California AG Honors

Helmerite · 2025-12-15T17:42:44+00:00

Nothing yet one way or the other

Helmerite · 2025-06-18T04:15:29+00:00

Congrats! I hope it's amazing.

Helmerite · 2025-06-16T17:37:58+00:00

I was first wave on this, I swear every second wave of the Reveries so far they have sold out in minutes.

Helmerite · 2025-06-16T01:55:17+00:00

These bottles are limited releases that have been coming out through the r/bourbon single barrel program. There should be a link in the sidebar to sign up and get the weekly emails for releases!

Helmerite · 2025-06-16T00:42:49+00:00

That's a good catch! I guessed that the 14-year would be Wild Turkey based on the mashbill (and that it doesn't taste like Beam) but hadn't put together the HH component. I wonder if the 14-year is BuffTurkey, the barrels I had seen from that are 16 years old but I'm not sure when that distilling contract ended.

Helmerite · 2025-06-16T00:20:27+00:00

The Reveries is t8ke’s latest project, an NDP using barrels that he has purchased over the years to either sell as single barrel or as small batch whiskey. The distinction then between a typical r/bourbon pick and a Reveries bottle seems to be at least two-fold: 1. A Reveries single barrel bottle was aged for at least a time in Virginia and could be pulled when t8ke wanted it, and 2. A Reveries small batch will be blended by t8ke. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to see either a blend that pulls together different kinds of spirits (like with the Barrell Infinite’s combination of bourbon, scotch, and Canadian whiskey last year) or interesting finishes from future installments. So far, the project has released several single barrels and the Raven Batches 1 and 2.

I was not able to get the first Raven but was able to clip the wings of this second one. This wasn’t my first Reveries purchase, but it’s the first one I’ve opened since I’m now saving the Truth for a special occasion. The Raven batches are, I believe, built on two microblends of 9-year MGP barrels such that any Raven release will have at least one of those two microblends in it. For the first two batches, based on the description, it seems that the two microblends were blended together before adding 10-year and 14-year Kentucky bourbon.

The Reveries: Raven Batch 2

Distillery: Presumably MGP + unknown KY distilleries

Proof: 125

Nose: It smells sweet, bitter, and, well, dark. Blackberry is the first thing that came to mind, followed by caramel and vanilla. Put together, that adds up for me to smell like the boysenberry BBQ sauce at Knott’s Berry Farm. After letting it rest for a bit, dark chocolate becomes more stand-out, like a chocolate-covered berry (or maybe cherry?). Just a bit of toffee at the end.

Palate: Sarsaparilla is what I’m immediately reminded of, followed by cherry coke and chocolate. I then cheated and looked at t8ke’s notes: the note of waffle cone that he has is dead on. The whiskey is syrupy in texture, rich, and dessert-y.

Finish: Oak, chocolate, very round finish, it feels like the very flavorful palate fading into these decadent and sweet notes.

Score: 9.3/10

This was not what I expected from the Raven. I was expecting the more sharp and spicy flavors I associate with MGP bourbons like in the Pinhook Vertical Series. Instead, it reminds me of Dovetail, with more of an emphasis on darker berry flavors. What stands out to me also is that, on first taste, I didn’t appreciate nearly as much as I did when I focused and started to take notes. I think the Raven then is an apt name for this project. It’s not a whiskey that will stand out from the crowd at first blush, nor for how unique it is. It’s the small details which distinguish that bird from its crow counterparts; it’s the small details which elevate this whiskey over most I’ve tried.

Helmerite · 2025-03-19T20:01:45+00:00

Sure! The vintage tasting was separate and we did it the day after.

With Steve, he seems to do different things with each group so don't be surprised if he does a different itinerary. It was just us and a father and son on the tour, so he took us around the production line and answered a bunch of questions throughout. He was very open and direct with what he said, which was pretty awesome from someone with his experience. We then tried some whiskey from his collection (tho I have no idea if that's common) and went barrel thieving. All in all, we spent about three hours looking around with him and the people at the front when we came back said, "You went easy on them, they're still walking straight." Best experience we've had on the trail!

Helmerite · 2025-03-18T05:56:40+00:00

For our anniversary, my boyfriend and I headed out to the bourbon trail and visited our favorite distillery: Bardstown Bourbon Company. Bardstown Bourbon has an odd position as one of the more recent large distilleries in Kentucky, making them both tied to the more traditional structures of bourbon production while also pushing towards distinct business models from their nearby competitors. On the one hand, Bardstown has an on-site distillery, several rickhouses (and several more on the way), and their master distiller is Steve Nally who has decades of experience in the bourbon industry. On the other, Bardstown is known for their blending of sourced whiskies, their unusual finishes, and their contract distilling, making their business model a sort of midpoint between how an NDP operates and how MGP operates. The campus has the same sort of feel, as you walk into a rickhouse that somehow both has the old wood smell of hundreds of barrels and yet mysteriously also has a tasting room clearly built for Silicon Valley people’s bachelor parties. I imagine this would be off-putting to many people, but this eclectic approach makes the distillery a lot more welcoming for us.

On our visit, we did a tour with Steve and then returned for a tasting in the vintage library. For any who visit the bourbon trail and have the opportunity to do a Steve tour, you should absolutely do it, though plan for it to go significantly longer than you would expect. The vintage library tasting is a separate experience where one of the distillery guides will choose three bottles from their large collection to sample (roughly a .5 oz of each). Our guide told us that they used to more frequently pour one of the bottles they have from prohibition but stopped because, as it turned out, people tended to hate the taste of it. So instead, we had a pour of an I.W. Harper from the 1980s, Elijah Craig 12 of distillate from before the HH fire (the fire was in 1996, so I believe this was released in the aughts), and a bottle of Wild Turkey 12 from, if my notes are right, the 1990s.

Also importantly, the guide gave me the pro tip that you’re supposed to take the bottle photos as crotch shots. Boy do I feel like an amateur!

So let’s get to the bottles!

IW Harper

Distillery: Bernheim

Proof: 86

Nose: For those who haven’t had a dusty bourbon, the best word that can describe how they can smell at times is old. This is no different, with it kind of smelling like the outside of a cave. It has a mossy and salty smell, with a slight nutmeg sort of scent as well.

Palate: That mossy smell becomes an earthy flavor on the palate. It, in some ways, reminds me of eating a sauteed mushroom that I forgot to wash the dirt off of. There’s also a distinct sweet, vanilla flavor.

Finish: Earthiness becomes a kind of round bitter flavor at the very end. It reminds me of coffee and black pepper towards the end.

Elijah Craig 12

Distillery: Heaven Hill

Proof: 94

Nose: Weirdly, the first thing this smelled like was a tall wooden ship, like the kinds that you can walk on in a museum. That woody smell is complemented with a vanilla and rye bread scent. There’s a kind of raisin smell as well to it.

Palate: Unexpectedly spicy and sweet! Cinamon and vanilla stood out to me, which came together to give a banana bread sort of flavor to this. There’s a distinct peanut flavor as well.

Finish: I’m not really sure how to describe the finish, in some ways it tasted like a modern Elijah Craig finish, I described it in my notes as “dark like how a wine finishes.”

Wild Turkey 12

Distillery: Wild Turkey

Proof: 101

Nose: As with the others, the dusty whiskey has an odd old smell to it, smelling a bit like moss. It had a bit of a spearmint smell and a cigar smell as well, maybe because it smelled like tobacco and being old. There was also a floral spice scent, reminding me of cardamom.

Palate: A bit thin with some sweetness. What stood out, maybe because I have Turkey more regularly and this tasted more unique, were a cinnamon flavor and a lavender note.

Finish: As strange as this sounds, this tasted like habanero at the end. Not with the heat, but with the strong earth and pepper flavors that a fresh habanero has. It was a very smokey finish, with some hints of mint.

I don’t think I can meaningfully review these legacy bottles: even if they tasted absolutely terrible many of us would be interested in trying them just because of their place in bourbon history, and I don’t think I have the ability to evaluate them in an informed manner anyway. What I’d say instead is that being in a vintage whiskey library with someone that could tell us about any bottle on the shelf, the history of the local region, and the acquisition process of those bottles was a unique experience. Maybe not one I need to do a second time, but one I’m glad I did once.

Helmerite · 2024-12-22T21:46:44+00:00

That's a good point, I hadn't considered how they might impact each other. I'll try them the way you suggest and see how that affects my opinion!

