Albert Bacon Blanton started working at the Old Fire Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery at the age of sixteen. He started as an office boy in 1897 and rose to distillery manager in 1912 until he retired in 1955. Master Distiller Elmer T Lee developed the “Original Single Barrel” bourbon and named it in honor of his former boss in 1984. Blanton’s comes from Buffalo Trace’s mash bill #2 with the higher rye content of 12-15% rye, corn and barley. It enters the #4 char white oak casks at 125 proof, ages for 6-8 years in metal-cladded Warehouse “H” then bottled at 93 proof. Each beautiful bottle is hand lettered with distilling date, barrel date, and other details. The stoppers feature eight Kentucky Thoroughbred horses and a letter, which spell BLANTONS, and when lined up in that order depict eight different moments from the beginning to end of a horse race. Since it is a single barrel bourbon, the taste varies from bottle to bottle. Blanton’s has a deep warm caramel color. The nose is soft and sweet with bourbon spice, vanilla and caramel, but fades into toffee, chocolate and orange. The palate is full and soft and sweet with caramel, cloves, peanuts, vanilla and citrus. There are also hints of mint, creamed corn and peppery rye spice. The medium finish trails with nutmeg, caramel and corn with a hint of spice. It is an excellent bourbon that is beautifully bottled and quite a challenge to find