St. Louis-based Luxco announced the launch of its limited release, ultra-premium bourbon series, Blood Oath. This brand-new craft bourbon whiskey series is unique to the market as it will highlight a different variant, or Pact, each year. The inaugural Pact, named Blood Oath Pact No. 1, consists of a special blend of three carefully selected, top-notch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys, blended and bottled by hand, resulting in one distinctly exclusive and unimagined bourbon. The debut combination, bottled at 98.6 proof, is available in limited quantities nationally in 750ml bottles, with a suggested price of $89.99.

“I have the luxury of not being tied down to one specific distillery, so I sampled many bourbons to find the perfect mix to make Blood Oath Pact No. 1,” explained John Rempe, Director of Corporate Research and Development at Luxco and creator of Blood Oath. “This product is an exquisite union of three well-bred bourbons with various age statements and mash bills. The first, a spicy bourbon with a mash bill favoring rye, barrel aged for a subtle woodiness. The second is a smooth, wheated bourbon and the third is a full-bodied, more experienced, oaky bourbon with a rye-based mash. Each of these complements the other and none overpower the palate, creating an amazing bourbon.”

The bourbons in Pact No. 1 range from 6 to 12 years old.

Blood Oath’s unique package is topped with a custom, eco-friendly natural cork and labeled with a heavy certificate-style paper stock. Rempe’s signature, along with the specific bottle’s creation date and the story behind the pact, mark each bottle label.

“We are extremely excited to launch Blood Oath,” said Steve Einig, Chief Marketing Officer at Luxco. “We wanted to create something that not only appealed to bourbon enthusiasts around the country but also a product that we could truly enjoy. Blood Oath accomplishes this and we are proud to launch this bourbon.”

After Pact No. 1’s limited edition run, Pact No. 2, consisting of an entirely new combination, will subsequently be released in 2016.

To be clear this is not bourbon distilled by Luxco. It is a bourbon blend sourced from Kentucky and consists of three different whiskeys. While Luxco refuses to share the grain percentages in their selected mash bills, I do appreciate the fact that they’ve been fully transparent with that fact that they have sourced this bourbon with the goal of creating a unique blend that would be appealing to bourbon aficionados. Whether or not the juice will live up to their goal or be worthy of the price is something we’ll explore when we post our actual product review.

The bottle and packaging design are very handsome and reminded us immediately of Diageo’s Orphan Barrel releases. It’s clear that Luxco has done their marketing homework and realize the need for high-end design when targeting the ultra-premium end of the market. We especially like the wooden boxes they’ve designed to hold products delivered to retail and fully expect people to offer a little extra cash to their favorite store owner so they can take one home. Our only critique so far on the design work is the size of the font used on the bottle used to tell the story behind Blood Oath. It’s just too small. We understand that small font size is part of a design trend, but if you want us to read the story behind your whiskey we should be able to do so without a magnifying glass. (And no, this is not just a complaint coming from someone just north of 43 years of age.)

But let’s turn our attention to a more serious issue that should be addressed.