Bulleit Bourbon Single Barrel

Enjoyed at home in rocks glass over small ice. A3BC Barrel pick

Nice!

Barrel 1-E2-01005 Rose City Liquor. Nose is pecan ice pie and rye spice. Palate is mostly chocolatey cherry with some espresso notes which carry into the finish with oak and leather. Excellent stuff!

So good. Spicy at first, but want more!

Barrel No. 1-B3-0584 Picked by North Carolina ABC Open 5 weeks Nose - Rye spices, oolong or light black tea, white grapes, orange peel, honey, medium oak and ethanol. Palate - Light, delicate wildflower honey, hints of orange and grapes, black pepper, allspice, light oak and ethanol. Medium finish with sweet oak, baking spices, honey, and a slightly peppery or minty aftertaste. I don't like the base Bulleit products, so I've avoided purchasing any premium Bulleit offerings for fear they are wildly overpriced for what I'm getting. I think I bought this out of boredom/intrigue, but also because I haven't had a bad store pick yet in NC. Needless to say I am blown away how much better this is than standard Bulleit Bourbon. It is rich and flavorful and maybe at the perfect proof point, without being overly tannic or drying from the high rye content. This obviously resembles Four Roses Single Barrel, but also resembles a 1792 Single Barrel that I had last year and OGD 114. I think this is better than all of those, but is it $15, $20, or $30 better than those three? I don't think so, which is why I dropped it from 4.5 to 4.25. But, if you can find this around $50 I recommend giving it a shot. At $60 you probably won't be mad at yourself, but there are a lot of things around $60 that are amazing. Overall, I'm really impressed with this bottle and now I'm open to trying more Bulleit products.

I’m not a huge fan of Bulleit bourbon. To me it’s always been a less-exciting-tasting version of something like Four Roses or Woodford Reserve. This however should be interesting. It’s a store pick that I’ve been told is likely 12-year-old Four Roses stock. Store Pick: Ernie’s (Lexington, KY USA) Age: 12 years Proof: 104 Barrel: 1-E2-0838 Mashbill: 75% corn, 21% rye, and only 4% malted barley Nickname: Law and Order: Mask Enforcement Unit Nose: think Bulleit but less spicy, less cinnamon. That spearmint spice I often get on Bulleit is in the background here. Some hints of vanilla, leather and molasses. Taste: well-matured, caramel, cream and more oak than is typically found from Bulleit, just a little rye spice which seems to have really mellowed with the extra years of age. Floral notes are definitely there and overall it’s a sweeter palate than regular Bulleit. Finish: short to medium, very little bite at all. Interesting expression. Noses like Bulleit but more candy dessert flavors and not as many floral notes on the taste. I’ll have to come back to this bottle after a few weeks and maybe compare it to an older bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel or even Bulleit 10. EDIT: after a week of the bottle open I tasted this again. Nothing different. For a $70 store pick it’s quite subpar. I have easily had three or four bottles of different Elijah Craig barrel picks for $30 that were better than this. It’s not a bad bourbon and despite the lack of 10+ year barrels in stocks this is not a good value at that price point.

This is really good shit. Big red, light caramel, light vanilla. Lingers in a very refreshing way. It has that intangible quality of putting you in a good place