Milam & Greene Bottled-in-Bond
Style: Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
Producer: Milam & Greene
Origin: Blanco, TX USA
ABV: 100 Proof (50% ABV)
Mashbill: 70% corn, 22% malted rye, 8% malted barley
Age: No age statement, but at least 4 years
MSRP: $65
Availability: Nationally
Reviewed By: Susan Reigler
Heather Greene sharpened her whiskey skills in Scotland where she was the first woman to serve on the tasting panel of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. When she returned to New York after some years in Scotland, she was the whiskey sommelier at the Flatiron Room, where she built an impressive collection of bottles. She is also the author of Whiskey Distilled, one of the best books around to introduce curious drinkers to multiple whiskey styles and ease them into appreciative tasting.
So, it was quite a coup when Ben Milam Distillery founder Marsha Milam lured Greene to Texas in 2019 to serve as the newly renamed Milam & Greene’s CEO and master blender. Milam had also recruited Marlene Holmes, who spent nearly three decades at Jim Beam, as her master distiller. And while the Texas facility was being completed, Greene and Holmes started creating whiskeys through a combination of sourcing, distilling with their yeast and mash bills at Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky, and blending.
Many of their most notable releases have featured blends of whiskey sourced from Tennessee and Kentucky, some distilled in Kentucky, and blended with their distillate from Texas.
Their most recent release is the first Milam & Greene Bottled-in-Bond expression. Holmes distilled it in Bardstown on one of BBC’s column stills (the Texas distillery has a pot still) and both she and Greene monitored it for peak aging. Since it was also aged in Bardstown in a bonded warehouse, it meets all the criteria to be a botted-in-bond bourbon. It is notable that the mashbill includes a heathy proportion of not simply rye, but malted rye, and the final expression was bottled non-chill-filtered.
What They Say
• Whiskey Wash: 9/10 Points
• Breaking Bourbon: 2.5/5 (Average)
• Drink Hacker: 9/10
What We Say
Color: Light, bright gold with some amber highlights.
Nose: Vanilla wafers with some baked apple, allspice, corn, oak, new leather, and some tantalizingly faint notes of milk chocolate.
Palate: Some vanilla pudding sprinkled with cardamom, which may be coming from the malted rye, along with the allspice. There’s some unsalted popcorn. The milk chocolate weighs in on the mid-palate and sits right in the middle of a pleasantly oily mouthfeel spiked with a bit of oak.
Finish: A middle-length ending which displays some oak, cardamom, and again, that chocolate note. A whisper of mint appears at the very end.
The malted rye does some very interesting things to the balance, contributing softer spices than simply a higher rye proportion would bring. Allow this to sit in the glass for a few minutes to reveal all of its flavors. A drop or two of water helps along the apple, too.
Rating: Three Stars
★★★☆☆
★ Not Recommended
★★ Recommended
★★★ Highly recommended
★★★★ Excellent
★★★★★ Ethereal
Former restaurant critic and beverage columnist for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Susan is bourbon columnist for Food & Dining and Covey Rise magazines and also writes for Bourbon+, LEO Weekly, and American Whiskey (tasting notes and ratings). Susan has authored or co-authored six books including Kentucky Bourbon Country: The Essential Travel Guide, The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book, The Bourbon Tasting Notebook, and The American Whiskey Tasting Notebook, and Which Fork Do I Use with My Bourbon? – Setting the Table for Tastings, Food Pairings, Dinner, and Cocktail Parties. Susan is a member of the Order of the Writ, former president of both the Bourbon Women Association and the Kentucky chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, an organization of women culinary professionals.
