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private barrel

Showing posts with label private barrel. Show all posts

April 5, 2016

Willett C22D - The Legend of the Wheated Willett

You're A Wizard, Harry

Things that have proved magical in the past:

Really old bourbon
Wheated bourbon
Willett Family Estate bourbon
"Angel barrels" (barrels with very low yields)

Planetary Alignment

The last time all eight planets and the sun were in a straight line was in 561 BC. The next time it's going to happen will be in the year 2,854. Unless we're all downloaded into the matrix by then eating popcorn in cyberspace, I guess I'll have to plan on missing it.

Luckily all our magical bourbon planets did happen to align, and in my own lifetime to boot. Yay! In life you have to take the wins where you can get them. This one comes in the form of a twenty-two year wheated bourbon barrel from Willett Family Estate that only produced ninety-six bottles.

Bing, bang, boom, whoa. Planetary alignment!

Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Bourbon C22D
22 Years, 137.4 Proof (Bottle 70/96)

The whole Willett sourcing scheme is still shrouded in mystery, but the general consensus is that these "C-Barrels" are all wheated bourbon. Every one that I've tried definitely tastes like a wheater, but no one knows 100% for sure. If they tell you they do know for sure and their name isn't Drew Kulsveen then they're lying.

These super old wheaters are only available at the Willett gift shop in Bardstown as well as a very very small distribution in retail stores like NYC's Astor Wines. Around the beginning of last year they were priced in the $250-$325 range. Now the retail prices have climbed up to over $500. Granted that's pretty nuts for a bottle of whiskey (after taxes you're paying $45 a glass!), but in the context of other 20+ year wheated bourbons (Pappy Van Winkle, William Larue Weller) it's not that crazy. But regardless of your feelings on paying $500 for a bottle of liquor, your chances of doing so are pretty low and if you try to pick one up at auction or on the secondary market, expect to pay between $750 and $1k. (and you said "yikes" before!!)

You can see just how dark and chocolaty looking this bourbon is in the glass. That seems to be the trend both with older bourbons and with angel barrels. There's so much influence from the charred oak that the color is almost like opaque root beer. This tends to coincide with massive flavor, both in sweetness from the sugars that are released by charring oak, and in richness from the "cooking down" of the spirit in the cask. With this cask only yielding ninety-six bottles, you have to figure that the original two hundred and forty bottles that fit in the fifty gallon cask have been reduced by about sixty percent!

Tasting Notes

Nose: Man oh man. Tying to put this nose into words is a failed attempt at synesthesia. It's very sweet, salty, and punchy. Uber vanilla, tobacco, leather, bbq sauce, wood for hours, huge chocolate and molasses, baking bread, nutmeg, pine needles, mint, fresh pasta. It's starting to sound silly, I know. I could go on and on. It's so complex there's just a million things going on here. And it's so STRONG! Seriously just a nasal conniption. Super amazingly great.

Palate: I'm one of those anti-water people for almost all my favorite whiskies. For this one, I do recommend a tiny little bit (three eyedropper drops per ounce). Unless you've already been drinking all night and it don't matter! But seriously it's almost one hundred and forty proof, so if this is my first drink of the night I do prefer it with a tiny little bit of agua. The flavor opens up really nicely on the palate with water too. It's so tight and punchy. Wood definitely dominates and I love it, and you get all kinds of caramel, honey, spices, char, cocoa, vanilla, and hot chili peppers.

Finish: Red licorice, brown butter coating your throat, pops of cayenne, chocolate covered pretzels. It's a huge fiery finish, and this is a long finish for a bourbon.

Review

This is definitely no whiskey for beginners, but if you've been drinking cask strength stuff a while it's an absolute dream. You can pour half an ounce and sip on it for half an hour since every little drop packs so much flavor. Should you run out and spend a grand on it? That's your call, but if you see one of these Willett "C"-barrels in a bar you should definitely think about spending a little extra to try it. This one's a real winner and we'll enjoy it to the last drop. After all, who knows if the planets will ever align this perfectly again?

