California Bourbon Gets Serious: Redwood Empire's Purple Corn Single Barrel & Corbin Cash's First BIB

Two California distilleries landed TTB approvals on June 1, 2026 — and together they make a quiet case for just how serious the state's bourbon producers have become about transparency and terroir.

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Redwood Empire – The Barrel Forager (Single Barrel Purple Corn Bourbon)

The label for The Barrel Forager packs an unusual amount of honesty into its left-panel text. The mash bill reads 72% purple corn, 18% rye, 5% wheat, 5% malt barley — the same grain ratios as Redwood Empire's standard lineup, but with heirloom purple corn swapped in for conventional yellow. Purple corn brings anthocyanin pigmentation and a subtly earthier, slightly fruitier character compared to standard dent corn; in a single barrel context at this age it's a genuine differentiator, not a marketing flourish. The age statement is a precise 7 years 8 months — the kind of number that comes from an actual barrel pulled at peak, not a round-number marketing decision.

The label lists a proof of ~110 (55% ABV), though COLA filings routinely carry provisional proofs that shift before release — take that figure as approximate. What isn't provisional: the "Produced and Bottled by Redwood Empire, Vallejo, CA · Distilling, Vallejo, CA" notation, making clear this is house-distilled stock, not a sourced expression. The label also names a June 2026 release, which is unusually candid timing disclosure for a COLA filing. Redwood Empire's longstanding partnership with Trees for the Future is noted on-label under their "Whiskey with Impact" banner, consistent with the distillery's sustainability mission since its founding in 2015.

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Corbin Cash – Sweet Mash Bourbon Bottled in Bond

Corbin Cash operates out of Atwater in California's San Joaquin Valley, where the Souza family has farmed the same land since 1917. That five-generation agricultural backstory isn't just marketing — their bourbon is genuinely grain-to-glass, built on heirloom yellow corn grown on-farm, Merced Rye, and Pacific Malt, fermented with a combination of whiskey and champagne yeast. The champagne yeast contribution is atypical for American bourbon and tends to push fermentation toward cleaner, more ester-forward aromatics.

The bigger news is the designation: this filing is a Bottled-in-Bond, Sweet Mash Straight Bourbon Whiskey — and the BIB status locks in both quality and proof. By law, that means at least four years of age, production in a single distilling season at a single bonded distillery (DSP-CA-15087, Atwater, CA), and exactly 100 proof (50% ABV), confirmed. The sweet mash process sets it apart from Corbin Cash's existing Sour Mash Bourbon (which uses backset to acidify fermentation); sweet mash relies solely on fresh yeast, producing a fermentation character that tends sweeter and rounder. Master Distiller David Souza signs the back label — and the back label text makes its thesis plain: this is "a true representation of what differentiates California bourbon from those distilled in other states." Hard to argue with the receipts on a BIB label.

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Two filings, two very different roads to the same destination: California bourbon that leads with its ingredients and doesn't flinch from scrutiny.