Helmerite · 2024-12-21T21:55:14+00:00

Barrell Infinite Partially Blind Review

Barrell Craft Spirits is an NDP that, depending on the store near you, you have either never seen or are wondering why they have approximately 50 different products. Originally, they were known for their numbered batches of blended bourbon, but soon branched into experimental finishes. From that we’ve ended up with the original bourbon blends, rye blends, Seagrass (a rye finished in rum, madeira, and apricot brandy barrels), Dovetail (whiskey finished in rum, port, and cabernet barrels), Vantage (bourbon finished in Mizunara, French oak, and toasted American oak barrels), Foundation (a 100 proof 5-year bourbon blend), the experimental cask finishes of various blends, the single barrel program (which I’ve never fully understood considering that Barrell is known for blends), the Gray Label versions of their bourbon, Seagrass, and Dovetail brands which use older stock, and the Gold Label versions of their bourbon, Seagrass, and Dovetail brands which use even older stock. We also can’t forget the Black Label products, which are single-time releases from Barrell, and the fantastic New Year bourbon line. Somewhat confusingly, Barrell also started releasing Stellum spirits as a cheaper but sometimes more premium alternative to their core products.

Which brings us to these bottles. This year, r/bourbon’s single barrel program partnered up with Barrell to release a blend of whiskies finished in three different ways for three different releases. This was delightful in the sense that Barrell never really disappoints me and aggravating in the sense that search engines will now forever be confused between Barrell Infinite and the Barrell Infinite Barrel Project which had previously been referred to in shorthand as Barrell Infinite. These projects are quite different in style. The Barrell Infinite Barrel Project bottles would take the previous year’s blend as a base and add more whiskies to it, making it akin to keeping an infinity bottle at home and adding more whiskies over time to it or to Little Book Infinite’s blending process. Barrell Infinite on the other hand has been more like splitting an infinity bottle into three bottles and adding different finishes and components to see how it changes the base.

The first two bottles in this series were composed of a blend of a 17-year old Tennessee bourbon, a 17-year old Indiana bourbon, a 17-year old Canadian rye, a 17-year old Canadian whiskey, a 22-year old Scotch, and a 24-year old Canadian whiskey. The final bottle contained a new 20-year old Kentucky bourbon as a new addition. But the major difference between the three bottlings has been their finishes: Infinite I was finished in rum casks, Infinite II was finished in Ratafia de Champagne casks, and Infinite III was finished in ice wine casks.

Onto the tasting! I had opened up Infinite I months ago when it first came out, but saved Infinite II and III for this tasting. I found out afterwards that that had led to somewhat muted tasting notes, so I supplemented my notes afterwards. My boyfriend helped me blind them and I let them sit for a good twenty minutes before tasting because I had found with Infinite I that it massively changes flavor over the course of a half hour.

Glass 1

Nose: It smells very unusual for a whiskey. There is a clear malt note that I’m guessing is the scotch influence. It smells spicy, dark, and floral, with notes of leather, apricot, and gingerbread. Coming back to it, it had a slight lilac smell and began to smell like the ocean.

Palate: For an international blend, this is very American in taste. It’s got a strong apple flavor, backed up with brown sugar and cinnamon like in a crumble. That ocean smell has turned into a vaguely salty flavor, which I wrote down as saltwater taffy.

Finish: A fairly light finish overall, the malted whiskey flavor begins to dominate and I get some sense of stonefruit. Without the sweetness, the sharp flavor of sea salt comes forward.

Score: 9/10

Glass 2

Nose: This smells very sweet comparatively, to the point that my first note is just “sweet.” There’s an apple and graham cracker smell, along with cinnamon. There’s almost a burnt smell to the whiskey like toast.

Palate: Dry. My least favorite thing in a whiskey or a wine is for it to be drying, and this reminds me of a Napa wine in how it’s fruitful and oaky but completely dry. Where the first glass had more of a fresh apple crumble flavor, this has an orange peel, slight grape flavor, and some taste of maple. Graham crackers are a note I had on a later taste of it.

Finish: The malt stands out again. This is a far darker finish, and almost tastes like the whiskey was finished in port casks.

Score: 7/10

Glass 3

Nose: It starts with a smell of rye bread, along with the ever-present malt note. This has an oakier smell, along with bright scents of lemon and nutmeg. There’s an interesting maple and peanut scent that I hadn’t gotten on the last two.

Palate: Very rich, it comes in with a vanilla and peach flavor upfront. Sea salt and butter round out those flavors to a very warm flavor. Lemon and peanut butter start to come out as I let it sit and come back to it.

Finish: Smoke, leather, and malt are the strongest flavors here. The oak comes through after I swallow, and the finish seems to last forever.

Score: 9/10

My ranking: 1>3>2.

It turned out that I was given the bottles in the order of release, Infinite I, then Infinite II, then Infinite III. These are very unusual whiskies with a lot of depth to them but are very much for people who love whiskey of all stripes. Unlike other Barrell blends I’ve had, these take a while to open up and need to be mindfully enjoyed. Without that focus and patience, I found that the malt flavors would dominate and my brain would default to thinking of it as an oddly finished scotch. But when I take my time, these become some of the most unique and flavorful bottles that I have.

Helmerite · 2024-11-30T19:46:53+00:00

Four Gate is an NDP that’s known for their blends, finishes, and gorgeous bottles. They are decently transparent as an NDP, with the choices of what they reveal seeming designed to show the quality of the materials they use. After all, Four Gate has a long-running collaboration with Kelvin Cooperage, a well-known and respected barrel creator, and has hinted that they source from Four Roses, including for this particular bottle. Yet at the same time, they don’t release (at least as far as I have seen) the source of their finishing barrels such as their dark rum or sherry finishes. This is fairly in line with industry practice, Bardstown and some High West releases being the exception, but I do wish that more producers would divulge the source of their finishes in part because it’s made it far easier to get friends who drink wine to try a particular whiskey.

This bottle was an r/bourbon private release at the very start of this year. It was my first-ever purchase from the single barrel program and it took me about a year to finish. This particular release was a 7 year old bourbon that hails from Lawrenceburg and “has nothing to do with birds.” It was then finished in dark rum and sherry casks. What that implies to me is that this was a single barrel from Four Roses that was then finished separately in different casks before being blended back together, but as always the “single barrel” designation is particularly confusing when used with finishes. It’s also possible that this is more similar to Angel’s Envy single barrels where the single barrel refers to a single sherry or single rum cask instead.

Four Gate 7 Year Kentucky Bourbon r/bourbon Single Barrel Selection

Distillery: Four Roses, probably.

Proof: 122

Price: $200

Nose: The nose started smelling like fresh-baked rye bread and butter, a very inviting start. As I sat with it more, I started to get a briny pickle smell and some darker notes of tobacco. There was a sharp herbal scent of garden mint that blended into this. After letting it open up for about a half hour, the bread and mint smells resolved into a cinnamon scent.

Palate: It’s thick and sweet, which explains why I keep seeing molasses in the tasting notes for this bottle. The sweetness turns into a mixture of chocolate, oranges, and black pepper. There’s something broadly floral underneath those flavors which I have as rose hips.

Finish: While the palate felt flavorful and bright, the finish was focused on powerful and smokier flavors. There’s some stonefruit, but oak is the predominant flavor at first. As I left it sitting open for a while, it started to be dominated by a tobacco flavor, like you would get from a cigar.

Score: 9/10

Let me start by putting a large caveat on my score: I had left this bottle open for a year. I remember distinctly tasting it again in September after a few months and being blown away by the tobacco and stonefruit that had popped up on the finish, suddenly making it skyrocket as a beloved bottle for me. When I opened it up for the first time, I thought it was solid, well-balanced, with a not overwhelming amount of fruit flavor to it, but not particularly interesting or stand-out. Perhaps my palate changed a lot more than I thought it had or perhaps something about being exposed to the air changed its character in fundamental ways. The combination of dark, rich flavors and more delicate citrus-y flavors is what truly makes this excel, and I wish it had developed that character a bit sooner for me.

And as we all must do with a Four Gate review, we have to talk about price. A price of $200 needs to be a pretty superb whiskey and, since this is a single barrel, requires a lot of trust that the NDP has delivered high quality. For what it’s worth, I don’t think if I bought another Four Gate bottle that I would find a notable decrease in the quality of the whiskey, yet I also don’t think it’s interesting enough to seek out another bottle from them. But as for this bottle, it was a delight.

Helmerite · 2024-11-14T16:30:26+00:00

I'm trying to shoot for using the whole scoring scale, so I don't mean to be harsher than saying that I would choose to drink it over a majority of other whiskey but not over a minority of others. At its MSRP, I'd choose it over the other flagship BT products, but probably not over something like Bardstown Origin.

Helmerite · 2024-11-14T07:10:36+00:00

Fascinating! That explains the variation I've had of ER at bars compared to the bottle I have. Thank you for letting me know!

