‘A Culmination of Everything That We’ve Been Working Towards’: Jefferson’s Debuts Bourbon Aged… In the Jungle?

The latest bourbon release from Kentucky brand Jefferson’s, set to hit retail shelves in September, was aged in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Men’s Journal reported Monday. The expression, Jefferson’s Tropics, hosts a suggested retail price of $99 and is bottled at 52% ABV.

The seeds for this expression were sown in the summer of 2019, when Jefferson’s founder, Trey Zoeller, shipped 720 barrels of matured Kentucky bourbon to Singapore. A keystone for Jefferson’s brand is aging its barrels at sea, which the brand claims lends the finished spirit a briny and savory taste. Aging barrels on a ship may seem like a far-out concept, yet it’s become par for the course for Jefferson’s — but these barrels took a detour.

After making the journey to Singapore, the barrels of Jefferson’s finished bourbon rested for an extra 18 months in a non-temperature-controlled warehouse in the humid jungle.

In March 2023, the jungle-aged bourbon made its way back to Kentucky. In the Bluegrass State, Zoeller cut it down to proof with limestone-filtered water and bottled the expression.

Men’s Journal described the taste as akin to a “funky Jamaican rum, with hints of over-ripened fruit…”

Zoeller shared his own unique ideas with the outlet in regard to the correlation between terroir and whiskey.

“To me, terroir for whiskey is not where the grains are grown but rather where the whiskey ages,” Zoeller said, according to Men’s Journal. “Tropics is really the culmination of everything that we’ve been working towards at Jefferson’s, because we’re pushing the maturation process. I found the barrels that matured in the hot, humid environment really extracted all the great elements from the oak. I also looked at the success of the Taiwanese single malt, Kavalan.”

Kavalan has recently received accolades and critical acclaim. The Taiwanese whisky was presented with the award for Best Other Single Malt Whiskey at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in June.

Jefferson’s is no stranger to diving into uncharted waters — excuse the phrasing — with its expressions. In April 2022, the brand released the world’s first rye aged at sea. Nearly a year later, Jefferson’s released a tribute expression to Marian McLain, one of the earliest documented female bootleggers and Zoeller’s grandmother. Zoeller said he wanted to pay homage to his lineage through the expression, which we have reviewed here.

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