When others go big, Milam & Greene Whiskey goes small. The award-winning whiskey brand is releasing the aptly named Very Small Batch Straight Bourbon Whiskey: Batch 1. This whiskey marks several company milestones, including the introduction of the first bourbon distilled by Milam & Greene in Kentucky, the first whiskey to be finished with French oak staves, the first addition to the Milam & Greene core portfolio in over two years, and the first whiskey to be awarded a Gold Medal at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition before it was even launched.
To create the inaugural batch of Milam & Greene Very Small Batch Bourbon, master blender Heather Greene harvested 75 bourbon barrels. These barrels combine bourbon distilled by master distiller Marlene Holmes in Kentucky using the proprietary Milam & Greene mash bill and barrels of Tennessee bourbon. The barrel recipe for Batch 1 is 20% of precious Kentucky barrels and 80% of Tennessee barrels. Before finishing, the barrels are divided into smaller batches to marry in 1,000-gallon vatting tanks.
“At Milam & Greene, everything we do is in limited quantities because of our size, but I know the big whiskey geek question is: exactly how small is this release?” says Milam & Greene Whiskey CEO and Master Blender Heather Greene, who wanted to get in front of the question. “With 75 bourbon barrels, we can release 1,500 9L cases of Very Small Batch Bourbon. The number of people who will be able to purchase this bottle is approximately 0.00451% of the entire population based on current U.S. Census numbers. This detail delights our fans and makes me laugh simultaneously.”
The Kentucky whiskey base in Very Small Batch Bourbon is distilled by the Milam & Greene team using their signature mash bill of 70% corn, 22% malted rye, and 8% malted barley. Malted rye provides a rich texture and nuttiness that makes it approachable at a young age – a little goes a long way in terms of taste. For Batch 1, The barrels are aged in Kentucky and then Texas for just shy of 4 years.
The Tennessee bourbon was distilled with a mash bill of 80% corn, 10% rye, and 10% malted barley. The particular barrels for Very Small Batch Bourbon are chosen for their unique flavor character. They will vary slightly from batch to batch, reflecting the influence of the environment as the whiskey matures. Greene selects barrels based not only on their current quality but also on her predictions for the flavor development over time in barrels. She carefully chooses the location for barrel aging to ensure the extraction of the most flavor. This batch reflects the climate on whiskey from three different states: Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas.
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