15 Stars First West Explorer

About the product: A landmark release in the First West Collection, 15 STARS First West Explorer is the brand's first bourbon crafted entirely from 100% in-house distilled whiskey. Showcasing 15 STARS' proprietary baby black corn mashbill, this innovative expression delivers a uniquely rich and complex character that sets it apart from traditional bourbons. This distinctive five-grain bourbon combines baby black corn, yellow corn, rye, wheat, and malted barley to create exceptional depth and balance. A blend of Kentucky Straight Bourbons aged five and six years, it is carefully matured and refined using the brand's signature Flavor Proofed™ process, resulting in a bourbon that is remarkably smooth, balanced, and layered with complexity. Continuing the brand's tribute to Kentucky and the American frontier—the birthplace of bourbon—First West Explorer is presented in a historic-inspired blue glass bottle, honoring the first glass bottles produced in Kentucky and once used to house the state's earliest bourbons. First West Explorer is a celebration of Kentucky heritage and bourbon innovation, offering an exceptional expression that combines tradition, craftsmanship, and a pioneering spirit in every pour.   Tasting Notes: The nose is sweetly aromatic, with slightly floral cherry and raspberry fruit leather meeting homemade banana pudding topped with whipped cream and vanilla wafer cookies, before soft sweet oak rounds it out. The palate is comfortably syrupy, giving raspberry fruit leather and dried cranberry before richer notes of cane sugar, white pepper, tobacco, and mature, slightly perfumed oak. The finish continues with a spiced yet developed profile, adding expressed orange peel and cinnamon brioche for a sweet and spiced interplay that carries into a long, creamy finish.