BARRELL BOURBON
Batch 25 (2020)MASH BILL – unstated blend of Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee bourbons; including the first wheated bourbon used in a Barrell blend
PROOF – 113.4
AGE – blend of 5.5, 9, 13, and 15 year bourbons
DISTILLERY – Barrell Craft Spirits (sourcing)
PRICE – $87
WORTH BUYING? – Yes
When he tasted it in 2020, Fred Minnick declared Barrell Bourbon Batch 25 a contender for the best American whiskey of that year. It was the first Barrell Bourbon release ever to make use of wheated bourbon. Was that the magic ingredient? Having at that time recently quite enjoyed Batch 19, I went ahead and picked up a bottle of 25.
Despite Minnick’s recommendation, I don’t recall a buying frenzy around this bottle. It was still the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a lot of whiskey fans were Buying In Place like mad. But I didn’t have trouble getting a bottle of Barrell Batch 25.
Time ticked by and whenever I’d rustle amongst my bunkered stash I’d see that Batch 25 sitting there toward the back. Somehow I never felt compelled to crack it. Why not? A simple matter of so much whiskey only so many days in a week and you can’t drink on all of ’em. 🤷🏼♂️ Even during a global pandemic!
Finally, one recent late night, in the mood for something not among the usual suspects, I remembered this one and dug into the back of the bunker. There it stood, dusted with time. I popped it open and poured a good amount into a glass. Was it worth the wait?
Here we are, nine days after uncorking and roughly a third of the way into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – pale and medium dusty oranges
NOSE – big marmalade aromas right up front, with a sweet and tangy caramel, ripe apricot, subtle baking spices and oak
TASTE – the baking spices pop amidst the marmalade, orange and grapefruit zest, dry sunlit oak
FINISH – orange and grapefruit peel, stewed apricot, oak and oak tannin, finely ground black pepper, a soft peppery tingle from the heat
OVERALL – That wonderful marmalade is the main event, outlined with nice oak and baking spices
A contender for best of that year? I really don’t know. But I do know that in just over a week I’ve gone through quite a lot of this bottle already! And I’m enjoying today’s pour as much as any prior, so, it’s withstanding the test of time-of-day and post-whatever-meal.
The main attraction for me is that fruity and citric marmalade note, which dominates the experience from nose to finish. Assuming the Tennessee whiskey involved is George Dickel, that recognizable Dickel baking spice note—derided by many as Flintstone vitamins—is kept in check by the MGP (Indiana) and whatever Kentucky bourbons are in the mix.
The younger whiskeys offer bright sweetness, their youthful exuberance contained by the older whiskey’s solid oak outline. And something in the blend is providing a subtler but grounding caramel note that binds everything together. Brashness and balance cooperate very well here.
This bottle does make a good argument for a particular kind of bunkering. A whiskey that is declared exceptional can taste even more so some years down the line, once the hullabaloo has long since passed. It’s purely psychological, of course. But there is something special about sipping a whiskey, not when everyone else is also drinking and YouTubing and Instagramming and blogging about it, but on a quiet dark night. Or alongside a chilly autumn sunset. Or a mid-afternoon on a random weekday off from work. Free from the noise.
Sipping this 2020 Barrell Batch 25 in 2024 hits the spot.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 