Cheers/SB

March 21, 2016

The Bottle That Does Not Exist - Balcones Texas Single Barrel

"This bottle does not exist," Winston said.

He looked very serious. We stared each other down for a few seconds. Smoke and ice.

"Well then I definitely have to taste it!" I finally responded.

Balcones had just announced yet another round of awards for their craft distillery in Waco, Texas. This time they had taken home four titles in the 2016 World Whiskies Awards including Best American Single Malt for their Texas 1 Single Malt Whisky and World's Best Corn Whisky for their True Blue Cask Strength. Add these to the ridiculous trophy room the Balcones has been putting together and you get a sense of the magic going on down there.

As all the good things in life tend to be, this mystery bottle was not on the menu. In fact it was hiding behind the Balcones booth at WhiskyLive a few weeks ago at Manhattan's Chelsea Piers. I got my coveted taste and eagerly took a sniff.

Balcones Texas Single Barrel Whisky 63.5%

It's no secret that Balcones is SmokyBeast's clear choice for the best American craft distillery. Our favorite of their whiskies will always be the Brimstone with its massive smoked corn flavor. but the Single Malt and True Blue are real standouts in the realm of hand-crafted American spirits.

Balcones is also known for their special, one-off cask experiments. Brimstone Resurrection was a mind-blowing example that we got to review a few years ago. We also got to taste their single malt aged in Resurrection casks, which was awesome as well. Needless to say that I was very excited to taste this new expression.

What Is It?

The Texas Single Barrel is a blend of 51%+ corn, with the remainder being aged single malt. The mixture was blended into a 60 gallon cask and then aged for another 3 years. It's a very interesting combination. A typical bourbon would combine a majority of corn with a second ingredient of rye or wheat and only a very small proportion of malted barley. Single malt is 100% barley. So a combination of almost equal parts corn and barley is unusual. I didn't know what to expect.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Big big big! Just as big as George T. Stagg, but with some other mystery notes. Sassafras? It starts with huge ripe corn, super char flavor, and rain water (? not sure about that last note, it might just be that it was raining during WhiskyLive, but there's a distinct mineral water scent to it).

Palate: Uber-sweet but not cloying. It's got a lot of spice - traditional spices like chili peppers, BBQ sauce, and molasses - but then also some exotic notes like cumin.

Finish: Wow! It's like a monster corn-heavy George T. Stagg. I've definitely never had this full-flavored a whiskey from an American craft distiller before. This is a new class. The finish is flat-out ballsy, with everything you look for in a monster bourbon, but obviously a completely different animal that's very corn-forward and has none of the rye influence of Stagg. Honestly corn whiskey has just never tasted this good. Maybe it's the profile of the corn with the backdrop and smoothness of the malt that's the secret. I don't know, but this may well be the best craft spirit I've ever tasted.

Cheers/SB

March 14, 2016

Willett 11-Year Gift Shop

Going on the assumption that too much Willett can never be enough, here's a quick review of another single barrel bourbon we had sitting around SBHQ.

Yes, sadly you may have noticed this is the last dram of this great bottle. Cask strength 122.7 proof eleven year bourbons tend to find their way out of the bottle pretty quickly at our place and this one went in the blink of any eye.

Nose: A lot of citrus and roast nuts on this one. Candied orange slices, the bags of honeyed pecan nuts that get sold on the streets in the winter months. A whole bunch of saddle leather. Ending in a nice wrapper of oak.

Palate: Mmm really sweet on the palate. Tons of honey / molasses. Then a big wave of heat, both big spirit boldness and also hot spicy chile peppers and pink peppercorns.

Finish: Nice long finish for a bourbon. Big chest warmth, very nice balance of sweet and wood. It's hot, but very well balanced at over 120 proof.

Review

So where are we? Big citrus / leather bomb in the nose, very sweet and spicy palate, and ending up in warmth, wood, and char. This one pretty much has it all! A very, very, dangerously drinkable full-flavored bourbon that really hits the spot in the cold weather months.

