Distillery

 

Rob “Doc” Campbell and his wife, Kim, are both chemists.  Doc was a high-school chemistry teacher, Kim worked for biochemical start-up companies. Together, they opened Dog and Shrug in 2020.

 

Rob and Kim have been distilling vodka and gin, and make pretty spectacular cocktails in the tasting room. And, a little over a week ago, they released their first Bourbon. The Campbells partnered start-to-finish with Dancing Goat Distillery out of nearby Cambridge.  It is a mash of 60% corn, 25% rye, and 15% malted barley, which then rested for 34 months in new, #3 charred oak 53-gallon barrels. The tasting room sells this for $50.00 for a 750ml bottle.  I purchased my bottle on release day, and it came from Barrel 002.

 

How does Dog and Shrub Bourbon taste? The only way to find out for sure is to #DrinkCurious, so off we go! 

 

Appearance:  Served neat in my Glencairn glass, Dog and Shrub Bourbon presented as the color of caramel. It made a medium rim that formed husky, fast legs that crashed back into the pool.

 

Nose: The fragrance of cooked peaches danced around me while I was allowing it to breathe. As I brought the glass to my face, I smelled corn, cereal, cedar, and more cooked peaches (the alliteration was accidental). When I took the aroma into my mouth, butterscotch jumped out.

 

Palate:  A buttery mouthfeel started things off. My palate first tasted sweet corn, vanilla, and Bit O’ Honey candy. As the liquid moved to the middle, that became caramel, which was joined by clove. The back offered flavors of toasted pecan, cashew, cinnamon, and tobacco leaf.

 

Finish:  Medium-to-long in duration, the finish featured toasted pecan, toasted oak, rye spice, and clove.

 

Bottle, Bar, or Bust:  One of the things I found pleasing was how easy this Bourbon went down. There was nothing harsh that can be a telltale of a young whiskey. That’s likely due to the higher malt content. The more I sipped, the more I wanted to continue doing so. Dog and Shrub is a true craft distillery, and their $50.00 price tag for a nearly three-year Bourbon isn’t out of line. But here’s where the pedal hits the metal:  Would I go back and buy another?  Yes, and that makes this a Bottle rating from me. Cheers!

 

My Simple, Easy to Understand Rating System

• Bottle = Buy It
• Bar = Try It
• Bust = Leave It

 

Whiskeyfellow encourages you to enjoy your whiskey as you see fit but begs you do so responsibly.