John Wayne’s Whiskey Reviewed

Back Story* of Duke Bourbon:

Using his well-known moniker “The Duke”, Monument Valley Distillers of California has released DUKE Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Hand-crafted to match a bottle of Wayne’s favorite bourbon from the early 60’s in his private collection, various small batches were meticulously blended to create the flavors and aromas preferred by the Duke, then aged in heavily charred American oak barrels.

If you’re in the Bourbon community and familiar with the current Non Distiller Producer (NDP) controversy you’ll notice a lot of buzz words in this bourbons description. Things like”hand-crafted”, “meticulously blended” and “various small batches” automatically jump out. I could easily use this entire post to talk about the smoke and mirrors of Duke Bourbon (Monument Valley Distillers isn’t a distillery) but Bourbon Truth has already done a good job investigating. After reading the review I’d suggest checking out his post here: Wayne’s World. The dispute boils down to whether or not John Wayne’s name is being slapped on a bottle of cheap booze to sell it for more than it’s worth.

I used the “*” with back story because it’s up to you to decide to what extent you believe the back story of Duke Bourbon. Bourbon writer’s have told their own back story for this bourbon which is ” Son of John Wayne profits from his father’s name by capitalizing on the bourbon boom”. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. His son, Ethan Wayne, said“Our goal with the DUKE was to make a Bourbon that embodies the spirit, strength and richness my father personified while realizing his unfulfilled dream of distilling fine spirits.” I want to believe that Ethan Wayne was trying to honor his father’s legacy and love of whiskey with this bourbon. Perhaps, this was the best bourbon he was able to source due to current bourbon shortages. He could have easily priced it much higher than $35. I’ve seen plenty NDP’s release bourbons of similar quality at a much higher price or with much worse back story’s to go with the bottle.

Some of my favorite bourbons come from NDP’s so any controversy about the back story is nothing more than a distraction from the bourbon. Let us not judge a bourbon by the actions of it’s owners but by the contents of its bottle. One more item of note is that aside from the NDP tiff Duke bourbon is being sued by Duke University for patent infringement.

Duke Bourbon Review:

Nose: Light sweetness. Peppery and slightly fruity

Taste: Charred cornbread, fresh cracked pepper, has a young wood taste to it. Not the oaky flavor you get from older whiskies but more of a pine taste. Tastes a little bit like banana taffy.

Overall: In my opinion this is a$30-$35 bottle with $20 bourbon in it. If you’re a big John Wayne fan that may not bother you. I once spent $15 on a six pack of Coke’s because there was a Jacksonville Jaguars logo on them. The coke tasted the same but I liked the bottle. All in the name of “collector’s item” or “memorabilia”, I guess. If you’re looking for something you’ll want to drink I’d just grab 1.75 liters of Wild Turkey 101 (the rumored source) for the same price. It’s definitely no True Grit or The Searchers.

This one will probably sit on the shelf a while or be used as a mixer. This is who finished the tasting for me: