HIRSCH DOUBLE OAKED BOURBON
Single Barrel AHH0624 selected by Healthy Spirits (2024)MASH BILL – 72% corn, 13% rye, 15% malted barley
PROOF – 111.8
AGE – 10 years
DISTILLERY – Hotaling & Co (sourcing from Willett)
PRICE – $114 (discounted from $163)
WORTH BUYING? – Yep!
There’s a curious phenomenon that happens from time to time in American whiskey, whereby a product with specs normally priced at one level suddenly shows up at a significantly other level. This tends to happen in variations of two ways:
One is when a major distiller that regularly puts out single barrels of one of their brands momentarily releases several barrels at an unusually high age, yet keeps the usual price. This happened with Jim Beam’s Knob Creek SiB line around 2020, when quite a number of 15-year barrels started popping up as store picks, all at 120 proof and for $55 on average. Coincidentally or not, around that same time Beam released their Knob Creek 15 Year, a limited edition bottled at 100 proof and priced at $120. Were the SiBs rejects from the official 15 Year release? I really didn’t care about the reason. Great high-proof, well-aged bourbon for $55. I was able to gather five bottles over the course of a year or so, without too much effort. It was a magical time in bourbon!
The other scenario is when a clutch of non-distiller producers (NDPs) suddenly come out with a very similar product, sharing the same mash bill distilled in the same state and aged a similar or same number of years. Contractual obligations typically forbid the NDP from disclosing the distillery. This happened in 2020, for example, when bourbon geeks noticed the sudden ubiquity of 15-year Kentucky bourbons sporting the odd mash bill of 78.5% corn, 13% rye, 8.5% malted barley. Doc Swinson’s was one NDP that jumped on some barrels of this stuff, widely thought to be from Jim Beam. Was it some experimental mash bill Beam had been contracted to make and the deal fell through? Nobody will ever know. But the bourbon was good. It also cost much more than either Beam’s own afore-mentioned Knob Creek 15 Year Limited Edition or their spat of 15-year SiBs. So this scenario is not always a win for consumers.
However ☞ the Bourbon Boom has begun to reverberate differently lately. With so much whiskey being produced now, excess product is piling up. And whether for that or other reasons, San Francisco’s Hotaling & Co got their hands on some excellent 10-year bourbon from Willett, and put it out under their Hirsch label in a series of single barrels released as store picks.
They can’t say it’s Willett. But they can reveal the mash bill, which in turn reveals to any bourbon geek the source. So, consumers could buy a 10-year SiB bourbon from Willett itself, for $600 on a good day. Or for a fraction of that price they could buy one of these Hirsch releases, which has the added benefit of having been “double oaked,” meaning it was given some extra finishing time in a second barrel. Seems like a no-brainer to me!
The risk and the fun of single barrel releases is their very singularity. Sometimes they outshine the standard blended release of the given product, emphasizing particular aromas and flavors. Sometimes they pale by comparison to the standard, featuring unpleasant off-notes that would have dissipated in a larger blend. Over time you learn which NDPs and stores tend to pick barrels you like, and hone in on those. The Hirsch line has been sourcing and blending bourbons for some years now with good success, so, they have my trust. And that trust has been fully rewarded by the current bottle on the table.
Let’s give it a sip. As you can see I’ve had many sips already. Here we are, nearing seven weeks after uncorking and almost two-thirds of the way into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – gorgeous glowing reds and oranges with brass highlights
NOSE – baking spices blending with a bushel of rye spices, malt, chocolate, baked wheat crackers and fresh bread crust, black pepper, a hint of cherry and prune (like in a prune cake) emerging over time, some vanilla and caramel like an accent on the drier notes
TASTE – the caramel and chocolate lean forward here, backed up by the spice and bakery notes, the black pepper and oak, faint dark prune cake
FINISH – oak, chocolatey caramel, black pepper, toasted rye spice, that faint dark prune cake
OVERALL – a compelling balance of dry and dessert qualities that keeps me reaching for the glass
This is the kind of pour that slows me down. That balance of dry and desserty really pulls me in. As I continue to sip, those dark prune notes are gradually growing more prominent, blending beautifully with the chocolate. This is not a bourbon I can drink mindlessly. It’s mindful bourbon!
Give me a cozy chair and fire in the hearth at midnight. Give me a wooden picnic table near a campfire on a chilly night, wrap me in a soft wool blanket and pour me a glass of this. Owls will hoot from their roost in the nearby trees, curious about what I’m thinking. But all I’ll be thinking about is how cozy this bourbon is.
The last actual Willett bourbon I had was a single barrel aged six years and bottled at 129.6 proof. It shared this bottle’s chocolate and caramel emphasis, in brighter and sweeter variations. Here the age and double-barreling add much more oak and baked bread and cake notes, the dry to the candy’s sweet, the dark to the bright. The lower proof here is still warm enough to bring some heat, without stinging like that 129.6-proofer could do when not approached with caution. For this Hirsch bottling, balance is the word I keep coming back to.
Who knows for how long or often Hirsch will be able to get its hands on these well-aged, well cared for Willett barrels. But with the Bourbon Boom seemingly hurtling over time toward a bust like some meteor in a Hollywood disaster film, I am hopeful this won’t be the last.
And if it’s not Hirsch and Willett, it will be So & So and Such & Such. This sourcing scenario may mean a rattling ride for some distilleries as they navigate the market they’ve helped to flood. But it might also mean a lot of smooth sipping for those whiskey fans who go down the rabbit hole to find out what’s inside the latest NDP release.
Cheers!
The Right Spirit 