Angel’s Envy’s first appointed Master Distiller, Owen Martin, has spoken to Bars and Clubs about the distillery’s progressive approach and creative barrel finishes are helping the relatively young brand lead the way in Bourbon and set it up for the future.
Angel’s Envy was founded in 2010 by Bourbon Hall of Famer and Master Distiller, Lincoln Henderson and his son Wes. Lincoln was a huge influence in brands and Bourbons such as Woodford Reserve and Gentleman Jack before he retired. Soon, Wes convinced Lincoln to come out of retirement and the pair came up with Angel’s Envy, with the idea to bring something new to the Bourbon category.
Owen explained: “We share some commonalities with some other Bourbons, but what we can really hang our hat on is cask finishing, so more akin to what you see in Scotch or Irish, or even Australian whisky.
“We are basically a five-year-old Bourbon in a new charred oak barrel and then six further months in Port wine barrels. At the time it launched it was a rarity because Bourbon is very strict and there might be some one-off cask finishes but this was a bit of a risk at the time, although it’s much more commonplace in the US market now.”
Barrel program
After starting in 2010, Bacardi bought the brand in 2015 and then the Angel’s Envy distillery came online in 2016, so the oldest stocks in the warehouse are eight olds. Owen’s focus now is getting those barrel levels up, and really focusing on the base product and then starting to look at other types of finishes that can layer flavours on top.
But Owen explained to Bars and Clubs, how the barrel program is important to the brand, and also that his mindset as a distiller who gained his degree in Scotland helps this progressive attitude towards barrels and finishing.
“One of my jobs has been finding the right Bacardi barrels, but we can do some interesting even though the Bourbon part of what we do is that new first oak barrel can legally only be filled once to call it Bourbon.
“But what we can do, and we’ve done this with our rye, is we only used the first barrel once, then we sent those to Puerto Rico, and they filled those barrels with eight-year-old rum to do a finish in a rye barrel. That has infused that barrel with rum and they have sent those barrels back for a finish. So while we can legally only use that barrels once for Bourbon, we’re still finding creative ways to use that barrel.”
He added: “A lot of people were giving Angel’s Envy a hard time early on because they were traditional and saying ‘you don’t want to mess with that’ but they are now coming round to these finished releases and the concept has checked out.”
Look beyond casks
Owen also said that Angel’s Envy spirit of ‘revere tradition, embrace progression’ continues to drive him and others at the distillery.
“With my Scotch whisky background, casks is an obvious way to build layers, but what if we looked beyond casks? What can we take from European whisky production and apply to Bourbon? What can we take from Cognac or Tequila or is there anything else from Australian whisky?
“One example I like to think of, and I’m toying with the idea is from Cognac and slow proofing the barrel. If they have an Angel’s share they top up the barrel with water, and that brings the proof right down, until they pull it out of the barrel and that’s the final product. My warehouse team would absolutely kill me if I told them to do that, but maybe we can try it with 10 to 20 barrels and see if it’s radically different.
“That’s where my mind goes, what can we do? Where can we potentially gain more for things like our special releases, and you just don’t know… maybe we hit gold.”
And despite the laws and regulations that guide Bourbon production, Owen said there are still ways to experiment beyond the obvious ones of finishing.
“There are more techniques we can do, maybe with mashing and the grain bill or fermentation. Distilling is distilling, and we know how to make Bourbon, but one of the cool things is that American whiskey is just dictated by the majority grain. So a rye whiskey just needs 51 per cent rye, a Bourbon whiskey has to 51 per cent corn, but the other 49 per cent can be whatever the hell we want.
“That is more of an area that I like to play in, and with different yeast strains from wine regions, from beers, we’ve done a couple of trails with some male yeast strains as opposed to our distillery strain.”
Owen also said that as a relatively young brand Angel’s Envy is able to be more innovative, even in terms of having a unique bottle shape, and that they have always focused on hiring well-known and passionate bartenders to be their ambassadors.
“We’re always trying to be innovative because, in my opinion, the brand presence almost outpaces the actual history of the brand. We’re not constrained by history, so in that way we can be more innovative, we don’t get to say ‘this is a recipe that we made 100 years ago’, sometimes I wish we could play that, but I can’t, but I can also do more innovative things.
“We’re still a young brand that is relaunching here and hopefully I can springboard that into an Australian exclusive whiskey down the line, but I don’t want to promise anything yet.”
Angel’s Envy is relaunching in Australia, following a successful on-premise launch in 2020, the focus is on the consumer now, with Kalya Grigoriou leading the Bacardi-Martini charge having recently been appointed the Angel’s Envy Whiskey Specialist, look for more from this exciting and innovative Bourbon.
