Epoch Bourbon Whiskey 750ml

Epoch Bourbon Whiskey comes from Baltimore Spirits Company, founded in 2015 by Ian Newton, Max Lents, and Eli Breitburg-Smith with the goal of reviving whiskey production within Baltimore city limits for the first time since Prohibition. The distillery operates out of the Union Collective building in the city's Medfield neighborhood, where the team built a reputation on rye whiskey before expanding into bourbon under the same Epoch name. The founders have noted a fondness for the category in part because Basil Hayden, often called the father of high-rye bourbon, was himself a Marylander.

Where most bourbons rely on malted barley, Baltimore Spirits took an unconventional path, building Epoch Bourbon around malted rye instead, the same grain used in the distillery's flagship Epoch Rye Whiskey. The result is a wheated-style bourbon rather than the more common rye-forward profile. It ages in American oak barrels for two years before bottling at 100 proof.

The unusual grain bill shows through in a whiskey defined by pronounced sweetness and grassiness, with bright tropical fruit notes layered over the distillery's signature smooth, approachable character throughout.