Dark Arts Whiskey House 7.5 Year Old 'The Empyrean' Batch 2 Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Red Port & White Port Wine Casks (2025) 75cl

Dark Arts Whiskey House 7.5 Year Old 'The Empyrean' Batch 2 Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Red Port & White Port Wine Casks (2025) 75cl 

In the cosmology of the medieval world, Heaven was not conceived as a single destination. It was ordered, ascending, arranged in spheres. Aristotle described it. Dante charted it. Beyond the stars, beyond time, beyond material existence itself, sat the Empyrean: pure fire, pure light, the point at which all things reached resolution.

It is an ambitious name for a bottle of bourbon.

Dark Arts’ The Empyrean Vol. II begins with a straight bourbon aged for 7.5 years, distilled by MGP in Lawrenceburg from a mashbill of 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley. From there, the whiskey divides into two entirely separate finishing paths. One portion enters red Port casks. The other enters white Port casks. Each matures independently before the two are brought back together through blending.

That distinction matters. This is not a secondary finish stacked atop another cask influence. It is not a double-finished bourbon in the conventional sense. Two separate finishing programs produce two separate whiskeys before they meet in the final blend. To understand why that approach matters requires leaving Kentucky for Portugal’s Douro Valley. Port wine traces its origins to the 17th century, when British merchants began exporting fortified wines from the Douro’s steep, schist-covered hillsides. The most repeated account credits a local abbot with discovering that the addition of grape spirit during fermentation halted the process before all sugar converted to alcohol. The resulting wine retained sweetness while gaining enough stability to survive long sea voyages without spoilage. From that practice came one of the Western world’s great wine traditions.

Yet Port was never singular. From early on, two traditions developed alongside one another.

Red Port and white Port are not variations separated merely by color. They begin with different grapes, different production choices, and entirely different outcomes in the glass. Red Port relies on dark-skinned varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz, fermented with skin contact intact. That process extracts tannin, pigment, and concentrated fruit notes associated with classic Port: plum, fig, cacao, and density.

White Port follows another path entirely. Produced from grapes such as Gouveio, Viosinho, and Malvasia, it is fermented without skin contact, eliminating the tannic grip and dark pigmentation found in red Port. The resulting wine moves in another direction altogether: citrus, honey, orchard fruit, floral aromatics, and sharper acidity. Same valley. Same fortification method. Entirely different identities.

The history of white Port remains comparatively obscure. Documentation places it at least as far back as the early 19th century, though its exact beginnings remain uncertain. Even now, it accounts for only a small fraction of total Port production. It has spent much of its existence overshadowed by red Port despite possessing its own historical significance.

That makes it an appropriate choice for what Dark Arts attempts here. Medieval cosmology placed fire and light together within the Empyrean, not as opposing forces, but as complementary expressions of the same higher order. Dark Arts approaches these casks in much the same way. Red Port contributes richness, tannin, dark fruit, and density. White Port supplies citrus, floral notes, honeyed sweetness, and brightness. Rather than forcing one finish to dominate the other, each whiskey is allowed to develop independently before the final blend brings the two into alignment. What arrives in the glass is not conflict. It is resolution.

TASTING NOTES

Nose: Nose: The nose opens with deep honey, jammy blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry layered over soft vanilla ice cream sweetness. Beneath the fruit sits a familiar thread of charred “MGP oak“, while the overall profile leans far sweeter and more dessert-like than spicy despite the rye spice that appears later on the palate..

Palate: The palate delivers blackberry syrup, dark fruit compote, and heavy port influence before transitioning into a more tannic and smoky mid palate with subtle patchouli-like spice. While flavorful, the mid palate feels flatter and less viscous than expected for a heavily finished Dark Arts release, preventing it from reaching the depth of previous blue label bottles.

Finish: The finish carries lingering rye spice, smoky oak, and chewy dark fruit candy notes with blackberry gummies and red fruit syrup lingering well after the sip. While medium in length initially, the lingering sweetness and spice help bring the whiskey back into balance.

About Dark Arts Whiskey House

55.75% ABV

75cl