John J Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon

I picked up this John J Bowman after reading that this is Buffalo Trace distillate, distilled once (or twice, the stories vary) at Buffalo Trace before being shipped to Bowman in Virginia who distills it once more and then ages it about 10 years in upright barrels, which I've never heard of before. It's also a single barrel and bottled at 100 proof - basically bottled in bond, at least by ABV and age. There is a dispute over whether this is Mash Bill #1 low rye (Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, EH Taylor), Mash Bill #2 (Blantons, Rock Hill Farms) or even a mixture of the two. To me, it's clearly Mash Bill #1, but my only qualification as a bourbon expert is that I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night. So this sounds like triple distilled, slightly older EH Taylor Single Barrel to me - what's not to like? I didn't want to get my hopes up too far that a $50 bottle I'd never heard of was as good or better than Blantons or EH Taylor. But it exceeded my expectations. It's Buffalo Trace through and through, and it may be better than others I've tried. The nose is full on caramel apple - just great. There is also a hefty dose of oak and a little bit of spice and dark fruit - cherry. The palate goes straight towards spice and cherry pie. Very sweet and delicious. Finish is extremely cherry heavy, almost too much - but I'm not sure there is something too cherry-heavy for me. I love it. The tiniest bit of spice, but I have a hard time believing this is Buffalo Trace's high rye Mash Bill #2. I swear that Eagle Rare has the same rye tingle if you chew. It's not much, but it's there and nice. Then again, I've only had Blantons on the Mash Bill #2 side and it's not exactly spicy. So who knows? Seems to me to be very similar to the EH Taylor although this Bowman has heavier fruit/caramel flavors and less toffee/floral flavors. I will have to compare this to EH Taylor, Blantons and Eagle Rare as well in blind tastings, but I'm confident this will do well thanks to the slightly higher proof. I'm really happy with this one - I don't have to close my eyes and imagine that the delicious BT flavor profile is available all day for $50 at my local store. It's simply a matter of where this end up in a blind tasting and how much of it I decide to buy in case this becomes the next tater bottle. Love it!

Nose: very fruit forward. Get some caramel on the second go but it smells wonderful! Palate: very very sweet. Lots of dark fruit and it’s very thick. Finish: a little spice to finish but nothing crazy. Medium to long finish. Overall: it’s like someone took Blanton’s and added a bit of sugar to it. This bourbon is very very sweet. I’d say $50 is about right for this but I wouldn’t rush to get a back up.

Delicious, same #1 mash bill as Buffalo Trace (E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare). Owned by Sazerac, and based out of Virginia. Not a bad price @ $50.

Smooth gives to sweet and then herbal rye ethanol after

Sweet finish is mild spice

I’d put it up against Blanton’s, good stuff. Another “smooth operator”.