Cheers/SB

February 22, 2016

The Whisky Exchange Selection Signatory Laphroaig

TWE

The Whisky Exchange is pretty much heaven for malt heads. They have one of the largest, if not the largest, selection of rare malts of any retail store. If you type "the" into any of the browsers on my phone, laptop, or work computer, www.thewhiskyexchange.com is the first suggested link. Which is basically the Internet telling me "dude, you have a problem".

Both Mr. and Mrs. Beast's birthdays are in June, so if you want to get a head start on shopping, here are some useful links:

Port Ellen Very Old Particular

Talisker 1957

We'll be here holding our breath. Anyway you can see the caliber of stuff that TWE has lying around. They're not cheap, as a matter of fact they tend to sit at the top of the market, but they've earned it. There's just about no other place in the world where you can shop for this kind of stuff!

Exclusive Bottlings

TWE also partners with both distilleries and independent bottlers to release TWE Exclusive single barrel picks. One of their favorites is to pick Signatory Cask Strength selections. If you know SmokyBeast, you know we're nuts for Signatory Cask Strength. They tend to pick monster bottles, serve them up with no coloring or chill-filtration, and (obviously by the name) at cask strength. You can rarely go wrong with the cask selections, they're usually some of the best reflections of each distillery. And the stunning presentation of their decanter bottles only heightens the effect for the whisky collector.

TWE Signatory Bottlings (Photo from TWE Blog)

So we've got two aces - Signatory and TWE coming together to release a private barrel. What could put us over the top here? Well of course choosing a nice old Laphroaig, and aging it in a sherry cask no less. This bottle was a total no-brainer for us.

We closed our eyes as we clicked the little currency conversion button and watched the dollar sign pop up. Some things can't be helped. Add to cart. Be smart, buy two. Checkout before we get cold feet. Anxiously await arrival of box. Tear open. Share with friends. Something like that...

TWE Signatory Laphroaig 16 Year (Refill Sherry Butt)

Distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2015, this whopper of a 59.9% malt whisky spent its entire sixteen years in a sherry barrel, giving it a beautiful color.

Needless to say we were very excited to pop this puppy open. Jake joined us for a tasting to see what all the fuss was about. Somehow we guessed that we wouldn't be disappointed.

Tasting Notes (Beast)

Nose: It's got that very distinctive Laphroaig nose. Sort of like soaking cigar ash in salt water. You singe a few nose hairs on the way in. But quickly the big sweetness of the sherry kicks in and you're off to the races. Beautiful balance of peat and stone fruits, seaside barbecue and fruity jam. There's a medicinal undertone here of phenol and deeper herbals (sage, peppercorn, rock salt) cut with some bitter cherries and baking spice.

Palate: Nice oily mouthfeel, very smooth with the sweetness counterbalancing the smoke for a lovely drink. Almost an uncanny drinkability for almost 120 proof.

Finish: More like weeks than days on this one. The power of the ABV and the peat make this one to remember. Super strong smoke just lingers in your nose and throat for hours with the sweetness gradually dying off and leaving you with a perfect winter jacket.

Tasting Notes (Jake)

First of all Signatory Laphroaig hand picked by The Whisky Exchange? Are you kidding!? Any one of those names alone is a reputable source and deliverer of delicious drams. But all three collaborated on this one? My mouth started watering even the first time @smokybeast told me about this bottle. The Beast just wouldn't shut up about this bottle and from the moment he pulled the top of the other night (the bottles top, not his) I could tell exactly why. In general, Laphroaig is usually my least favorite if Islay malts. Never find myself thinking "I'm really in the mood for some Laphroaig right now", but this pour is absolutely one of the tastiest Islay malts I've come across.

Nose: Smoky as hell, fruity all the way through. It's like a bacon wrapped fig that was charred over a campfire, drizzled with olive oil and topped with fresh cracked black pepper.

Palate: De Lish! Oily as a jersey shore tanning bed and as dry as British "humour"..

