Colonel Tysons Bourbon is a bonded medicinal pint from the original Dant Distillery. If the name Dant sounds familiar to you that’s because you might have seen or tried J.W. Dant bourbon which is currently a Heaven Hill product, but it wasn’t always that way. In the early 1800s (1836) Joseph Dant created a still out of a log and some copper tubing and began distilling. He grew his own grain and eventually became his own cooper.
In 1870 JW built a modern, for the times, distillery at Dant’s Station which was fully incorporated in 1896 and then closed in 1920 when prohibition reared its ugly head. During prohibition (1920 – 1933) JW stored his whiskey in the A. Ph Stitzel warehouses and it was bottled as medicinal pints. The Dant’s Station distillery never re-opened, but JW’s son JB started his own distillery for the Yellowstone brand in 1912 and that one was reopened after prohibition. It went through a series of ownership changes and was closed in 1993 which is when the brands were sold to Heaven Hill. Prohibition, followed by stories like this, are why America went from over 1,000 distilleries before 1920 to only 7 major distilleries today.
Colonel Tysons Bourbon Info
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Dant Distillery Co
Cask: New charred oak
Age: 7 years
ABV: 50%
Distilled: 1916
Bottled: 1923
Price: NA – Medicinal Pint
Colonel Tysons Bourbon Review
EYE
Sun bleached drift wood
NOSE
Paint thinner, dry erase marker, oily nuts, astringent oak and plastic. This smells like the garage of a failed artist whose only tools were old plastic jugs and dry erase markers.
PALATE
Starts out better than the nose with notes of caramel, butterscotch and green wood but, not to be outdone by the aroma, plummets into a wasteland of stale nuts, astringent medicinal tones and a harsh chemical note that reminds me of turpentine. I haven’t drank turpentine, but I’ve worked with it plenty and once it fills the air you definitely taste it.
FINISH
Long and astringent with big notes of dry erase, oak, spice and an almost cloying dark sweet character.
BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Off balanced and medium bodied with a thin watery feel.
OVERALL
Colonel Tysons Bourbon is not good… not good at all. Prescribed to me by a doctor is the only way I’d drink this again and he better have a damn good reason for prescribing it. Though drinking it does give some perspective to the times and I feel bad for the folks whose only whiskey option at this point in history was this. Beggars couldn’t be choosers then and I’m happy as can be that America came to its senses and ended the “Noble Experiment”. Despite my grumblings I must compliment them because they did managed to do something unique. They managed to shoehorn a stunning amount of off notes into a single bottle and that is a truly noteworthy feat.
SCORE: 70-72/100 (consumed at a tasting, not at home)
