Old Pogue Master’s Select Bourbon Review

The Pogue family’s worst kept secret – Old Pogue Master’s Select.

The Pogue family has been running the Maysville, Kentucky bourbon scene for over a century and a half. Well, almost. In the 1870s, Henry Edgar “H.E” Pogue was working as the head distiller for O.H.P Thomas and churning out two main products: Old Time Sour Mash and Old Maysville Club Rye Whiskey. By 1876, he finally worked up enough nerve and coin to purchase a distillery from O.H.P and opened up Kentucky Registered Distillery No. 3. Over the next 40 years the distillery began to flourish, while the family behind the distillery struggled. Just four years after the distillery opened, H.E. Pogue died in a distillery accident and his son, H.E. Pogue II, passed away under similar circumstances just two decades later. It was H.E. Pogue III who returned from WWI to pick up the distillery mantle in late 1919…just in time for Prohibition to hit. Talk about your bad luck.

Of course, Prohibition wasn’t kind to the whiskey business world. The Pogue Distillery was one of the lucky few who could legally sell medicinal whiskey and also did quite a lot of business with a Cincinnati pharmacist George Remus. (Although the exact legality of that venture is a little murky). But it wasn’t enough to keep the distillery afloat and the doors of the Pogue Distillery were closed in 1926.

After Prohibition ended, H.E. III couldn’t bring himself to continue and sold the distillery off. For the next 50 years or so, the distillery passed back and forth through several corporations before finally falling vacant. It wasn’t until 2004 that the Pogue name was back on a bourbon bottle and by 2012 the Pogue family reestablished the Pogue Distillery and began producing their own bourbon again. Today the Pogue family churns out just two whiskies: Old Maysville Club Bottled-in-Bond Rye Malt Whiskey and Old Pogue Master’s Select Bourbon. So why are these whiskies their worst kept family secrets?

Well, for all of the work and wishes it took for the family to re-enter the whiskey game, the Pogue’s seem perfectly content with having a small operation. The distillery itself is tiny with one copper still patiently pumping out a rumored one barrel a week. As far as distribution, you’ll likely have to visit the distillery itself to get your hands on a bottle or track one down via a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who is willing to sell it to you at triple the cost. With no known expansion plans for the distillery, this makes the Pogue whiskies decently known, but seemingly impossible to get.

So after tracking down a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who only marked up the bottle by about 15%, we finally got a hold of Old Pogue Master’s Select Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Said to be a blend of nine-year-old bourbons, the bourbon is a small batch that carries a 91 proof. A brown sugar and oak smell kicks things off before rushing into a vanilla, heavy oak, caramel, and light pepper flavor. It’s a light and approachable taste that’s rounded off with a poppy, peppercorn finish. It’s a bourbon that is certainly easy to drink, but not so easy to afford.

Setting aside our black market, bootlegger markup, Old Pogue has an MSRP of $110. And hey, given the craft nature of the distillery and the huge chunk of change it takes to make good bourbon, we get it. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less. To date, WhistlePig 10 is the most money we’ve shelled out for a whiskey, setting us back $86 aka $24 less than the MSRP of Old Pogue. Interestingly enough, WhistlePig 10 is also from a craft distillery, but has a higher proof, higher age statement, and a lower price. And isn’t that something to think about?

While Old Pogue Master’s Select Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a bourbon we could dream of drinking again and again, the price and availability make it pretty hard to turn that dream into a reality.