Finish: And it just doesn't fade! I had this almost a week ago and I swear I can still taste a little smoke when I burp. Which I don't often because I'm a gentleman. This was a fantastic malt that will make it hard to enjoy my peaty section at home because this just towers over them all.

Review

This bottle is a slam dunk. While not cheap (one hundred pounds before you get into shipping / customs which can get expensive), it's super hard to find a 100% sherry cask Laphroaig these days. While some of the current Laphroaig releases contain sherry maturation (finishing and/or blending), they're really not in this league. This is definitely not a malt for beginners - you need to be way into the peat and cask strength spectrum of whisky drinking. That being said, for us this was a seriously amazing dram. Cheers to TWE for another great pick and keep up the noble work. /SB

November 13, 2015

Smooth Ambler Limited Edition Single Barrel 10 Year Rye!!!

Ok, spoiler alert, this is the start of several seriously drool-worthy weeks of whiskey reviews. Come on, we're getting into holiday season here, what else would you expect from your faithful beasts?? Getting right into the fun, we want to start things off with something that we're totally out of our seat bonkers to taste.

So if you've been following along, you'll know that we bought a barrel of rye from Smooth Ambler this year. And it was awesome. Seriously not to toot our own horn (trigger massive hip-hop DJ-style air horn) since we had nothing to do with the whiskey except tasting and buying it, but it really rocked. We were thrilled.

Then there was some bad news. Smooth Ambler was discontinuing the single barrel rye program (bourbons are still on the truck) and from now on single barrel ryes would only be available as very limited releases from the gift shop at the distillery. The first bottle dropped last month and was sold out in a matter of hours. Really sad news, considering how awesome some of these rye barrels tasted.

Then we got a call from one of SmokyBeast's most incredible patron saints (we'll leave his name out to prevent the maelstrom of texts and Facebook messages he would no doubt receive asking for similar treatment). He had a friend who'd been in line at Smooth Ambler and had scored us a bottle! To quote Bruno Mars "Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)! Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)!!!"

So without further ado, the first release of Smooth Ambler Limited Edition 10-Year Single Barrel Rye!

Tasting Notes

Nose: Holy piny mint forest. This is a really interesting crisp spicy mint. It's not a rich, back of the throat vanilla / baking spice smell, it's more of an upfront snappy wood, mint, and orange peels type of thing.

Palate: Wow very balanced, so light for the monster 124.4 proof, with some real complexity here that you don't often get from an MGP(i) whiskey. There's a ton more orange / citrus going on, moving from the mint in the nose to some black pepper and cinnamon.

Review

Clearly a barrel pick from someone (John Little) who's tasted his share of barrels. Make that his share, your share, my share, and then some. It's a really nice bottle with a great mix of lightness, spice, mint, wood, and sweets. Bravo for the first gift shop bottle. Hoping to get our chance to taste future releases!

Stay tuned next week for a serious hum-dinger in the single malt department (think Islay, think our favorite living distillery, think extremely limited release, think gettin' funky!).

Cheers/SB

October 12, 2015

NASA Liquor Smooth Ambler Single Barrel #1409

Ok, Ok...

We're a little obsessed with these Smooth Ambler private barrels. Are y'all tired of hearing about them? Let us know and we will cease and desist. Otherwise, as you can tell from the photo, we've got like three more to review we haven't even opened yet, including the brand new 10-year single barrel rye that you could only at the distillery in the eight hours it took to sell out. Damn, this is getting silly.

Anyway batter up this private barrel bourbon from NASA Liquors.

Their last bottle was pretty stellar. If you don't feel like reading the whole review (or to refresh your memory) here was our first note:

Wicked crisp punchy bourbon with a lot of hay and cinnamon in the nose, nice uppercut of charred oak, and a little backdrop of chocolate covered peanuts.

So here we go, aw yeah, Alex Le and the rest of our boys down in Houston at NASA Liquor are at it again with another Smooth Ambler Single Barrel Bourbon. This time it's Barrel #1409, a 9-Year bourbon coming in at 53.3% ABV. This one is a lower proof than the last monster 119.8 proofer. Can it hold up in the flavor department?

