Spirit Of The Week: Angel’s Envy Triple Oak Bourbon
Meet the newest member of the Angel’s Envy whiskey family.
“I try to approach things with the idea that I was a whiskey nerd and consumer before I was a producer, so when I say that I think Angel’s Envy probably could have been coming out with things at a faster clip I truly believe that,” Owen Martin says over Zoom. “But in the same way there’s brands that’ll have a new release literally every month, and I start to glaze over because it doesn’t mean anything any longer.”
With only a touch over two years on the job, Angel’s Envy’s emerging master distiller is the first to hold the title since the passing of co-founder and patriarch Lincoln Henderson in 2013. And in that decade since, the downtown Louisville distillery has not added a single new expression to its core Signature Series portfolio. Until now.
Don’t expect a flood of new product from the widely acclaimed label, however, as Martin and the team are careful to avoid the ranks of other overly-thirsty brands who have fallen into the trend of dropping new releases more frequently than Kevin Hart makes movies.
“When we talk about new releases from us, I want them to always be impactful enough that if somebody sees a headline with new Angel’s Envy, they want to click on it and not just scroll past because they’ve already seen their 12 new whiskeys for that week,” he adds.
“For me the fun part is innovating on all these different levels: We can do a 20-barrel batch or we can do a several-hundred barrel batch. And I want to keep myself engaged too, not feeling like I’m forced to spit out a new release every month and I’m not giving it the adequate attention or time that it needs to truly create something special.”
The eagerly anticipated addition to their Signature Series unsurprisingly begins with their beloved Angel’s Envy bourbon, aged between four to six years in virgin American white oak; Martin reveals the majority ages about five. When it’s ready as their foundational bourbon, Angel’s Envy then pours the juice into a trio of different oak casks—chinkapin, Hungarian and French oak — and then blends those finishing woods like mad chemists to derive their newest expression: Triple Oak Bourbon.
As for the exact blend of each wood, Martin balks at revealing specifics because the ratio may change from year to year—ironically not to create a distinct new annual vintage, but rather to maintain perennial consistency in the expression. But he will disclose some secrets.
“So the one I’ve been leaning into is that we shoot for around 20 to 25 percent new French oak, and I think I’ll always probably lean into that percentage. All the other ones I think we’ll continue to tweak. We knew by prior experience, both at the other distilleries I’d worked at and at Angel’s Envy with other products, that French is the one you have to be the most careful with both in finishing time and percentage—because you can easily overpower the other two.”
He notes the French wood’s famed big baking spices, abundant tannins and dark coloring affect as potent elements that have to be tempered with the other woods, which he sees as adding sweeter, yet different, profiles. The local chinkapin “sweet in the more caramelized, vanilla way,” and the Hungarian with “bright tart fruit. It sort of acts as the glue between the other two.”
Because of the power of the French oak they’re currently aging that element for three months, while finishing both the Hungarian and the chinkapin in about six months. Although, Martin—who considers himself as much a blender as a distiller—is open to fine-tuning ratios and aging time as he sees fit to attain the ultimate goal for their new core product.
“I’ll do whatever I need to do to create the consistent profile, if that means snugging the French down when we’re in the middle of the summer or lengthening out the other two in fall or springtime. The main overarching goal—besides making the best whiskey we can—is to make the most consistent whiskey.”
Angel’s Envy Triple Oak comes bottled at 46% ABV (92 proof), with a SRP of $75.
Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.
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