Gentleman's Cut Bourbon Review [In Depth]
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon Details
Distillery: Sourced from Boone County Distillery
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 45%
Composition: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% bourbon
Aged: Blend of 5-7 year old bourbon
Color: 1.0/2.0 on the color scale (deep copper)
Price: $80-90
From the company website:
We’ve carefully crafted a blend of 75% Corn, 21% Rye, and 4% Malted Barley that delivers a seamless sip of honey, fresh vanilla bean, and rich caramel on the palate. The rye element engages earthy and spicy notes, while the dash of barley offers bold touches of cocoa and toast.
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon overview
Steph Curry needs no introduction – basketball legend, all-time making it rain from 3-point shooter, and now apparently bourbon brand owner.
In an effort to create something to celebrate good times, friends, and family (and probably expand his investments because sitting on that much cash is a terrible financial decision), he went into the whiskey industry. He isn’t the first celebrity or athlete to do it, but hopefully he does it better than others.
So instead of spending a ton of time and money on building a distillery of his own, although he probably has the money to do it, he eventually ended up partnering with Boone County distilling for the bourbon. I don’t know the exact agreement, meaning contract distilling or buying already-aged bourbon, but it’s not a secret that the bourbon comes from there.
For me at least, Boone County is an interesting option because they’re more famous for some of their MGP-sourced bourbons than they are for their homemade whiskey. I’m surprised that they didn’t go to Bardstown Bourbon or the company who makes Jefferson’s, but maybe they wanted to do something more unique. Hopefully that decision pays off.
I do want to mention the mashbill – 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% barley. Is everyone and their mother using this mashbill now? MGP started it, Bardstown Bourbon borrowed it, Savage and Cooke (in California) also borrowed it, and Boone County does too? If it isn’t broken, then I guess don’t fix it because MGP has done very well with it.
As a personal challenge to myself, I’m going to try to include as many basketball references as I can…hopefully in a somewhat tasteful way. Who knows if it will work, but I’m going to have fun with it. Ideally my last sentence would have had some type of basketball reference, but I fumbled that opportunity…and that’s a football reference.
Let’s find out if Steph Curry hits a three from half court in this Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon review.
This bottle (actually two because another was accidentally sent to me) was provided at no cost to me. All opinions are still my own.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for everything (they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass Set of 6, Set of 4, Set of 2, or just one. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon smell
At first I smell dark honey, pumpernickel, ginger, soggy pumpernickel bread, red apple, apricot, oak, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, orange peel, and toasted corn. Oh jeez, the soggy oak and earthy grain stick out immediately, to the point that it’s tough to focus on anything else.
There are nice sweet, fruity, and dark scents in there, but there’s enough soggy graininess and earthiness that pulls me away from enjoying it all. It’s unfortunate too because the body and viscosity are actually quite good. It’s probably just me, but bready and grainy whiskeys are not my thing. It reminds me too much of young craft bourbon.
After swirling and rest, there’s caramel, earthy pumpernickel, dried ginger, very dark rye bread with a lot of crust, baked red apple, roasted oak, cinnamon, nutmeg, more earthy caraway seed, orange peel, and roasted coffee. Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon doesn’t smell as soggy and grainy this time, which is an improvement. At the same time, it’s still so bready and earthy that I can’t shake the thought of young craft bourbon.
It’s strange, but this has surprisingly decent body and roundness, although it’s not at all complex or layered. The scents are pleasant enough, but with some “off notes” that I can’t get past. Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon smells ok, but I feel like it could be so much better.
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon taste and aftertaste
The flavors have darker honey, caraway seed, toasted oak, dried ginger, baked red apple, toasted rye bread, nutmeg, vanilla, dried orange peel, and some roasted coffee. While the scents mostly keep up a good front and come off bolder than 45% ABV, the flavors can’t keep it up too. It’s not crazy thin by any means, but it feels like it’s 45% ABV and no more than that.