Tasting Notes

Nose: Smells pretty fuckin' good. Big vanilla, cinnamon, raw pipe tobacco, leather polish, lemongrass. It's rich, it's spicy, it's sweet, very nice.

Palate: Awesome baking spice mashup. Brown butter, lemon pound cake, hints of mint.

Finish: Really balanced. Sweet, spicy, rich and smooth. This is a badass mofo.

Review

Now, for an ounce of sanity, we're not saying this is a 95-point whiskey that's on par with some 20 year Stitzel-Weller trophy bottle. It's not. And it's not trying to be. What this bottle is is a totally fantastic everyday drinker. Will it crush Pappy Van Winkle 20-year? No. Will it crush just about any bottle you can find on the shelf of a liquor store today, including many that are double the price? Yes. Yes it will.

Is it just perception? How can Smooth Ambler be this good, when we know it's just the same mass produced Indiana whiskey you get in every bottle on the shelf? Well, undoubtedly it's the taste of really good pickers like NASA who get the chance to go through many different barrels and pick the winner. And it's the no-fuss-no-muss production technique of John Little cranking this stuff out at cask strength without chill-filtration or other common mass production tactics.

In any case, this bottle is a treat. Should we compare it to the first NASA release? That one was really special and had a little more chocolate sauce to it than this one. Maybe we give the first bottle the slight edge. But this one definitely does not disappoint and you're pretty psyched if you're drinking either of these. (Or their 4 Roses pick for that matter!).

Cheers Alex & everyone at NASA, keep up the great work. /SB

October 2, 2015

This bottle of whiskey comes with a free kick in the nuts from John Little - (Review SFWTC SAOS 10-Year Bourbon)

SFWTC

If you're in the Bay Area and you like whiskey, chances are you've heard of San Francisco Wine Trading Company. If you haven't, go. Now. It's got the best selection for miles in every direction. They also choose some awesome private bottles. We loved their Willett private barrels from a couple of years back. Now they're part of the Smooth Ambler Old Scout barreling program, and you know we're kind of into that (read: OBSESSED).

More SAOS please!

Fred Tocchini heads up the spirits operation at SFWTC and needless to say when he asked us if we could review his new SAOS pick, we were more than happy to oblige. This one is a 10-Year Bourbon, coming in at 104.8 proof. That's actually pretty low for the single barrels that Ambler's been putting out.

Just to recap why we love Smooth Ambler, they put out these bottles uncut and with the most minimal amount of filtering. It's MGP/LDI sauce, so in theory it shouldn't be that different from many of the off-the-shelf bourbons you can pick up in the store. Then again, it's not that easy to find a 10-year age-stated, single barrel, cask strength bourbon these days. Add the cask selection from a palate like Fred's and we suspected we might be pleasantly surprised.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Creamy lemon sherbet, rose petals, potpourri. A little sweet corn and bubble gum. Wait, HUH? We thought SAOS barrel picks all had a high-rye mashbill. This noses just like a Four Roses OESO barrel: sweet, creamy high-corn, low-rye recipe. What gives?

SmokyBeast: Hey Fred, what was the mashbill on this bottle again?
Fred: 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% malt.
SB: Really?
Fred: Yup.
SB: Huh.

Palate: Wicked smooth, a little malty, very little spice. Some char comes out and a little punch from the full-test spirit. But overall we're still in this high corn mode here without the massive spice we get from most of these SAOS bourbons.

Finish: We're back in this citrus ice cream thing, like a lemon cookie / vanilla ice cream sandwich. Extremely smooth and round, amazing palatable at full strength with no irrigation.

Verification

Ok this is weird. Is it possible, however unlikely that Fred got the recipe wrong? We knew that SA did bottle some low-rye barrels in the past. Just for the hell of it, we figured we'd trust yet verify.

