Barrell Bourbon Batch 025
Photos via Barrell Craft Spirits
By this point, if you’ve been paying attention, you probably have a good idea of what Barrell Craft Spirits is all about. We’ve reviewed some of their regular batches of bourbon and rye in the past, and have also dabbled in the company’s Private Release Whiskey series, which sees unique bourbon blends finished in unconventional barrels that formerly held everything from rum to amaro. Suffice to say, it no longer seems necessary to explain the entire philosophy of this company in an intro.
Suffice to say, Barrell is an independent blender and bottler, gathering American whiskey from all over for each of its unique blends. We have here a sample of the most recent Barrell Bourbon Batch 025, which is unique for the company in one major way in particular—it’s the first of the regular Barrell Bourbon batches to include selections of wheated bourbon. The company describes Batch 025 thusly:
Batch 025 highlights the unique additions that secondary grains contribute to aged bourbon. 13 to 15-year corn-forward bourbons and 5 to 9-year-old wheated bourbons were slowly layered in with a selection of 9-year-old high-rye bourbons, revealing notes from the entire spectrum of available flavors. A portrait of finely tuned blending, Batch 025 is citrusy and peppery, without losing the opulence and oaky ease of the older ingredients.
As ever, the exact sources of each given distillate are not disclosed, although knowledge that they hail from Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana allows you to make some ballpark guesses. This is a combination of 5.5, 9, 13 and 15-year-old bourbons, include both wheated and rye recipe bourbon, bottled in Kentucky at a cask strength of 113.4 proof. Savvy? Then let’s get to tasting, and see how this compares to some of the Barrell batches we’ve had in the past.