The Campus Series, Continued: Copper Dome 'Gum Tree' at The Brothers

Back in May the Hound wrote up the Presidential Reserve and called the Campus Series one to watch. Here is the Campus Series. “Gum Tree” came across the bar at The Brothers in Ballwin — twice, on separate nights, once from Steve and once from Ethan — and it earned a field report before it earned a full tasting.

What is in the glass

Copper Dome Whiskey, Campus Series, “Gum Tree.” 57.4 percent alcohol by volume — 114.8 proof — on a sticker handwritten into the ALC./VOL. box, the mark of a small batch bottled to strength rather than proofed down to a round number. 750 milliliters. Missouri whiskey, from Nobleton’s Distilling House, the alumni-owned operation behind the Copper Dome line.

The back label calls it a blend of two complementary barrels, hand-selected by seven 1906 Society founders and other longtime fans of SEMO, Nobleton’s, and Copper Dome. Age and mash bill are not printed on the bottle, so the Hound is not printing them either. The label does not use the words “cask strength,” and neither will the Hound — but 57.4 percent, written by hand, reads like the barrels went in the bottle close to where they came out.

The name

The Campus Series trades in SEMO landmarks. The Presidential Reserve wore the copper Academic Hall dome. “Gum Tree” takes the next one — the back label is a collage of tree photographs around a polaroid captioned “New Gum Tree - 2023,” with the maker’s line that the gum tree “has long been a place where memories are made and traditions take root.” A campus fixture on a bottle, in keeping with the series. The Hound will let the alumni tell that story; the label tells it well enough.

The pour

Poured by the glass both times — it is not on the shelf to buy at The Brothers, and the bottle in the photo is the bar’s, not the Hound’s. Two quick pours in a busy room do not add up to a tasting the Hound will sign. The early read, and only that: sweet on the open, and easier than 114.8 proof has any right to be. That is a first impression, not a verdict. The writeup waits for a quiet hour and a bottle of its own.

For the maker’s account of where it lands: the two barrels were married, per the label, for “layers of complex sweetness with balance and character — a confectionary note that nods to its namesake.” That is Nobleton’s description, not the Hound’s palate. Take it as the maker’s intent and let the glass argue its own case.

The intel

Regional and small. The Campus Series is a Copper Dome release out of southeast Missouri, and the reliable western-metro pour is the same as it was for the Presidential Reserve — The Brothers in Ballwin. Ask Steve or Connie whether the Gum Tree is still open. If it is, take the pour, tip the bar, and send word on what you got. Reader notes go to intel@bourbonfoxhound.com or the Open Verdict form on Drops & Intel. The second pour, and the real writeup, are coming.

— The Hound