Benchmark Bonded Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey 750ml

Benchmark Bonded Bourbon is produced at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. The Benchmark name traces back to the 1770s, when the McAfee brothers surveyed the land that would later become home to the distillery, leaving behind trail markers known as benchmarks. Seagram's originally created the Benchmark brand in 1968 to compete in the value bourbon category, and it eventually passed to the Sazerac Company, which now produces it at Buffalo Trace alongside prestige labels like Eagle Rare.

This bourbon is made using Buffalo Trace's Mash Bill #1, the same low-rye recipe behind several of the distillery's better-known releases. It follows the requirements of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, meaning it comes from a single distilling season at one distillery under the supervision of one distiller, ages a minimum of four years in a federally regulated warehouse, and is bottled at exactly 100 proof with no additives.

The nose brings caramel and vanilla with a gentle grain sweetness and a hint of citrus and honey. On the palate, that caramel and vanilla continue alongside light oak spice, giving the whiskey a smooth, balanced character despite its full proof. The finish is medium in length, closing clean with lingering caramel and oak.