This Four Gate Old Sherry Pike is interesting. Not because it’s a bourbon finished in sherry, but because that’s all it is. Usually Four Gate works with Kelvin Cooperage to put out some kind of crazy zebra cask combo or charred and toast setup, but with this one it’s just bourbon finished in ex-sherry casks for 80+ days.
Sometimes sherry finished bourbon goes well, like with the Wild Turkey Revival and sometimes it’s awful , like the XXX. And sometimes it doesn’t make a ton of difference and you end up just asking… why? Where does this one sit? Only one way to find out.
Let’s get to drinkin’!
Four Gate Old Sherry Pike – Details and Tasting Notes
Whiskey Details
Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color
Style: Bourbon (Finished)
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Undisclosed
Blender: Four Gate
Blend: 6-year-old and 12-year-old bourbon finished in ex-Oloroso
Mash Bill: 78% Corn, 10% Rye, 12% Malted Barley (6 yo) & 74% Corn, 18% Rye, 8% Malted Barley (12 yo)
Cask: New Charred Oak, ex-Oloroso
Age: 6 Years
ABV: 59.45%
Release: 14
Four Gate Old Sherry Pike Price: $200*
Related Whiskey
Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Revival
Belle Meade Bourbon Sherry Finish
Lonerider Sherry Cask Finish Bourbon
Four Gate Batch 6 “Kelvin Collaboration 2”
Four Gate Kelvin Collaboration 3
Four Gate Old Sherry Pike Tasting Notes
EYE
Ruddy copper
NOSE
Sherry, copper, strawberry shortcake, vanilla, roasted nuts, bits of oak and baking spice, dried cherries and brown sugar.
The sherry leaps out of the glass on this one, it’s a huge hit followed by an undertow of everything else.
PALATE
Dried dark fruit, oak, baking spice, nuts citrus peels, copper, freeze dried blueberries, hazelnuts and leather baking spice. fruit syrup
Sweet and spiced with a huge layer of oak and more earthy notes. It hits an odd couple balance.
FINISH
Long -> Sherry, oak, baking spice and nuts fade out to an oaky spice.
BALANCE, BODY and FEEL
Well balanced, full bodied and a dry heavy feel.
Four Gate Old Sherry Pike – Overall Thoughts and Score
The sherry is massive in this, but that’s not a problem because the underlying whiskey is even bigger. It’s a dueling demonstration put on by two titans of flavor, brought down to miniature, captured in glass and played out across the senses. It’s fun.
Water helps bring out some subtler notes of vanilla and lemon, but they come and go and overall it just evens things out and helps pull it together even more. Though water also brings out some slight metallic notes too and I’m not super crazy about the way they clash with the sweet notes.
I really like this whiskey, but don’t love this whiskey, especially with water. Four Gate Old Sherry Pike is good, but it wouldn’t be my first choice in their lineup to reach for if I had them all at hand. Though I’d also be far from upset should someone pour me another glass of it.
SCORE: 4/5 (very good, highly recommended – B+ | 87-89)
*Disclosure: The sample for this whiskey review was graciously sent to me by the company without obligation. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.
Four Gate Old Sherry Pike Review $200
Overall
4.1- Nose (4)
- Palate (4.5)
- Finish (4)
- BBF (4)
