American

Whiskey Review: Laws Whiskey House Five-Year Centennial Straight Wheat Batch 4

We review Laws Whiskey House Five-Year Centennial Straight Wheat Batch 4. It's made from a mash bill of half wheat, half malted wheat.

OVERALL RATING

9
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Laws Whiskey House Centennial Wheat 2022

Tasting Notes

About:

Aged for five years in 22 new, 53 gallon American barrels, 50% ABV, mash bill: 100% Centennial Wheat, 50% raw and 50% malted, SRP $79.99/ 750ml bottle.
Appearance:
This whiskey is golden orange in color.
Nose:
Aromatics are mild and mellow, offering up a bakery full of raw flour, buttered scones, fresh tangerine peel, crème brulée, and blue cotton candy. This tastes like honey melted into hot oatmeal piled high with white raisins, butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Stick your nose into the glass for too long, and you’ll start drooling.
Palate:
Smooth and mellow buckwheat and orange peel are as appetizing on the palate. There are also notes of sour green apples, banana bread, bread pudding, white grapes, honeycomb, saffron, daisy, sweet, sugary, caramelized sugar, and toasted sugar. Tutti-fruiti, candy necklace, stovetop popcorn, and grassy flavors give this whiskey the flavor of maturity and take time to develop on the tongue. There’s a long finish full of heady spices, freshly cut grass, hot iron, and rose petals. It ends with a palate-cleansing bitterness and a lingering note of anise, making me want to serve this as a digestif.
Finish:
Comments:
It seems the fourth batch got the bitter finish dialed in, as both my colleagues who reviewed previous batches mentioned the bitterness as a detractor. This is smoother and maltier than other all-wheat whiskies I’ve tasted of late, giving this a sense of completeness not found in other examples. Bravo.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Suzanne Bayard

Suzanne Bayard struck out to the West Coast with her now husband almost a decade ago to explore the intersection of wine and policy in its world-class wine regions. She manages a Portland, OR bottle shop by day as the wine buyer and newsletter editor. She is also the Director of the Deep Roots Coalition, an organization of 30 Willamette Valley wineries that educate on and promote dry farming and sustainable practices. She joined the Whiskey Wash to explore two other passions: writing and whiskey.

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