Skymecca
John J Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon
Bourbon — Virginia, USA
Reviewed
November 13, 2020 (edited January 11, 2021)
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!
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So I did a blind tasting of Col. E.H. Taylor Small Batch, John J . Bowman and Blantons Original. There was not a crystal clear winner and they all share very similar DNA. My wife picked the Blantons but liked all three. I also liked all three but confused Bowman with Blantons. My favorite was probably the Taylor because it had the highest marks from nose to finish. But each of them excelled at something different and it was very close. I will note a few interesting distinguishing features between them. Taylor has the strongest nose which really stood out for me. However, there was more ethanol on it than the others. Bowman's nose was much softer than the others, even the Blantons which is why I confused them. As it opened up though it became wonderful - that caramel apple note. Blantons had a heavy caramel and vanilla nose which was also excellent. Palate through finish, EH Taylor was "bourbony", which for me means lots of caramel and toffee but little fruit. It was weaker than the other two in this respect. The Bowman had an awesome palate and finish with dark fruit everywhere. If the nose was stronger from the start it would have won hands down. Blantons was solid all the way through and had a strong cherry finish, another reason I confused it with Bowman. The Blantons really surprised me - I was ready to write it off as an overpriced tater nothing burger. But what can you say? It's solid and hard to find. Damn. The takeaway from this mess of a comment: Bowman is actually more similar to Blantons than Taylor for me, which is good because I can actually find Taylor from time to time. And all three are really good. Which speaks well for the Bowman.
Stopped (not really) at caramel apple pie. Enough said. Nice review.
Great review and one of my favorites. Hard to beat at it price but availability is spotty here. Sixx of us did a blind on this with AAA, Blantons, Hancocks, ETL and RHF. No clear winner but we were sure of the heritage. Bowman Bros is really good for a bit less. AAA no longer available and my personal favorite Rock Hill is just plain impossible.
That's for sure @Skymecca . All three of those are frustratingly scare nowadays. Looking forward to seeing your blind SBS outcome :)
@ContemplativeFox I’m going to do a big blind of this against Taylor, Blantons and Eagle Rare but I suspect it will do quite well, contesting Taylor for the top. But it’s always possible that this happens to be a particularly good barrel. I sure hope it isn’t an outlier because trying to find Taylor and the like is just annoying at this point.
You must know a lot more than I do @Ctrexman because I stayed at home. (That Holiday Inn line nearly killed me BTW lol)
Very interesting. Your tasting makes it sound great - and nothing like the bottle I tried! Mine was spicy and tannic. Just goes to show how much SiBs can vary.
Excellent review, sounds great......that said I only stayed at a Days in last night so what do I know