For more than two decades, John Campbell was the steady hand behind one of Scotland’s most famous names in whisky. As the only Islay native ever to serve as distillery manager at Laphroaig, he spent years coaxing that unmistakable iodine-and-campfire smoke out of peat-fired kilns on a windswept Scottish island. Then, in 2024, he did something a lot of whisky fans never saw coming: he left the cold Atlantic behind, moved his family to Southern California, and took the reins at a tiny craft distillery just north of Los Angeles.
The place is called Sespe Creek Distillery, tucked into an industrial corner of Oxnard, California—about an hour up the coast from L.A. and a world away from Islay. What Campbell walked into wasn’t another peat monster, but something even stranger: a bourbon built around mesquite-smoked corn. And with the just-released Batch 22 of Warbringer Bourbon, the first expression he’s personally blended since arriving, he’s put his fingerprint on what might be the most unconventional American whiskey on shelves right now.
The story actually starts back in 2017, when biochemist David Brandt founded Sespe Creek. Brandt had fallen hard for Laphroaig’s medicinal, seaside smoke years earlier and wanted to chase something similar on American soil. Instead of copying Scottish peat, he turned to a wood that’s been flavoring Texas barbecue for generations—mesquite. The process they landed on is labor-intensive: heirloom Bloody Butcher corn (the deep-reddent variety your granddad might remember) gets cold-smoked for roughly two days inside a smoke box loaded with real Texas mesquite. That smoked corn makes up the lion’s share of the mashbill, rounded out with malted rye and a portion of fire-roasted corn for extra depth.
Once the mash is fermented, it’s double-distilled in copper pot stills—another nod to Scotch tradition you don’t see every day in bourbon country—then sent into new charred American oak barrels. The final twist comes when the whiskey is finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, the same sweet, raisin-heavy wood that shows up in some of the best Highland and Speyside malts.
Campbell didn’t distill this batch himself (those barrels were filled before he arrived), but blending is where a master distiller earns his keep. For Batch 22 he reached into the rickhouse and pulled some of Sespe Creek’s oldest stock, folded in bourbon made from red corn, and added a touch of experimental sour mash bourbon to tighten everything up.
“The main aim for Batch 22 was to increase the mouthfeel and the way it engaged with the drinker’s palate, and to beef up the flavors at the back end of the taste experience,” Campbell said. “To do this, we introduced some of the oldest bourbon we have on site, added some red corn bourbon to the recipe and some experimental sour mash bourbon to improve the overall balance of the liquid for the consumer.”
Pour a glass and the first thing that hits you is the smoke—big, bold mesquite that somehow walks the line between Texas pit barbecue and the salty, iodine tang you remember from Laphroaig on a stormy day. It’s unmistakable. Right behind it comes the sweetness from those PX sherry casks: dried figs, caramel, baking spices, vanilla bean, and a drizzle of dark honey. The rye keeps everything from getting too heavy, and at 98 proof there’s just enough warmth on the finish to remind you this isn’t some polite sipping bourbon.
It’s the kind of whiskey that makes you slow down, top it with a drop of water if you want, and argue with your buddies about whether this even counts as bourbon anymore. (Legally it does—100% meets the rules—but it sure doesn’t taste like anything coming out of Kentucky right now.)
Warbringer Batch 22 is rolling out now. You’ll find it at better liquor stores in a handful of states, online through Total Wine, or straight from the distillery’s website. Suggested retail is fifty-five bucks, which feels almost too reasonable for something this different.
A guy who spent his life perfecting Islay peat just crossed an ocean and turned Texas mesquite into bourbon. If that doesn’t make you reach for your wallet and wonder what the hell is coming next from Sespe Creek, check your pulse. John Campbell isn’t done surprising us yet.
