Located just two miles outside of Lebanon, KY is (to my knowledge) the only dog-friendly distillery on the Bourbon Trail: Limestone Branch Distillery, home of Yellowstone Bourbon and Minor Case Rye Whiskey. Headed by Stephen Beam and his brother Paul (yes, they are related to that Beam family), they are revitalizing an old family brand founded by J.B. Dant (son of J.W. Dant) back in the 1800s. In 2015, the Beam brothers partnered with LuxCo and brought Yellowstone Bourbon’s distilling back to Lebanon, KY. On the distillery’s grand opening, the brothers received a gift from the Getz Museum: Minor Case Beam’s jug that he used to store the mother yeast for Old Trump Whiskey.

Fun fact: Jack Beam (the brothers’ uncle) took a tour at Limestone Branch led by national brand ambassador Stephen Fante. He informed Fante that in the late 1700s/early 1800s, before electricity, M.C. Beam took the jug that held the yeast home every night to store in the water cistern.

In 2016, Steve Beam took the jug to Danville, KY-based Ferm Solutions, to Dr. Pat Heist (now of Wilderness Trail fame) to find out if anything was left inside! Heist and team scraped the jug’s interior and found a 100% genetic match in his laboratory to Minor Case’s yeast from over 100 years ago. That original yeast strain has been used to make all Whiskey at Limestone Branch Distillery.

With that history lesson done, let’s discuss the subject of this piece: the 2023 Yellowstone Limited Edition! The Yellowstone Limited Edition is an annual release containing a blend of different ages and always a different cask finish.

This year’s release is a 101-proof Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey finished in Tokaji barrels (a type of Hungarian dessert wine), blending 7-, 13-, and 16-year bourbons. Since we know Limestone Branch wasn’t operational 16 years ago, we can safely assume this is all sourced whiskey (which is not a bad thing. I have a great T-shirt from my friend Dave Schmier that says “Sourcing Is Not A Crime”).

The bourbon’s color is a beautiful hybrid of mahogany and molasses, showing off its high age! The proof is prominent and powerful on the first sniff but mellows out after a few seconds, followed by rich notes of candied oranges, toasted oak, dried butterscotch syrup, and the color blue. Yes, I know how weird that sounds, but for some reason, Tokaji makes me think of blue.

The palate is welcoming and warming, with a greeting of chestnuts, baking spices, toasted oak, and bitter wood tannins on the first sip. Following that is a delicate sweetness just barely “within arms reach,” with lots of candied oranges and maybe even a hint of candied apple. And playing right into those big, bold fruit flavors is the taste of pear. The Tokaji finish is so delicate that the bourbon’s characteristics have been accentuated but not overpowered.

This brings me to an important bit of housekeeping: I received this sample compliments of Yellowstone Bourbon and their PR agency in exchange for honest feedback and review. The presence (or lack thereof) of a media sample will never affect the outcome of my review.