I just can’t shake how earthy and just-grainy-enough-to-be-annoying Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon is. It doesn’t jive with me. While the flavors aren’t as soggy and youthful as the scents are (a major improvement), there’s still not much depth or complexity. It feels underdeveloped and just doesn’t taste that good…not terrible but not great.
With hard “chewing” I get darker honey, baked red apple, earthy pumpernickel, roasted oak, cinnamon, caraway seed, ginger, vanilla, and some roasted coffee. “Chewing” actually makes this feel a little thinner, but in a strangely contradictory way. The mouthfeel feels pretty round, but it also makes the flavors feel hollow as it doesn’t come close to filling out the roundness. It’s a very Old Forester-type feeling…hollow viscosity.
The finish leaves earthy honey, caraway seed, ginger, dried oak, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpernickel, and toasted grain. After “chewing”, it leaves dark honey, earthy caraway seed, toasted oak, baked red apple, and cinnamon with lingering earthiness, oak, ginger and nutmeg. It’s ok.
The flavors go heavy on the baked rye bread and wood spices. I like that type of bread when I eat it, but not so much in my bourbon. There are moments where the sweetness feels good, but it quickly gets boxed out for other flavors. I feel like it’s easy to make bourbon taste earthy, woody, and bready, and much harder to do more than that. Nonetheless, it still tastes better than it smells.
To summarize the flavors, Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon is very rye, oak, and spice-forward in ways that don’t feel right to me. It’s not completely off putting, but it’s not even close to a slam dunk.
I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too.
Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.
Gentleman's Cut Bourbon Rating
I’m calling a timeout because we need to have a conversation. Team, what are we doing here? We’ve been practicing for this moment and have all the right pieces in place to win. But right now, the baskets aren’t sinking and we’re getting run off the court. We need to turn this around.
Alright, I’m going to stop with my poorly written basketball thing. Look…Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon is ok, but I don’t really like drinking it. It has moments of nice dark sweetness, but for the most part it’s too earthy, bready, and grainy for me. If that’s the profile that they wanted, I guess they succeeded…but I really hope that that wasn’t the case. No…there’s no way that they were going for something that drinks like young craft bourbon…no way. Then again, is Boone County well known for their own distillate? I know they have product, but I’m not so sure that it’s lauded.
Nothing about this stands out, feels mature, captures my senses, or what’s most important for the price – feels premium. This is an $80 bourbon for crying out loud! I’m calling a technical foul. Nothing about this feels $80 good. At $80, Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon is up against heavy weights such as Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel, Woodinville Cask Strength Bourbon, Wyoming Whiskey Double Oak, Knob Creek 12 Year, and a whole slew of Still Austin Bourbons that would run it off the court.
This is maybe $30 good, and even that’s generous when there’s stuff such as Benchmark Full Proof, Elijah Craig Small Batch, Jim Beam Double Oak, and so much more. No…it’s not $30 good either. I don’t get the point of this bourbon…Steph Curry makes plenty of money playing basketball…so why release just ok bourbon? And why is it $80? Boone County may have been the wrong partner for this.
Steph Curry didn’t start off his professional basketball career by immediately lighting up the scoreboards and completely changing how basketball is played. It took a few years before he hit his stride, got healthy, and started raining threes from everywhere, making him the legend that he is now.
Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon in a lot of ways mirrors that progression: there are high expectations coming from this pedigree, but at this point the bourbon isn’t there yet. I hope it gets there in time, but it will take a lot of hard work and deep reflection to give it a fighting chance to take it to the next level.
Will the bourbon eventually become more Steph Curry or Jonny Flynn…I guess time will tell. Steph…if you want an honest reality check, you can hire me to advise you on this bourbon. Here’s my first piece of advice (and for free) – this isn’t it.
Even if you’re a big fan of Steph Curry…don’t buy this bourbon. For the love of your wallet and senses, don’t do it to yourself.
Meet the Author: Alex
I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.
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BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)
