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Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024

$89.99
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RATING

8

Bourbon Review: Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024

We review Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024, an eight-year-old MGP rye that's been finished in former Hungarian Tokaji wine casks.
  • Nino Kilgore-Marchetti, founder of The Whiskey Wash, is an award-winning whiskey journalist, expert, and judge
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Tasting Notes:

About:
MGP sourced rye whiskey aged eight years and finished in former Hungarian Tokaji wine casks, bottled at 106 proof.
Appearance:
The Tokaji cask finishing gives this a nice warm amber note in the Glencairn, with the legs and viscosity of decent quality.
Nose:
Warm, rich wine notes pour out of the glass, almost overpowering the standard rye backsplash this mash bill is known for. Brown sugar, some black pepper, oak, a doting of vanilla, dark chocolate, a tiny tease of malted bread, and some raspberry considerations round out this profile.
Palate:
The rye spice is more pronounced on the palate but balanced well with the rich, warming wine notes of the Tokaji cask finishing. There’s caramel, brown sugar, deep dark chocolate, raspberry pie, oak, and a back note of nice pepper.
Finish:
This finishes very pleasantly, giving some warmth and spice as it lasts for a moment before moving on.
Comments:
Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024 is an easy sipper, and it will get you marveling at the versatility of the standard MGP rye 95/5 when put into the hands of a team that knows how to complement its flavor profile extremely well with cask finishing.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024 review
We review Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish 2024, an eight-year-old MGP rye that’s been finished in former Hungarian Tokaji wine casks. (image via MGP)

Editor’s Note: The party behind this whiskey gave us a review sample. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Penelope Bourbon, founded in 2018, is a popular sourced American whiskey label originally named after founder Mike Paladini’s daughter. The brand’s team’s success in using sourced MGP spirits to produce well-regarded expressions put it on the map of the giant Indiana distillery, which acquired Penelope last year for well north of $100 million.

Penelope is sold in over 40 states and three countries today, bringing a multitude of expressions to fans of the label. The whiskey being reviewed here, Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish, is one of those. Part of Penelope’s limited edition Cooper Series, with its focus on pairing the whiskeys with wine casks from different wine-making regions, Tokaji Cask Finish is an eight-year-old MGP rye that’s been finished in casks that are said to convey onto it “the late harvest notes of the Tokaji wine from Hungary.”

Distilled from the standard two-grain MGP rye whiskey mash bill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley, this whiskey has been bottled at 106 proof. As a yearly release, in 2023, it received 91 points from Whisky Advocate and was awarded a Gold Medal ASCOT Award.

“From consumers to tasting panels, our Tokaji Cask Finish was really well received last year,” said Paladini at the time of its release. “For the initial release we used a 6-year-old straight rye whiskey as our base, and we are excited to bring this back but with an 8-year base at the same price point.”

Penelope Bourbon Tokaji Cask Finish is priced at $89.99 per 750-ml bottle, with the equivalent of only 1,900 (6-pack) cases being released in 2024.

Nino Kilgore-Marchetti

Nino Kilgore-Marchetti is the founder of The Whiskey Wash, an award-winning whiskey lifestyle website dedicated to informing and entertaining consumers about whisk(e)y globally. As a whisk(e)y journalist, expert, and judge, he has written extensively about the subject, been interviewed in various media outlets, and provided tasting input on many whiskeys at competitions.

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