Background

First off, a big thanks to Cinder BBQ in DC for continuing to enable me, as it was there that I was able to taste both of these. Weller Single Barrel launched in June 2020, and closing in on three years later I finally had a chance to taste it! I’ll be honest, I have very conflicted feelings on the main Weller line (the consistently exceptional WLW excluded). For me, especially when you take into account scarcity, it is basically a good Weller Full Proof pick or bust. I’m curious then to see if Weller Single Barrel breaks that mold.

There’s not a lot to say about William Larue Weller that hasn’t been said already honestly. The full fact sheet for the 2022 is available here on Buffalo Trace’s website, but this 12 year release clocks in at 127.4 proof. Rather than rehash familiar ground there, let’s get on to the reviews!

Background

Had the privilege recently of attending a Yellowstone Tasting/Pick Release put on by J St Whiskey in DC. Quick disclaimer, this is a group (and the Yellowstone pick in particular) I’m involved with- so I will not be reviewing the group’s Yellowstone pick offered at the tasting as that would not be particularly objective! The Limited Editions, on the other hand, were sourced by us for the tasting and we were lucky enough to have Master Distiller Stephen Beam (yes, that Beam family) and legendary Brand Ambassador Stephen Fante joined via Zoom to walk us through. Each limited release is unique, so I’ve provided some details on the release specifics alongside notes below!

Background

Eight whiskeys entered, five went home with various members of our tasting panel as “eh, I guess I’ll find a way to use it” souvenirs, one went down the drain, and we’re left with Blackened vs Brother’s Bond a class of the titans decent whiskeys.

This brings us to our final!

Background

A quick first round recap!

• Part One: Bradshaw Bourbon bested Drake’s Virginia Black Dumpster Runoff. Then Longbranch beat out Digits, meaning Scottie Pippen will not be adding another title to his 6 rings.

• Part Two: Brother’s Bond (from the two Vampire Diaries guys from the who apparently are very IG famous) triumphs over Sweeten’s Cove (RIP Peyton Manning and Andy Roddick). Then our tasting panel split our votes on Heaven’s Door vs Blackened and decided to just knock out Bradshaw because it’s not very good.

This brings us to our final four! Let’s matchup our contestants and see who advances to the finals.

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Happy first day of games! It’s time for the second part of our celebrity bourbon bracket, part one is here but to recap quick we put a bunch of vanity projects in a bracket, seeded them by IG followers, tasted two matchups and then poured Drake’s whiskey down the drain! Now onto the second half of our first round:

Background

In honor of March Madness, I would like to introduce the Celebrity Bourbon* Bracket! Ok, one is American Whiskey- more on that in a little. Ever see Terry Bradshaw’s bourbon in a liquor store, laugh at it and say “No way that’s good.” Well, let’s taste through every “wait, the two guys from Vampire Diaries have a bourbon?!” celebrity offering! Which will be the least bad? Who knows, I’ve never had any of these before, but I am excited to find out. Quick notes on the format:

• I tried to select the base product for each brand where applicable. Yes, something like Blackened x Willett is awesome, but that’s not really what we’re going for here.

• A group of 6 of us tasted each matchup, and we did them blind each time. The reviews below are predominantly my notes with added color from our panel.

• The seeding was done by number of Instagram followers, because it is a celebrity bracket after all. I’ll roll out bracket updates periodically, tackling two matchups per post (first round in two posts, second round in one, championship in the final update).

Ok without further ado, an intro to the contestants and their seeds, then onto the first two matchups. Worth noting, I’ll provide more info on each as they are bounced from the tournament as sort of a eulogy to these mighty fallen vanity projects. We’ll be tasting:

1. Virginia Black (Drake) - 133M IG Followers

2. Brother’s Bond (Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder) - 24.1M

3. Blackened (Metallica) - 9.6M

4. Wild Turkey Longbranch (Matthew McConaughey) - 7.3M

5. Digits (Scottie Pippen) - 1.9M

6. Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan) - 884k

7. Sweeten’s Cove (Andy Roddick and Peyton Manning) - 521k

8. Bradshaw (Terry Bradshaw) - 91.1k

Background

As always, big thanks to Cinder BBQ for enabling my 2022 BTAC journey! Let’s get right to the notes for the 2022 Thomas H Handy release!