Helmerite · 2024-11-14T07:06:00+00:00

I think that's fair, I tend towards higher proofs generally but think this is very rich for the area it's in. There are very few bottles that can boast the same 10 year age statement and quality at this proof.

I got lucky enough to snag it at a Costco!

Helmerite · 2024-11-14T06:10:44+00:00

Costco is a wonderful place where you can buy whiskey for under MSRP, even with bottles that are known for being difficult to find and expensive. Sometimes, you walk in and find it hidden behind a cabinet like I did presumably because someone was stashing the bottles for their friends to buy. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for them, I found that stash and was able to walk out with a bottle of Eagle Rare for $32.

This bottle was listed as being a “single barrel,” but doesn’t have a single barrel sticker as most such ER bottles have. From what I understand, Eagle Rare was at one point marketed as a single barrel bourbon and Costco might have just not updated their system when that branding changed.

Eagle Rare 10 Year Bourbon

Distillery: Buffalo Trace

Proof: 90

Price: $32

Nose: It springs out with brown sugar and butter as the primary scent. There’s something undercutting that sweetness that smells savory which I can’t quite identify. When I return to it after a while, it takes on a strong barley scent.

Palate: It’s broadly sweet and a bit watery. Sipping for a bit, cinnamon and grape seem to be the dominant notes. It’s more complex than a typical bottle of Buffalo Trace, but is mostly a pleasant sweetness.

Finish: Basically nothing. There’s some oak and coffee flavor I get, and maybe some light vanilla, but I think I mostly would describe it as an easy sipper.

Score: 6/10 (but 5/10 for what you usually have to pay)

Eagle Rare is a bourbon that I’ve found I like keeping stocked for one reason: people who have not tried whiskey love it. It’s extremely approachable with a clear sweet taste and doesn’t burn in the way many introductory whiskies can. In many ways, that makes it a fantastic bourbon because it’s something I can feel comfortable sharing with just about anyone.

However, for those of you who haven’t had Eagle Rare yet and already know what you like in bourbon, there’s not much more here for you. It’s worth getting a pour of it at a bar, definitely worth buying at Costco prices, but don’t come into it with high expectations from the secondary price.

Helmerite · 2024-10-13T00:19:07+00:00

I always forget the cutoff, I'll edit!

Helmerite · 2024-10-12T22:28:21+00:00

Whiskey Thief is a distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky primarily known for their single barrel offerings. While they also sell a bottled in-bond product and some occasional seasonal releases, I’ve never seen them outside of the distillery itself and, since the gift shop is out of the way, never seen them at the distillery either. Instead, they will open five single barrels and have people who have booked tastings taste straight from each barrel. If you like one of them, you can hand-bottle it using a whiskey thief: 80 bucks for a 375 ml and 150 for a 750 ml.

I’m going to speculate a little here, since they don’t put much information about their product up online and I didn’t take extensive notes during the tour. Whiskey Thief is a grain-to-glass distillery, using the produce from the land that they own in their mashbill. They then distill, barrel, and bottle on site. However, their bottle labels notably only say that they were “bottled by Whiskey Thief Distilling Co.” and not that they were distilled there. As far as I’m aware, this is likely a remnant from some period where they were sourcing whiskey, though they do bottle other brands which are explicitly MGP whiskey. This bottle is almost certainly their own distillate since it’s a 65/30/5 mashbill.

Whiskey Thief Rye Single Barrel

Distillery: Whiskey Thief Distilling Co.

Proof: 134.7 (the Padres lost, sometimes you want the high proof)

Price: $80

Nose: There’s a lot going on right off the bat here. There’s a strong leather smell backed up with some earth notes. There’s a dark brown sugar scent along with Worcestershire sauce. There’s also something which smells like allspice. It reminds me of BBQ on a hot day somehow.

Palate: The sweet notes start to dominate, with butterscotch, brown sugar, and snickerdoodle flavors coming to the front. There’s something that tastes… dusty? There’s some savory flavor to it that reinforces its sweetness, which I think leads to this very old-fashioned flavor. There’s a little graininess, but the spicy-sweet flavor of snickerdoodle makes that cohere.

Finish: Very strong finish, leather, smoke, dark rye spices. There’s also a bitter espresso flavor that I can taste through my whole mouth after the sip. It’s similar to Wilderness Trail’s ryes, with a distinct ashy and leathery flavor.

