Distiller Notes
Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon is finished in port wine casks for an award-winning spirit. We guide each batch’s conditioning, blending our handcrafted bourbon in small batches of 8 to 12 barrels at a time. It’s typically aged for up to 6 years. While we lose about 5% of the spirit each year to evaporation, or “the Angel’s Share,” what’s left behind after we’re done is truly worthy of envy. Once it’s deemed ready, we finish our bourbon in ruby port wine casks, which adds subtly distinct flavor nuances that enhance the whiskey without challenging it. Our port finishing process lasts between three to six months, depending on taste. We use 60-gallon ruby port barrels made from French oak and imported directly from Portugal. This creates a whiskey of unprecedented smoothness, sweetness and balance.
A gold color laced with reddish amber hues, nearly copper in tone. On the nose, you'll detect notes of subtle vanilla, raisins, maple syrup and toasted nuts. The palate reveals vanilla, ripe fruit, maple syrup, toast and bitter chocolate, culminating in a clean finish and lingering sweetness with a hint of Madeira that slowly fades.
Critical Acclaim
All Vintages
Angel’s Envy began as an idea shared between a father and his son. It’s a business that would eventually grow to include three generations of the family working together in a stunning distillery on Louisville’s Main Street. Today, Angel’s Envy is both the Henderson family’s legacy and their masterpiece.
Wes and Lincoln decided to explore secondary finishing, a technique used in Scotch, but rarely seen in bourbon. Today, Angel’s Envy exclusively releases whiskeys using this secondary barrel finish technique. There can be a wide variety of flavors from barrel to barrel, so Angel’s Envy blends in small batches to ensure that they meet the same high, consistent standard of flavor every time. The end result is a collection of incomparably excellent whiskeys.
Although Bourbon may be produced anywhere in the United States, it is most commonly associated with Bourbon County, Kentucky, where it has been produced since the late 18th century. Made from a mash bill containing at least 51% corn, the Bourbon Whiskey distillate must be aged in new, charred white oak barrels. Bourbon Whiskeys are bottled at eighty proof (40% abv) or higher and cannot contain any added color or flavor. A versatile spirit that can be sipped neat, with water or on the rocks, it also performs nicely added to cocktails like the Old Fashioned.