Tag: Bourbon whiskey

Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel Number 72

Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel Number 72

Last Christmas, I received an interesting gift from my mother – three unique bottles from the Buffalo Trace ‘Single Oak Project.’  I was intrigued immediately, and the explanation she had printed off to go along with the beautifully wrapped gift explained just how unique this was:

“…It all started with 96 individually selected American oak trees that differed according to the number of growth rings per inch and growing location. Each tree was then cut into two parts – top and bottom – yielding 192 unique tree sections. A single barrel was constructed from each unique section. Prior to construction we varied the stave seasoning times. The 192 barrels were then charred differently. These single oak barrels were then filled with different recipe whiskeys, at various entry proofs and aged in a variety of different warehouse styles.

We believe that this experiment will allow you to directly compare the impact of 7 different critical variables across 192 bottles for a total of 1,396 taste combinations. None of the 192 bottles in the complete set are exactly alike….” (from the Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project website)

After several months of admiring the bottles and project, we finally decided to take one out for a test spin!

Dan's Bourbon of the Week: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel number 72
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel number 72

So what did we find?

My take: The nose said this one was going to have some flavor.  The sweet smells of toffee, caramel and maple syrup meshed with the tangier notes of baking spices, nutmeg, and a slight smell of oak.

The taste was dry and thick, certainly a mouth-coater.  It tasted full bodied, and the taste agreed.  Again, sweet tastes of honey, caramel and toffee mixed with the nutmeg and oak, and I dare say there was a peak of mint in there as well!

With a long, lingering but smooth finish, this was a good glass of whiskey.  So why not a higher rating?  While flavorful, there was nothing truly outstanding about this glass, no real standout characteristic.  I’m very enthusiastic about trying the others though!

Dan scale (1-10): 7.7

Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Four Roses Single Barrel

Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Four Roses Single Barrel

Last month, I received a wonderful birthday gift from my family.  Knowing what a fan of bourbon I was becoming, they purchased my wife and I tickets to a private dinner and bourbon tasting with none other than the Van Winkle family, or Pappy Van Winkle fame.  We trekked down to Kentucky, and made a bourbon day of it – first we visited the Woodford Reserve distillery, pictures of which will be coming shortly.  Then, it was on to Buffalo Trace, where some of the absolute best bourbons – including Pappy Van Winkle, as well as Blanton’s, Eagle Rare and others – are produced.

The dinner was great and the tour fun, but the highlight was sampling the 10, 12, 15, 20 and 23 year old Pappys.  After wards, in a Q&A, I asked Preston Van Winkle a question I was dying to know the answer to: knowing how very very hard (read impossible) it is to get one’s hands on a bottle of PVW, what was his other favorite bourbon? His answer was Four Roses Single Barrel. And so with that, I bought a bottle to try for myself.

Dan's Bourbon of the Week: Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon
Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon

I tasted the bourbon in the way I have seen other connoisseurs on the web do it, as well as that way I had been taught to by the guides at Woodford Reserve.

My take: Very nice. Smooth, hints of clove, mint, nutmeg. Good nose, warmth from the finish. I liked it even better with an ice chip. Jen was particularly fond of it as well.  Spicier than I like, but definitely a treat.

Dan scale (1-10): 8.0