Four Gate Whiskey Company Batch 2 Outer Loop Orbit

Bill Straub, founder and Editor-In-Chief of ModernThirst.com, and Bob D’Antoni started Four Gate Whiskey Company in 2018 with the intention of exclusively being a non-distiller producer (NDP). Their plan isn’t like many other NDPs who sell sourced whiskey while their own whiskey comes of age. They don’t have a distillery, and they don’t plan to distill. Instead, they are focusing on sourcing barrels to create very small batches - for example Batch 1: 1,732 bottles, Batch 2: 2,402 bottles - and finishing them in a unique way. The company plans to release 2-3 batches per year.

From blenders: "We said we wanted to challenge your taste buds, so for our second release, we did just that. When we met at Kelvin Cooperage to discuss our second batch, William Hornaday told us about some very interesting barrels in his warehouse that he wanted us to check out. Originally Orange Curaçao barrels, a local distiller then used them to finish a batch of gin. That’s right, gin. We had no idea what to expect, but when we smelled these barrels, they blew us away. The sticky sweetness of Orange Curaçao was tamed somewhat by the sharpness of the botanical gin, creating an aroma that smelled straight out of the 80s and harkened to a rather popular powdered orange drink made famous on the 1962 Mercury Mission when astronaut John Glenn took it to outer space. The tangy-orange notes of the barrels were screaming out for bourbon, and we listened.

We blended a 5.5-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon with a 12-year-old High-Rye Kentucky Straight Bourbon and let nature take its course. The result after only a few weeks was astounding. In fact, the barrels influenced the whiskey so quickly that we felt it was ready in just a month.

To pay homage to Kelvin Cooperage, we chose the batch name “Outer Loop,” denoting the street in Louisville on which the Cooperage is located, and “Orbit” to reference the Mercury Mission. Outer Loop Orbit is a totally different and incredibly tasty whiskey bottled at barrel proof and non-chill filtered. It’s out of this world!"