Reviewing the 2025 Edition of Bomberger's Chinquapin Oak Aged Bourbon

After the first launch of the bold label of Bomberger's Precision Fine Grain in 2025, the traditional annual release of the chinquapin oak aged bourbon was somewhat doomed to live in the shadow of the shiny new whiskey. The pressure must be immense to have to keep coming up with new concepts to satiate the never-ending desire for fresh releases. Michter's managed to scratch that itch with the PFG bottle by employing another new oak while leaving chinquapin in the original Bomberger's court. The comment sections I saw around release time were going bananas for the new maroon label design despite being most of the same content structure.

When I stumbled upon a bottle of the normal Bomberger's on a Midtown Manhattan liquor store shelf, I was surprised and found myself wondering, "Have I had this whiskey yet this year?" I took to my website, ran a search, and discovered I hadn't reviewed it yet, so I admittedly overpaid a little to take it back to my hotel. Higher price tags were expected; that's NYC for you, but I deserved something interesting to sip while I was away from my normal whiskey study room, right? Michter's website had just enough intrigue for me to be willing to pull the trigger.

The level of open-air season that the team employed here is really wild... 1-2 years has unfortunately become the industry norm for modern bourbon, so this push out to as much as 5 years of seasoning is really interesting to see. Long open-air maturation durations are typically attributable to reducing the level of tannic tones that are imparted during the early stages of whiskey aging, perhaps offering a chance to "skip ahead" in the maturation curve for any given terroir. Ready to hear how this year's Bomberger's Declaration turned out? On with the review!

Company on Label: Bottled by Michter's Distillery LLC, Louisville, Kentucky 40216

Whiskey Type: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey

Mash Bill Percentages: Undisclosed

Proof: 108°

Age: NAS

MSRP: $120 (2025)

Buy Online: Frootbat

Further identification: This is batch number 25E1907, which would have been bottled in May of 2025; 2,438 bottles were released for this batch and bottle 143 is under review here today

Nose: Upon first lifting the glass to my nose, I find the traditional soft caramel and vanilla one would expect out of a Kentucky bourbon with some decent oak time. Another long inhale produces dehydrated cherry and a deeply earthy undertone that reminds me of an old forest floor covered in brown shed needles from red and white pines. My left nostril finds more mocha tones that remind me of Pirouline wafers, while my right nostril is filled with a sharper aroma of cardamom and green peppercorn. A long inhale back together is again vaguely fruity on this slightly fickle dram, which feels like the sum of a few disjointed parts that haven't quite jived yet. It's a nice nose, but it doesn't seem to have something to attribute its indeterminate success to. After a sip there is very little delta, revealing only a slight chlorinated pool aroma that doesn't really fit the experience. As I near the bottom of the glass, I find things level back out to a very traditional bourbon flavor triangle of caramel, vanilla, and cherry. The empty glencairn has a perfect callback to the chocolate Pirouline wafers from earlier.

Palate: My first sip is sweet like the first moment you pop a Sweet Tart in your mouth and your salivary glands go wild. Another quick taste reveals a bourbon that drinks well under proof and leaves little impression outside of a short blip of flavor. This one revealed the same dehydrated cherry the nose led with before turning slightly chalky with the mouthfeel of a powdered raspberry doughnut. Larger sips and long swishes seem to do this bourbon the most justice, jamming creamy flan and glazed doughnut sweetness into every corner of my mouth. I wish it hung around for more than a millisecond in my mouth, but that's the tale of an easy-sipping bourbon, I suppose. As I taste towards the bottom of this glass, nuances of black pepper and the crisp freshness of a Chesapeake Bay oyster are fun surprises on an otherwise narrow band of flavor. My last sip rounds out the caramel character arc before finishing with a short burst of Andes mint that feels completely out of place.

TL;DR: Innovative production methods paradoxically produced a very traditional bourbon

Rating: 3.5/5

Good enough. There's something to enjoy here.

I had a few pours that were more enjoyable from this bottle prior to this write up, but most of my experiences were likely elevated by sharing with people who haven't had nearly as many whiskeys as I have. The coworkers I shared this one with did enjoy it quite a bit as we toasted to our collective success. I certainly found it to be a crushable bottle, one I managed to work through with quite a bit of help while I was traveling in Manhattan for work. I certainly wanted some more wow factor out of this bottle, but that's me being a bit picky and knowing that the decisions for long open-air seasoning durations they used on the intriguing chinquapin oak seem to have both been squandered on what is just a decent base distillate. All that said, this is still a crushable whiskey that is clearly a step ahead of your regular shelf options that fall more towards the middle of my very fair rating scale. I look forward to seeing what they pull out for next year's release!

WRITTEN BY: NICK ANDERSON

With over a decade of sipping experience, Nick Anderson brings a well-calibrated palate to his profound passion for the whiskey industry. Beginning in Irish whiskey before expanding into bourbon, rye, and beyond, he has long been taking the ephemeral observation of unspoken enjoyment and translating it into meaningful words. He is the owner and primary long-winded whiskey writer for AmongstTheWhiskey.com, and he hopes you find resonance in the patient conveyance of an honest whiskey review.