Buffalo Trace Daniel Weller Bourbon Review
Photos via Buffalo Trace
American whiskey geeks may have noticed a seismic tremor roll through the hype sphere a few weeks back, and wondered at its origin. Suffice to say, it was Buffalo Trace of course, announcing the arrival of a new expansion to the famed Weller line of wheated bourbons. With that said, this isn’t another entry in the growing W.L. Weller family tree, or a sister to the annual, cask strength and highly prized William Larue Weller, which is a member of the company’s Antique Collection. Rather, this is Daniel Weller, and it represents the launch of a new biennial (every two years) series of experimental wheated bourbons. Oh, and it carries a $500 MSRP, so buckle up.
Daniel Weller is named for the titular Weller family patriarch, who first brought the clan to Kentucky in 1794. There he quickly began whiskey production, like other Wellers before and since. His grandson? That was W.L. Weller, credited as one of the first to sell “wheated” bourbon in Kentucky. As for this new brand, it was apparently ticketed to become a release in the company’s Experimental Collection series, before being spun off into its own new line, in a newly designed bottle. The inaugural release was distilled on the company’s E.H. Taylor Jr. Microstill, “a combination pot and column still,” has been aged for almost 12 years, and specifically highlights the ancient species known as Emmer wheat, a grain crop that had pivotal importance in feeding the ancient Egyptian empire. The resulting bourbon, a deviation from the famous Buffalo Trace wheated bourbon mash bill, is bottled at 47% ABV (94 proof).
Now, one naturally has to invite the obvious comparison to the 12 year expression of W.L. Weller, which technically still carries an MSRP of $40–I remember buying a bottle in college for my roommate for even less than this, and thinking that I was splurging. A jump to a $500 MSRP is obviously massive, for a whiskey of similar age and proof. It implies that the difference in wheat species alone is worth such a change, which would probably be a hard thing to argue with such a huge price gap. And yet, one can’t really treat W.L. Weller 12 Year as a “$40 bottle” with any seriousness, not after years of rampant inflation and price gouging in the whiskey world. Whether it should or not, W.L. Weller 12 Year is a bottle that goes for $250-300 these days, both on the secondary market and on store shelves, as package store owners are desperate to take advantage of those secondary prices for themselves. With that in mind, the $500 price tag for Daniel Weller draws closer to the harsh reality of where the bourbon world is right now. At the very least, this price has been set high enough that it should greatly reduce the amount of profit to be made trying to resell Daniel Weller on the secondary market.
So, with all that said, let’s actually get into tasting the stuff.