Journeyman’s Kissing Cousins Whiskey To Be Released Memorial Day Weekend

Journeyman Distillery recently announced it will release its annual “Kissing Cousins” Whiskey in time for Memorial Day weekend this year. The distillery, located in Three Oaks, Michigan, says after a “year without a lot of kissing, this batch of Kissing Cousins is worth the wait.”

The “Kissing Cousins” is a limited batch spirit that has all the qualities of Journeyman’s award-winning Featherbone Bourbon. It has deep earthy notes from the extra time it spent finishing in wine barrels from the nearby Dablon Vineyards and has been called the “wine drinkers whiskey,” the distillery said.

Batch 9 of Kissing Cousins started with the distilling team sampling and selecting several of the distillery’s finest Featherbone Bourbon casks (the bourbon has a mash bill of 70% organic corn, 25% organic wheat and 5% organic rye). The bourbon is aged in new American white oak barrels and then finished in a Dablon Vineyard’s carmenere barrel and chardonnay barrel for a year. It is finally blended together and cut to a bottling proof of 90.

The whiskey itself, according to official tasting notes, is tawny colored and has cream soda and vanilla on the nose. There are notes of toffee and caramel up front, according to the distillers. They are followed by full bodied plum and fig with a whisper of black licorice.

“Black Licorice becomes very present as well as an underlying juiciness that is just phenomenal,” said Journeyman production manager Tom Balich in a prepared statement. 

The small batch release is limited to 750 bottles total and is only available at the Journeyman Three Oaks Distillery starting May 31. It is $34.99 for a 375ml bottle or $69.99 for a 750ml bottle. You can get your bottle adorned with a custom engraving for an extra $10.