MB Roland Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
MB Roland · MB Roland Distillery
MB Roland's still-on-grain, unfiltered approach yields a bourbon that feels hewn rather than assembled. Where polished craft distillers smooth away every rough edge, this Pembroke operation leaves the mineral grit fully exposed — a reminder that bourbon's deepest character often lies in the sediment. The high proof amplifies every stony nuance without burning, making it a rugged but deeply rewarding pour that fits squarely into this issue's celebration of mineral grit revealed.
Nose
Cracked limestone and wet gravel rise first, followed by a surge of toasted corn, raw honey, and cedar shavings. Beneath it all sits a flinty minerality that recalls rain on warm sandstone, with trailing notes of smoked pecan and dried sage.
Palate
Full-bodied and unfiltered, the entry delivers crushed rock salt and caramelized corn before pivoting into charred oak, dark toffee, and a gritty, almost chalky mineral backbone. Mid-palate brings rye spice, cracked black pepper, and a dusty earthiness reminiscent of a quarry floor. The texture is oily and slightly granular — raw and unapologetic.
Finish
Long and dry, with lingering notes of scorched clay, tobacco leaf, iron shavings, and a final whisper of maple sweetness tempered by persistent stone-dust astringency.
- Mash Bill
- 78% White Corn, 17% Rye, 5% Malt
- Barrel Type
- New Char #4
- Single Barrel
- Yes
- Wheated
- No
Cocktail Suggestion
The Quarryman's Old Fashioned — 2 oz MB Roland Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey · 0.25 oz smoked maple syrup · 2 dashes Angostura bitters · 1 dash black walnut bitters · 1 strip of orange peel · Pinch of Maldon sea salt · Dissolve the smoked maple syrup, bitters, and sea salt in a mixing glass. Add bourbon and ice, stir for 30 seconds until well-chilled. Strain over a single large ice cube in a rocks glass. Express the orange peel over the surface, then rest it against the rim. The salt amplifies the bourbon's inherent mineral grit. · Glass: Double old fashioned glass
Food Pairing
The bourbon's unfiltered, grain-forward intensity mirrors the coarse texture of stone-ground grits, while the smoked pork belly's rendered fat and char echo the whiskey's toasted corn and scorched oak. The red-eye gravy — built on strong coffee and pan drippings — amplifies the mineral, earthy bitterness that runs through both plate and glass, creating a pairing that feels rooted in the same red clay soil.
Paul and Mary Beth (MB) Tomaszewski left careers in the tech world to build a distillery from scratch on a former tobacco farm in Christian County, Kentucky. Their bourbon is produced in copper pot stills rather than column stills, fermented with heritage grains grown on surrounding farms, and bottled unfiltered with the grain sediment still in the bottle — a practice virtually extinct in modern Kentucky distilling. The result is a whiskey that carries the terroir of its limestone-rich water source and iron-veined soil in every sip. The distillery sits atop the same geological shelf that feeds the great cave systems of western Kentucky, and that subterranean mineral character bleeds through every batch. In an industry obsessed with clarity and refinement, MB Roland embraces the sediment — the temper of the stone itself.
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