In what is an amazing play on words, the “Master of Whiskey Series” unveiled its second release of Blackened. Paired with the mastermind and founder of Angel’s Envy Bourbon we have been introduced to “Blackened x Wes Henderson” Kentucky straight bourbon finished in white port wine casks. This limited-edition expression was created in partnership with Blackened American Whiskey’s master distiller and blender Rob Dietrich and recently retired Angel’s Envy co-founder and Kentucky Bourbon Hall Of Fame member Wes Henderson in what is his first project post-retirement. The “Masters Of Whiskey Series” builds upon the brand’s core tenant of collaboration, converging the passions, talents, and skills of two master whiskey makers to create new, distinctive expressions.
This latest release is crafted from a base of six-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon and finished in white port wine casks. Dietrich and Henderson both have extensive backgrounds in port wine finishes and knew they wanted to use that expertise for this whiskey. After exploring several finishes, they jointly sourced and selected a unique white port wine as the cask finish, that balanced well with the depth of the bourbon. The resulting whiskey features notes of pear, raisin, cinnamon, and cigar box on the nose and hints of pear, honey, chipotle cinnamon, vanilla, barn hay, and walnut on the palate.
As was with the first release of Blackened, the whiskey undergoes a sonic enhancement process in which the finishing barrels are pummeled by the low hertz frequencies of Metallica’s music. The sound waves cause vibrations that shake the finishing barrels, causing greater interaction between the whiskey and the wood, thereby extracting more flavors and color. The expression is bottled at cask strength and is non-chill filtered.
This expression follows the inaugural release, the Blackened x Willett Kentucky straight rye whiskey finished in madeira casks, created in collaboration with Willett Distillery and master distiller Drew Kulsveen.
Guitarist Kirk Hammett comments:
“We don’t do anything halfway. We partnered with our co-founder, the late, great Dave Pickerell to bring you our badass original blend — now helmed by the amazing Rob Dietrich, Willett Distillery to bring you an explosive rye, and Wes Henderson to create this outstanding bourbon. That’s the really cool thing about the ‘Masters Of Whiskey Series’ — we build on our core idea of collaboration, getting to work with these insane master distillers and blenders to innovate and bring new expressions to our fans and whiskey drinkers.”
The Blackened x Wes Henderson Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey finished in white port wine casks is available in limited quantities for a suggested retail price of $99.99.
In more Metallica news, these legends have announced their All Within My Hands acoustic Helping Hands Concert and Auction to take place on December 16th at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, CA. Tickets go on sale this Friday (23rd) at 10am local time.