SmokyBeast: Hey John. Was curious if you could tell me the mashbill on this bottle: San Fran Wine Trading Company SOAS 10-Year Bourbon, Barrel #1182?
JohnLittle: 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% malt.
SB: Wow, could have sworn it was a low-rye thnx!
JL: No problem. is it good?
SB: Yeah it's very good, but super mellow, tastes like a 4R OExx bottle, very light and creamy.
JL: Nice. Sounds delicious.
SB: Yeah, indeed. But we have come to love the big spicy ball-kickers you've been putting out.
JL: I can come kick you in the balls while you are drinking it.

And there you go. So for a limited time, John has agreed to provide a free kick in the nuts with every bottle. Get it while it lasts.

Swimming

Just for kicks, we thought we'd try this one with some water and see how it swims. What's really interesting is that with a teaspoon of water, the spice really opens up. The citrus and cream are still there but more of the richness comes out and we get some of that good baking spice that was missing neat.

Review

Seriously though this is a delicious bottle and very unusual for a cask strength high-rye bourbon. If you get the chance to try it, jump on it, and add a little water to see if you have the same experience we did. Thanks Fred and John for pairing up on another winner.

Cheers/SB

August 7, 2015

Four Roses Private Barrels Part 3: Bourbon Crusaders

For the finale of our Four Roses private barrel selection week, we've got an interesting pick from the "Bourbon Crusaders" an anonymous collective of whiskey enthusiasts hailing from Kentucky, who seem to have some deep connections to the local distilleries. Does this insider knowledge allow them to list "and Jim Rutledge" (Four Roses recently retired Master Distiller) on their label? Does it score them one of the older barrels in the private barrel program at just shy of twelve years? We don't know, but it's a compelling label to be sure.

Nose: Juicy Fruit gum. It's definitely not spicy, but it's not mellow either. There's a lot of upfront sweet fruity fruit punch type stuff going on here. It's sugary in its sweetness, dried apricots floating in honey.

Palate: Four Roses really makes some highly drinkable bourbon, you can't argue with that. Three bottles all up over 107 proof and all with little burn neat. With water some more vegetal / herbal things come out like fresh thyme and oregano, and some anise / black licorice. Middle-weight mouthfeel and well rounded approachable palate.

Finish: Really nice balance of honey, mint, and spice on the finish here.

Review

What an enjoyable week tasting these awesome Four Roses private barrels. Once again each barrel was so unique and showcased completely different aspects of what makes Four Roses such a diverse and deep brand. The Crusaders bottle was a very nice balance between fruit and spice, bold and distinctive, yet not at all overpowering and going down so easily at cask strength.

Who are these crusaders & why does bourbon need to be crusaded for? We may never know, but they have good snouts for bourbon that's for sure.

Have you tried any local Four Roses barrel picks? Where were they from and how were they? There are so many of these awesome bottles floating around, please share your notes in the comments!

Cheers/SB

August 5, 2015

Four Roses Private Barrels Part Two

Moving on in our Four Roses private barrel goodness, today we've got this beauty.

Wine on 59 - Four Roses Barrel HW 32-4 D
OBSF Barreled on July 30, 2003 Bottled on June 16th, 2014

Nose: "Red Hots candies swimming in a mint julep!" Well this is the opposite of the last bottle. A very sharp nose with a lot of cinnamon - like cracking a handful of cinnamon sticks in half at once. Then there's the frontal spiciness, not the deep chipotle type of spicy, but an upfront dry cayenne pepper spicy. The mint tastes deeply muddled and hides behind all the sweet and spice. (with water) With water the mint comes to the fore, and some lovely richness and char make an appearance.

Palate: For such a bold nose, we get a very drinkable palate which is remarkably smooth for the monster proof on this one. Another dangerous drinker here. (with water) We liked what water did to the nose so much that we paid the most attention with about a teaspoon of water in a one ounce glass. There's more mint and a nice molasses bbq sauce thing going on on the tongue.

Finish: Lovely finish here, again just wicked smooth watered down to maybe 110 proof and warm leaving more baking spices (cinnamon, brown sugar, fluffy eggs & flour) some nice spicy heat and staying solidly minty.