Thomas H Handy (6 Years, 130.9 Proof)

Nose: Orange candies, fruit punch, hints of mint and fennel

Palate: More citrus, caramel, grapefruit lead the sip into a spice forward rye bread and natural cinnamon.

Finish: Pumpernickel, nutmeg, lemon, oak, spices. There’s almost a numbing quality it leaves behind I cant quite pinpoint. It's also a little too dry.

7.5/10

Overall: As a pour, it’s still really good. But judging against the standards of other THH releases, it’s a bit unbalanced. The spice hits hard at the back of the palate and into the finish. It sadly fails to hit the fruit forward highs of the 2020 THH release.

Background

Ready for the longest named whiskey I can remember? Enter: Bardstown Bourbon Company West Virginia Great Barrel Company Blended Rye Whiskey Finished in Infrared Toasted Cherry Oak Barrels.

Who’s still with me? Ok, let’s explain what all that means!

• Bardstown Bourbon Company: Notable NDPs/Contract Distillers, soon to release their own distillate.

• West Virginia Great Barrel Company: Innovative cooperage based in, you guessed it, West Virginia. We’ll get to why they are innovative in a second.

• Blended Rye Whiskey: Blended, because this is 6 year 95/5 MGP rye blended with 12 year 100% corn Canadian Whiskey. Bardstown does not disclose the exact percentage of the blend.

• Infrared Toasted Cherry Oak Barrels: Ok here’s where it gets interesting. West Virginia Barrel Company uses Infrared Heat to toast their barrels, as opposed to a more traditional wood chip fire. They claim infrared heat penetrates deeper into the barrel to draw out more sugars and vanillin.

Now, why stacked up against THH? Pretty simply, a buddy poured this for me and we both noted that it tasted THH-esque in how fruit forward it is. The immortal Alex @ thewhiskeyshelf.com also named checked THH in his review of this new Bardstown release, so let’s put them side by side and compare!

Background

Peerless is a distillery I’m becoming increasingly enamored with. My last two Peerless reviews have covered Double Oak Bourbon and Double Oak Rye picks from their Master Distiller, Caleb Kilburn, alongside bourbon and rye single barrel picks, respectively. All of these offerings have ranged from “Very Good” to “Excellent” in my estimation, and it’s clear their older stocks are starting to matriculate into their picks and baseline products.

We’re taking a look at two more offerings from them today. First up is their Absinthe Barrel Finished Rye, and the other is a 5 year rye pick from DC’s Cinder BBQ. The 3 year rye was already a rock solid pour, so I’m curious to review this 5 year iteration.

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Notes below for this delicious Barrell Craft Spirits pick (dubbed “Breaking Barrell”) from Seelbachs & Breaking Bourbon. 15% 5 year, 5% 10 year, 50% 14 year and 30% 16 year juice in the mix.

Barrell Bourbon Seelbachs and Breaking Bourbon Pick (5 Years, 112.72 Proof)

Nose: Raspberry and generally berry jam. Occasionally caramel apple. Palate is peanut butter and grape jelly with a bit of honey. The finish is leathery, Red Hot candies.

Palate: Peanut butter jelly time, peanut butter jelly time. But seriously slight nutty notes and that persistent jam from the nose.

Finish: Bit of heat comes through here, leather, slight berry remnants and cinnamon red hot candies.

7/10

Overall: Really fun blend here! Good amount of flavor while still being approachable, finish brings a fun late heat that’s a bit unexpected but not off putting.

