Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon Review [In Depth]

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon

by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon

Distillery: Rabbit Hole

Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA

Alcohol: 47.5%

Composition: 70% corn, 10% malted wheat, 10% honey malted barley, 10% malted barley

Aged: At least 4 years

Color: 1.3/2.0 on the color scale (russet, muscat)

Price: $55-65

From the company website:

Our signature Four Grain Bourbon Whiskey. This marvel of modern distillation wows the senses with lovely aromas of spice and fresh apples. When sipped, you experience honey, mint, and creamy orange. As Cavehill falls to the back of your palate, it evolves into vanilla and custard. Our four-grain recipe gives this bourbon a cornucopia of flavors that are distinguishable yet lasting, no matter your style.

Toasted & Charred Barrels. Developing our super-premium whiskey takes time. We slowly toast our barrels over a wood-fired flame before charring, a process that takes up to 20 minutes per barrel. Toasting coaxes sugars from deep in the fibers of the wood which mingle with the distillate during the aging process, giving our whiskeys unparalleled complexity and flavor.

Distinct and unorthodox. Cavehill’s contemporary mash bill consists of corn, malted barley, honey malted barley, and malted wheat. We take the extra care to malt all of our secondary grains to increase their depth, giving us a flavor profile like no other. We age Cavehill in hand-picked Kelvin Cooperage American White Oak Barrels. When the bourbon reaches maturity, we intimately blend a small batch of no more than 15 barrels to create the finished product.

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon overview

This is the first ever Rabbit Hole whiskey that I’ve ever had, but it’s not the first whiskey that I’ve had from Kaveh Zamanian. He’s the founder of Rabbit Hole, a Kentucky distillery founded in 2012. He’s also the founder of the Mary Dowling brand, which pays homage to a whiskey pioneer by exploring different finishes, grains, and barrels. I’ve reviewed some Mary Dowling bourbons already – a double oaked barrel strength wheated bourbon and a tequila finished bourbon.

Rabbit Hole…I’ve just observed with my eyes while the whiskeys are on shelves…until now. That said, this sample bottle was provided to me at no cost, so I still haven’t bought a bottle myself.

Rabbit Hole, like many other Kentucky distilleries, has a range of bourbons, ryes, and other spirits. Kaveh and crew are taking their own approach to whiskey, and that’s cool with me.

Fun fact, he’s a former psychologist…so maybe he infuses those skills to make our brains think that the whiskey is great. Who knows.

To the bourbon – Rabbit Hole Cavehill. It’s a Kentucky straight bourbon (duh), and in my mind at least, the mashbill is the most unique part of this bourbon: 70% corn, 10% malted wheated, 10% honey malted wheat, 10% malted barley. To simplify, it’s 70% corn, 20% barley, and 10% wheat. First off it’s wheated (cool), but even more importantly, there’s more malted barley (2 types) than there is wheat. So…could you call this a malted bourbon…or a barley’d bourbon? I don’t think that will catch on, but I thought that I would try.

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Barley is still an under-explored part of bourbon’s composition. Most distilleries adjust the amount of corn, rye, or wheat, but barley often makes up 4-8% of the mashbill no matter what else happens. It helps with the fermentation process, but I think that it’s been left as an afterthought because it supposedly doesn’t bring as much character as corn, rye, or wheat. I think Rabbit Hole is out to try to change that thought – barley can be an interesting part of a bourbon.

I have just a little bit of experience with high-malt bourbons, well really only with Chattanooga 111 Proof Bourbon, which they call “high malt”. I don’t know the exact percentage, but I’ll take their word for it. Then there are the single malt American whiskeys, which have 100% malted barley, and are definitely not bourbon.

I guess my other point is that there aren’t many high-malt bourbons out there. You either go with the usual lower malt bourbon or swing the opposite direction to single malt whiskey, so the middle ground is a new area of bourbon for us consumers to explore. I’m in and I want to know more.

Let’s smell and taste what the extra malt might offer in this Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon review.

Thank you to Rabbit Hole for providing this sample. 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.

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon smell

I initially smell toasted caramel, toasted oak, dried red apple, grapefruit, passionfruit (that wasn’t expected at all), more roasted oak, cinnamon, and dried cherry. Rabbit Hole Cavehill smells great. There are some really enjoyable scents in there with good range and body, but at the same time the definition and pop don’t leap out and impress me.

I did not expect passionfruit, but it’s not the first time that I’ve smelled it in a more malt-forward blend. Westward Cask Strength was jam full of it too, and it adds a touch of tropical brightness and vibrance.

