There's a lot of pressure on your shoulders when you decide to throw your hat into the independent Bourbon realm. With 800 different LDI labels on the market already, why be just another guy with his own LDI Bourbon and a clever name? I was very scared about this project. I've been dreading the arrival of the Faultline Bourbon since we finalized it. "It's not going to be good enough," I said to myself. "The bloggers will roast us," I feared. Even though I was confident in our final blending process, I still needed to taste the whiskey from the bottle before feeling good about our decision.

That day finally came today.

One of the obstacles that kept us from making a Faultline Bourbon earlier was availability: the current demand has made the extra barrel a thing of the past. One of the only distilleries that would sell us a cask for a private label was the old LDI distillery in Indiana, but with the already overcrowded LDI market (Bulleit Rye, Templeton Rye, High West, etc) we didn't think our product would be different enough, or of the quality we desired, for the Faultline name. That's when John Little from Smooth Ambler stepped in and said he'd be happy to help us do something special. If we were going to work with LDI casks, then we needed the capability to blend something special to taste - the specs alone wouldn't sell this baby.

John had some incredible 10 year old low rye formula that we used in conjunction with some 7 year high rye. We kept tasting and tasting until we found the sweet spot at 100 proof. It's FAR better than I ever thought it would be. I hoped we could provide something fun and different, but the final whiskey is phenomenal. It's rich, with sweet fruit right on the entry, a full-bodied mid-palate, and a long, rich, spicy finish. It tastes like it came from Four Roses or somewhere fancy and at 50% it pops in all the right places. I hope we can make another batch like this because this Bourbon is the new king of K&L. Taste it if you don't believe me.

It's incredible for what it is. This is LDI done right. I promise you you're going to love this. Forget everything you've tasted from LDI and give this one a run for the money.

Faultline Bourbon Whiskey $39.99

-David Driscoll