Barrell Craft Spirits

[TheWM]

Akin to the Swedish post that came up - I’m on holiday in Florida for a few weeks. I wanted to try something that I couldn’t get in England. I’ve been wanting to try something from BCS for some time as the premise sounds excellent - grab some high quality bourbon, blend and cask. In fact I’m not exactly sure why more indies do it (or perhaps I’m just not aware).

Anyway - it’s been difficult sourcing anything from BCS but I stumbled across a private release from ‘Total Wine & More’ which is an incredible warehouse of booze if you’re not familiar. The name of the release is “Cinnamon Roll Sunday”.

I’m happy to say that my expectations have been more than met. Like any good indie they tell you what you’re getting, in this case all straight bourbon:

40% 5 yr
30% 7yr
15% 10yr
15% 17yr

All matured in the US with the whisky coming from Tennessee, Kentucky and Indianapolis - so ‘tropical’ aging, so the 5 year will be the equivalent of a 10-12 year old scotch. Price was £70 and that is with a very poor FX rate.

This is hands down the best bourbon I have ever tasted and it’s a blend. I bought a single barrel Elijah Craig and Evan Williams to have alongside and whilst they were admittedly cheaper - they tasted like water in comparison.

Reducing the BCS from cs back to a 40ish % doesn’t help it, which whilst I can’t really offer a whisky comparison of high strength blended whisky, it falls a bit flatter and is really enjoyable at the 58.6% and actually the older elements in there would be similar in maturation to a 30+ yr old whisky, these don’t take water well either.

I’m aware that I haven’t offered many tasting notes here I’ll try and get some up - but think of a grown up whiskey that has minimal vanilla and pushes hard on cinnamon with spicy rye notes. Buttery, slight salted caramel, pecans, peanut butter, green peppercorns, and bread and butter pudding soaked in some calvados.

Totally recommended.