Learn more about Mary Dowling Tequila Finished Bourbon

This is an interesting juxtaposition – the scents are toasty and oak forward, but at the same time there’s an equally present sweetness and fruitiness. It’s not super fruity by any means, but the mix of sweetness and fruitiness does a good job of contrasting the darker oakiness and toastiness.

This is a very good start.

After swirling and rest I get caramel, dark baked apple and cherry, roasted oak, cinnamon, some brighter grapefruit, toasted grain, and a little bit of passionfruit. The vibrant passionfruit scents aren’t as present this time, but I think I still get some whiffs of it every now and then

Rabbit Hole Cavehill’s balance shifts towards a darker sweetness, roastiness, and spice, which are still really enjoyable. The OK definition and light pop still hold this back from being amazing, but the scents feel full and I still truly enjoy how this smells.

Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon taste and aftertaste

I taste caramel, dried red apple skin, roasted oak, cinnamon, grapefruit, vanilla, a general roastiness with oak and grain, and some chocolate. The flavors bring out more of the oakiness that the scents hint at, so it’s a bit more toasty, woody, and dry. The sweetness and fruitiness is still there so the range feels good, but while the scents are more like a 50/50ish split, the oakiness and toastiness are more like 60/40 in the flavors.

The flavors have good body and character, but nothing leaps out at me just yet. Mind you, I didn’t do any research on this bourbon prior to tasting it, so what I’ll write is that it feels like a twist on wheated bourbon.

With “chewing” I taste caramel, vanilla, baked red apple and cinnamon, grapefruit peel, roasted oak, cinnamon, clove, passionfruit, and toasted grain. Ok…this is interesting. “Chewing” brings out more fullness and expressiveness, and now this has me thinking what to do with this.

Learn more about Mary Dowling Double Oak Barrel Strength Bourbon

The balance shifts towards an even 50% sweetness and fruitiness / 50% oakiness, toastiness, and spice. There’s an interesting back and forth between the fruit, oak, and spice that’s tough to explain.

It also has this noticeable fruit peel feeling that’s a little sweet, a little drying, and just a tad bitter too. I don’t get this much in other whiskeys, so that’s curious and intriguing.

The finish leaves a dry sweetness with caramel, roasted oak, toasted grain, cinnamon, dried red apple and grapefruit peel, and a little bit of earthiness, oak, clove, and passionfruit.

I have a mental conundrum here. Rabbit Hole Cavehill is definitely delicious and varied, but there’s something minor missing. It’s like a missing bit of pop or oomph or something to get it to “Top Shelf”. But you know what though, Rabbit Hole Cavehill is still an interesting and flavorful bourbon that I think is well made and has my attention.

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.

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Rabbit Hole Cavehill Bourbon Rating

Rabbit Hole Cavehill is very good. It’s not quite “Top Shelf”, but it’s honestly close and I still think that it’s a laudable bourbon. An 8 year old age-stated version of this would probably be excellent, especially if it could be sold for under $120. It wouldn’t be as readily available or accessible, but extra aging could show off more of what this mashbill can do. Maybe it’s already in the works and I’ll be lucky to get a media sample of that in the future.

Even with a different mashbill, it still feels very familiar. The dark sweetness, oak, and spice feel like a wheated bourbon, but at the same time it has a different citrusy and tropical fruitiness that I don’t get in wheated or rye’d bourbon. That might be the extra barley adding that extra twist, because I got a far more noticeable version of the citrus and passionfruit in Westward Cask Strength American Single Malt.

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As a reminder, I did no research into this whiskey until after I reviewed it, so I’m making sense of what I smelled and tasted. This review was done sort of blind, and the wheat and barley (and no rye) would also explain my lack of rye notes such as fennel, licorice, and pineapple. Now that I think about it, if you’re already a fan of wheated bourbon, then I think that you’ll also enjoy Rabbit Hole’s take on it as well.

Even without the “Top Shelf” rating, this still feels like one to strongly consider trying first, and then deciding if you want to buy it. It has enough uniqueness in my mind to warrant that and I think I’ll remember this one for a while.

Nice job with this.

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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.

There are no sponsors, no media companies, and no nonsense. Support The Whiskey Shelf by Buying Me A Shot.

Shattered glass really sucks, so if you’re on the move, this Glencairn-like stainless steel snifter glass should survive your travels. Full transparency, this is an Amazon affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.

BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)