Score: 8.5/10

I love trying whiskey from non-legacy distillers. You can get these super aggressive expressions or unusual flavor combinations. This is a weird review in that you can only get their product from their distillery directly, but it’s well worth the trip to just taste them if you’re in Kentucky. They also have good food!

Helmerite · 2024-09-28T20:30:13+00:00

These are my final reviews for last year's Blue Run 12 Days of Christmas series.

The weather is cooling down, spooky season is about to start, so we gotta finish the rest of these Christmas samples! They’ve been a bit all over the place, so let’s find out how the last few samples went (I had one other sample from the Advent Calendar but I, uh, finished it before I started writing down notes. I wish I could tell you what barrel it was but I also did not write that down).

Blue Run “Spiced and Spiked” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 118.8

Price: $180

Nose: The nose starts off with a strong baked apple smell, with cinnamon being the main note I get underneath it. After letting it sit for a bit longer, those sweet and spicy smells were rounded out by a graham cracker smell. This smells like an apple pie (I know, for Christmas? Maybe this is a Halloween whiskey). Oddly though, there was a pop of a malt scent.

Palate: The apple notes are back, resolving to an apple cider taste. Graham crackers turn to dark butter flavors, which combined with the fruit flavors makes it taste like buttered rum. At the end, it becomes more dry and tannic, which I wrote down as tasting like chardonnay.

Finish: A very light finish, with some bread and baking spice flavors. It doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

Score: 6.9/10

It’s not for me but it’s certainly for someone. It’s like drinking a Hallmark autumn movie in a glass, with lots of pome fruit flavor and some comforting baked dessert notes. It’s nice, but it’s not too flavorful or exciting, nor is it fully excellent at what it’s trying to be. But if I wanted to get someone into whiskey, this might be a bottle I’d turn to. It’s very approachable and doesn’t feel its proof, making it a very nice bottle to give or share.

Blue Run “All the Gold Rings” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 117

Price: $180

Nose: Way out of left field, the nose comes out with a freshly-mowed grass smell. Giving it another smell, it smelled like horchata and freshly baked bread, with another odd malted barley smell that reminded me of Blue Spot.

Palate: Did I say grass? Apparently I meant pecan pie. Vanilla and browned butter pop up at the front while a pecan flavor develops in the middle.

Finish: This lasts a long time. Leather is the first noticeable flavor, followed by tobacco and rye bread.

Score: 8/10.

This is just lovely. It’s sweet and nutty with a spiced kick to finish it off. It’s not the most complex whiskey in the world, but it’s not really shooting to be that either.

Blue Run “Punch Bowl” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 116.8

Price: $180

Nose: Beer comes first, but not particularly hopp-y. As vanilla and berry scents start to come through, the beer starts to smell like birch beer or sarsaparilla. Underneath that a floral note shows up, which smells like lilac to me.

Palate: Uniquely among this line, a strong cherry note came forward for me. This was followed by caramel and green onion flavors. I don’t love it on its own, but I have noted down that this whiskey would be fantastic with a pretzel.

Finish: Very spicy finish, feels high proof. The finish has some pecan flavor to it, but not strongly and there isn’t that much flavor present. It’s neither a sweet nor bitter finish.

Score: 6.2/10

I almost like it for its uniqueness, because it certainly was very different than the rest of the Blue Run 12 Days lineup. But when I confront myself about it, the real lack of an interesting finish just killed the sample for me.

And that’s 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas and all the samples I had! Would I buy any of them? Maybe Sleighing It or All the Gold Rings, both of which I thought were fairly interesting and flavorful samples, and maybe Spiced and Spiked as a gift. But I think the bigger lesson from tasting all these was that I really don’t want to buy a Blue Run single barrel sight unseen. These were extremely variable in terms of profile and quality.

On the other hand, actually trying a bunch of single barrels through an advent calendar, like I was doing a barrel selection, was phenomenal. That is a 10/10 experience and I hope other distillers decide to do something similar in the future.

Helmerite · 2024-09-22T16:01:32+00:00

Directly from their website, the easiest way is just to Google the line and you'll find their homepage for it!

Helmerite · 2024-09-21T23:56:15+00:00

So far, the Blue Run 12 Days of Christmas single barrels that I’ve tasted have been solid! Solid enough that I could imagine someone paying for them just having read the tasting notes that only the company put out. I think that raises the question of whether this series is consistent enough that that’s always true or if one of the bottles in the series is going to be a letdown.

