J Henry Tokaji Finished Bourbon Waterford Pick

In the world of whiskey, there are rare bottles, there are delicious bottles, and there are unicorns. Unicorn bottles only come into being through a chain of unlikely but fortuitous connections that bring together rare and prized elements from across the world  in an astonishingly delicious bottle. 

 

Our Wisconsin exclusive private barrel of J. Henry Bourbon finished in a Royal Tokaji barrel is a unicorn among unicorns. This exclusive release is only available at Waterford, and won't even be available at the tasting room at the J. Henry Farm in Dane. 

 

J. Henry's track record of quality and the rarity of this barrel may be all  you need to know to scroll down and order a few bottles. But to truly appreciate this bottle,read on for the story of how it came into being, as recounted by Master Blender Joe Z. Henry. 

 

Tokaji is a tiny, historic Hungarian region with limited production of highly prized dessert wines, made through "noble rot" that concentrates the sugars of the grapes, a process similar to the more well-known Sauternes from France. The wine is rare, and the barrels almost never circulate outside of tightly knit circles. 

 

Joe had been trying to source one for a while without much luck. Then an unexpected Chicago connection opened a door. A couple years ago, The RPM restaurant group in Chicago, which had been a longtime supporter of J. Henry managed to score a full cask of royal Tokaji to pour at their restaurants, after bottling their wine, they shipped the barrel to Joe to experiment with finishing. The first cask needed extra attention because the wine had thrown sulfur and required careful filtration, but Joe could see the potential of this rare barrel.

 

He set out to secure more barrels from Royal Tokaji. Calls went unanswered, and emails went unreturned. That is, until happenstance brough Joe to a distillery opening in Ireland that was also attended by the global brand ambassador for Royal Tokaji. This serendipitous meeting led to Joe sourcing two additional barrels directly from Royal Tokaji. One of those barrels was ear-marked for RPM in Chicago, when Joe wanted to find a home for the other barrel, his first call was to Waterford. 

 

We jumped at the opportunity, and once we had a chance to taste a barrel sample, we knew it was a home run bottle. 

 

The uniqueness of the finishing barrel is certainly important, but what makes the finish compelling here is what it’s finishing. 

 

J. Henry is built on farming. They work roughly 2,000 acres across three counties north of Madison and they do not buy commodity #2 yellow dent. Their core corn, WW335A, traces back to 1939 as a high-starch feed corn for dairy cattle. It yields around 70 bushels per acre, versus roughly 350 for modern yellow dent. That tradeoff is the point: WW335A runs higher in fat, oil and protein, which shows up in the distillate as texture, aromatic density and depth. The variety fell out of use in the 1970s, then Joe’s family worked with UW–Madison to revive it in the mid-2000s. They repropagated it naturally through cross-pollination and, since 2012, have refined a proprietary, non-GMO strain grown only for their program. 

 

From there, the house style is equal parts discipline and decision-making. There’s serious blending pedigree in the background. Joe recently earned the title of Master Blender and years of study with Nancy Fraley, one of the top blenders in the world who herself trained under France's Hubert Germain-Robin before founding her own blending consultancy. 

Tokaji finishing adds a very specific set of aromas and flavors. Botrytized Tokaji can contribute honeyed warmth, rose and ginger notes and caramelized fruit tones. Oxidative development can tilt those toward dried apricot, saffron, beeswax and marmalade. Put that on top of  estate grown bourbon built from high-oil heirloom corn, then let charred oak add vanilla, sweet spice and toasted wood. The result reads as layered and unusual in a way that still feels coherent, not gimmicky.

 

J. Henry's goal has never been to mimic Kentucky. It is to define the heights of what Wisconsin bourbon can taste like, year after year, with local grain and a climate that pushes wide seasonal swings through the aging warehouses.

 

Unicorn bottles like this don't come around often, don't wait to take yours home.