Review

We definitely went back for another pour of this one, adding a little dollop of water right out of the gate, and letting the glass open up in the water and air while we sliced up a fresh juicy summer peach to accompany it. (Peaches and bourbon go amazingly well together if you haven't tried this!) It's a great whiskey balancing spice and heat and smoothness. This is a mighty enjoyable bottle, a very pleasant surprise coming from a local store with great taste in barrels. Nice job.

On Friday we conclude our 4R Private Barrel serious with the mysterious "Bourbon Crusaders" pick.

Cheers/SB

August 3, 2015

War of the Roses - Private Barrel Edition!

You're like totally uncool if you don't have your own barrel of whiskey these days. All the hipsters in Billyburg have their whiskey barrels strapped to their backs as they ride around trying not to get their enormous beards stuck in the spokes of their fixie bikes.

We've been tooting our own horn on our stellar barrel of Smooth Ambler all week. We're sure you're ready to puke if you have to read one more review of it. That's ok, we're done. But since private barrels are just so the rage right now, we're going to bust out some of our friends' private barrels and have a taste of those. As you know, we're big nuts for Four Roses, so this week we present...

War of the Roses Part Three, The Private Barrels

If you read our second War of the Roses, we explained that Four Roses creates ten distinct recipes that they blend together to produce their small batch bourbons. Half the recipes, labelled "OB", are "high rye" with 60% corn, 35% rye, 5% malted barley. The other half are "high corn" "OE" barrels with 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% malted barley. In theory the high corn "OE" barrels should be sweeter and mellower, and the high rye "OB" barrels should be spicier. The two mashbills become ten different recipes because of the five different types of yeast they use at Four Roses, "F, K, O, Q, and V". These all have different characteristics from fruity to minty to herbal to creamy.

Choosing a Four Roses barrel seems like it's all kinds of fun since you can get familiar with these different recipes, and then taste several examples of that specific recipe across different barrels until you find your favorite. The Four Roses barrel program is prolific, and so you can find a lot of these private barrel picks around the country. When you do it's hard to go wrong picking one up. They're cask strength, come in at a pretty reasonable ~$60 price point, and are usually very high quality. Pick them up while you can before this whole thing goes crazy too!

The three barrel picks we're tasting this week come from:

Nasa Liquors, who recently treated us to an awesome SAOS choice, bottled a 10 year 2 month OESF at 55.5%. Wine on 59, a local New York State store that's had a huge run of great barrels, chose an 10 year 11 month OBSF, coming in at a chest-hairy 61.4%. And finally the mysterious and anonymous "Bourbon Crusaders" (with a little help from Four Roses Master Distiller Jim Rutledge) who come to the table with a promising 11 year 9 month OESK barrel 54.3%.

Without further ado, our first bottle...

Nose: Wow this is an extremely mellow nose for 111 proof hooch. You can really put your nose into the glass and there's only the tiniest bit of burn. If you've ever had Mario Batali's olive oil gelato, this is pretty close. It's super creamy and vegetal with thick sweet milkiness dominating and little pops of mint, rosemary, and sour apples hiding around the corners.

Palate: The palate remains incredibly smooth and moves in a more citrus direction, very much like lemon sorbet. Adding some water removes even the small amount of burn that might have been there originally.

Finish: Really this bottle is pure smoothness. Dangerously so. It's definitely not a spice or vanilla monster like some of the high rye bottles we love, but it gets you in a completely different direction. You could drink a whole glass of this neat, and the only way you'd know it was a cask strength bourbon would be from the warmth that comes up from your chest a minute after you finish the glass.

Review: Be careful drinking this one because it might be easy to go through a few glasses and end up on your ass without knowing what you're doing. It's not a flavor bomb but it's very delicate and well put together. Think of this as sort of like the white wine drinker's bourbon. Very smooth, light bodied and sweet with some nice little pops of fruit and herbals. Nice job as usual Nasa!

Tune in Wednesday for bottle #2! Cheers/SB

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