Background

Last year, I reviewed the inaugural batch of A Smith Bowman Cask Strength and assessed it’s potential as a Stagg slayer/replacement for the missing ‘21 GTS.

Here we are again, one year later. George T Stagg is back on the market (at 138+ proof, no less) and Bowman Cask Strength has upped the ante on their first hazmat release with batch two clocking in at a jaw dropping 144.5 proof. GTS took the first round, so can this iteration of Bowman Cask Strength triumph over its high proof, Sazerac owned brethren?

Background

Happy Bottled-in-Bond Day! Fundamental to our modern whiskey industry, the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 established a baseline quality expectation for American whiskey. Let’s do a quick recap of what qualifies a spirit to be considered Bottled-in-Bond:

• It must be the product of one distillation season (Jan to Jun, or July to Dec) by one distiller at one distillery.

• It must be aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least 4 years.

• It must be bottled at 100 proof.

• The label must identify the source distillery and, if different, where it was bottled.

Let’s celebrate by drinking some bottled-in-bond Rittenhouse Rye. Heaven Hill added Rittenhouse to their barrel program last year, leading to the legendary Jack Rose in DC to do a pick. Because of its 51% rye, 37% corn, 12% malted barley mashbill, I’ve always believed Rittenhouse to be a great “gateway rye” for bourbon drinkers who arent the biggest rye fans, and I’m curious to see how these compare.

Background

First off, I need to shout out the immortal Wild Turkey historian, David Jennings of rarebreed101.com, for the indispensable Wild Turkey Timeline. I have poor impulse control I’ll admit, and when faced with the mystery box that was this ceramic decanter I needed to know what was inside. While decanting it was a bit of an adventure, now we can do a direct side by side by side comparison of some different Wild Turkey 101 offerings. We have the modern iteration (from 2021), a 2010 Austin Nichols bottling, and the 8 year 101 juice from this decanter. Let’s take a look at a few of the differences between these:

• 1984 8 Year 101: First and foremost, the age statement. In 1992, Wild Turkey dropped the 8 year age statement from the US 101 bottling. There also isnt a ton of product stratification at this time. There’s the 12 Year Beyond Duplication offering and (as far as I could find) that’s about it. Meaning there’s ALOT of good juice in this blend. The barrel entry proof for Wild Turkey at this time is also 107, which brings us to…

• 2010 101: Ok, at this point we’re approaching the modern product. Gone is the 8 year age, and you have a bunch of different offerings on the market including Rare Breed, Kentucky Spirit, and Russell’s Reserve (presumably pulling some decent juice from 101). Now, barrel entry proof changed from 107 to 110 in 2004, and 110 to 115 in 2006. Wild Turkey claims 101 is 6-8 years on average even without the age statement… so it seems safe to assume this is 110 barrel entry proof juice and likely some of the 107 stuff as well.

• 2021 101: The modern product! Too many (awesome) Wild Turkey products to count, Russell’s Reserve is firmly established as a pretty obtainable premium line. Barrel entry proof of 115 and NAS (though Wild Turkey’s website still notes the product is 6-8 years)

Now let’s compare them! We’re going to start modern and work our way back in time.

Background

In May 2022 I took a look at some Peerless Rye offerings, a 3 year pick and a Double Oak Rye pick from Caleb Kilburn (Peerless’ Master Distiller). Since I covered a bunch of Peerless fun facts there, I’ll keep the intro short and sweet on this one. This time, we’re checking out the bourbons. The two whiskey’s on hand are a single barrel pick from DC’s Cinder BBQ, and another single barrel, double oak bourbon pick from Caleb Kilburn/Peerless’ gift shop. Let’s see how they stack up!

Background

Let’s start with some Peerless fun facts! Most of these are courtesy of Clay Risen’s book Bourbon: The Story of Kentucky Whiskey, which has quickly become an essential field guide for me as I taste and write reviews.

