Prichard's Double Chocolate Bourbon

Prichard's Double Chocolate Bourbon

When he passed away in 1822, Benjamin Prichard passed his "still, tubs and utensils thereto" on to his son, Enoch. In the antebellum South, Prichard's Tennessee whiskey made using white corn and pure Tennessee spring water was incredibly popular. Enoch eventually gave up the stills, tubs and utensils that his father had passed on to him, and focused his energies elsewhere. In 1997 five generations later Phil Prichard took up the family business again when he opened the doors to Prichard's Distillery in Kenslo, Tennessee. The first legal distillery in Tennessee in nearly fifty years, Prichard's Distillery is located just a few miles south of where Phil's great-great-great grandfather distilled whiskey nearly two centuries ago. Prichard's Double Chocolate Bourbon is made from a mash of white corn, rye and soft wheat. "Today, the vast majority of distilleries making whiskey in this country are making their whiskey with yellow corn," says Phil. "But you and I both know that white corn has a higher sugar content than yellow corn. It makes a fine, fine whiskey." After the grains are mashed and fermented, they are distilled before the whiskey is matured at cask-strength (120-proof) in new, charred American oak barrels for upwards of nine years. Following its initial beauty rest, the bourbon is brought to bottle-proof (90 proof) and aged again in entirely new, charred American oak barrels for an additional three to five years. While expensive and time-consuming, this double-barreling process reinforces the barrel notes of caramel, toffee and vanilla that earned Prichard's Double Barreled Bourbon a score of 94 points from Jim Murray's Whisky Bible and a score of 95 points (tying Pappy Van Winkle's 23 Year Old Bourbon) from the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. After the bourbon is bottle-ready, it is infused with select, single origin cacao beans that are slowly roasted and stone ground by the Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company. While the exact process of infusing the bourbon with the cacao beans remains a closely guarded secret, the result Prichard's Double Chocolate Bourbon Whiskey has hints of caramel and toffee typically associated with bourbon, but a gentle, chocolaty finish. The flavor of the cacao beans, which accentuates the flavor of the bourbon, is complex yet mellow and earned Prichard's Double Chocolate Bourbon Whiskey a score of 90 points at the 2012 Ultimate Spirits Challenge. Try a bottle of chocolate-infused bourbon today!