• Peerless uses a sweet mash, rather than a sour mash. Sour mash involves adding some portion of the last distilling run to the current one. This helps prevent bacteria growth during fermentation. By forgoing this process Peerless claims a more neutral PH off the still leading to a less acidic result into the barrels.

• Peerless also barrels their whiskey at a fairly low, 107 proof. This leads to both of these offerings coming in at a very drinkable, 107 & 110 barrel proof. They also seem intent at staying a fairly small distillery, producing roughly 12 barrels a day.

• Less specific to the distillery and more to these two offerings, this review will cover a 3 year Single Barrel Rye selection, and a NAS Single Barrel, Double Oak Master Distiller's selection (hot damn that's a lot of qualifiers). Don’t let the non-age statement fool you though, as I am sure many of you know, label rules dictate that anything under 4 years must have an age statement. This means the Double Oak must have been aged at least 4 years.

And with that, let’s taste!

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Courtesy of Show of Hands in DC. Which, if you haven't been, is an awesome spot with great people and prices. Blend of Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky bourbons finished in Mizunara, French, and toasted American oak casks.

Barrell Vantage (NAS, 114 Proof)

Nose: Toasted marshmallow, orange peels, oak

Palate: Oranges, white peach, vanilla and definitely wood forward

Finish: Kind of dry, vanilla, black pepper, peach

6/10

Overall: Tasty! And I generally do love Barrells willingness to experiment. Loses me on the finish a bit, which I find a little too dry.

Background

Hidden Barn, best known as Jackie Zykan’s new venture with the Neeley family. You know you try to write a super short review and then you learn they are releasing different series, and there are batches within those series, and the series come from different distilleries. Anyways, details on each series is here. This is batch 2 from series one.

Hidden Barn Series One Batch 2 Bourbon(NAS, 110 Proof)

Nose: Caramel apple, corn flakes, straw

Palate: Mulled cider, maple, oak, tastes a touch on the younger side.

Finish: Cinnamon sticks, cider, vanilla…mostly cider/apples

5/10

Overall: Maybe it’s the 10% malt, but it does drink like a pot still whiskey. It’s ok, and I’m curious to see what Hidden Barn does in the future. Just not a ton to write home about for now.

Eagle Rare 17 Year 2022 (17 Year, 101 Proof)

Nose: Holy cherries Batman. Ripe, natural, dark juicy cherry.

Palate: Drinks like sherry, brown sugar, again big cherry, butterscotch, orange peels, gentle oak

Finish: You guessed it, cherry. Note of butterscotch, cloves, orange peels

8.5/10

Overall: 🍒💣. Compared to Eagle Rare it’s much darker, oak and brown sugar forward. That said the prevailing note is an extra ripe, juicy cherry.

Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength OBSF (10 Year, 125.2 Proof)

Pick from @bourbonwomen

Nose: Florals, caramel, honey, herbs and spices.

Palate: Honey forward and oily, caramel, oak and cinnamon red hots.

Finish: Nutmeg, cocoa, black pepper, caramel

8/10

Overall: Powerful flavor but not overwhelmingly hot. Honey forward with dollops of caramel. Great stuff!

Background

2022 was undoubtedly a banner year for Bardstown Bourbon Company. In March of 2022, they were purchased by Pritzker Capital for an undisclosed sum. In July, they put that newfound capital to use, acquiring Green River Spirits. The growth did not stop there, as they announced a downtown Lousiville “brand experience” opening late this summer. Finally, in December they announced their Origin Series, which is a new flagship series of whiskeys of their own juice distilled, aged and bottled at their Bardstown location.

These releases are a big step for Bardstown, a massive contract distilling enterprise which produces over 50 different mashbills for over 30 different brands. They had long been sourcing whiskey for its two main product series (Fusion and Discovery), and now we finally get to taste their own juice under their own label! VP of Product Development, Dan Calloway, rolled through Jack Rose in DC to showcase 5 different Bardstown products to taste. Details of each in the review below!