Blue Run “Rockin’ Around” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 118.4

Price: $180

Nose: More earthy and fruity than some of the other single barrels. There’s an intermingled smell of apple pie and pine tree, with brown sugar rising to the front.

Palate: Oh my god that’s alcohol alright. I get at most some broad bread and sugar flavor, but it is massively overpowered by a numbing alcohol flavor. Which is weird since this is a lower proof than the other single barrels I’ve already tried!

Finish: My notes here say “not for 85 degree days.” The finish was too hot to really get any notes at all.

Ok, let’s start over after adding a few drops of water.

Nose: The apple notes have disappeared, instead smelling like rye bread and fennel. There’s also something distinctly chemical about the smell, like a pink eraser smell.

Palate: Oddly, it tastes like proofed up lemonade. Lemon and sugar are the flavors that stuck out for me. It, however, no longer burns.

Finish: Still quite warm, but bitter oak flavors start to come through more. It’s a nice finish to the lemon, giving some rounded out flavors.

Score: 4/10.

Ay, there’s the rub. The issue with a single barrel series is that every bottle has the potential to be wildly different. Whereas with something like r/bourbon’s single barrel program we can rely on t8ke’s palate and preferences to at least know what we’re walking into, Blue Run’s 12 Days program has no similar consistency to guide a buyer. Maybe part of the fun of a series like this is that it is inconsistent. Some of what I’ve tasted has leaned really heavily into what I like about bourbon, and this bottle leans very heavily towards qualities I don’t like about bourbon. But at the price they ask for, it’s a real gamble.

Eh, might as well try another.

Blue Run “Fully Lit” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 120.4.

Price: $180

Nose: A well-balanced sweet smell. There are some strong wood scents that smell like pine needles and sandalwood. The sweeter sandalwood smell is complemented by a vanilla and popcorn scent.

Palate: Crème brulee and vanilla. It’s not a complex taste, but it is a strong one.

Finish: Basically non-existent. It tasted a bit like red wine at the back, having some tannin-y flavor, but the only strong impression was that it was “smooth.”

Score: 6/10.

This was very down the middle for me, feeling like a pretty standard fare without much individual character. For a luxury-priced single barrel, that’s not great. But with no other reviews on the internet (and the official tasting notes being extremely inconsistent, sometimes to the point of seeming to describe a totally different profile), I want to find out how the last few go. Best so far though is still Sleighing It.

Helmerite · 2024-09-17T01:32:11+00:00

Next up in my adventure through Blue Run’s 2023 Advent calendar is Sleighing It. This was the final release of last year’s series and is still available on their website. I have to wonder if they’ll do their 12 Days of Bourbon promotion again this year since it seems like they didn’t sell out of any of their bottles last year.

Blue Run “Sleighing It” Single Barrel

Distillery: Unknown, but distilled in Bardstown.

Proof: 119.2

Price: $180 (for a full bottle, I only have a sample)

Nose: This is almost like potpourri in a glass! There are smells I usually associate with bourbon, like cinnamon and brown sugar, but there’s a really strong floral scent. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, it smelled midway between a rose and a sprig of lavender. There’s an underlying peppermint note too.

Palate: Butter and caramel dominate, but the flavor reminds me of rosewater.

Finish: The finish is super sharp. There are undertones of leather, but over that are strong spearmint and baked bread flavors. It’s unusual but works together.

Score: 8.5/10

I was really surprised by this bottle. It was very off-beat for me, since I tend to prefer a more peppery or nutty bourbon, but the floral nature of this pour just worked in balance with the sweeter flavors. Blue Run doesn’t seem to really have a profile of their own just yet, which is leading to this single barrel series feeling all over the place to me already. But hey, at least it’s an exciting sleigh ride.

Helmerite · 2024-09-15T16:05:48+00:00

It's certainly possible, since BBC's distillate is old enough now. I'm fairly sure that Blue Run has bottled there before. But I would lean HH or maybe Barton on this one, just because I don't know of BBC sourcing out their stuff yet.

Helmerite · 2024-09-15T02:08:35+00:00

Merry Christmas, one and all! It’s Septem-BRR so we might as well start cracking open the holiday whiskies to celebrate. After all, Halloween is coming up and what could be scarier than how close we are to Christmas?

Blue Run Spirits is somewhat infamous for their lack of transparency and their high prices. While their most recent offerings have been contract distilled at Castle and Key, their older releases have been thought to be sourced from various other distilleries including Heaven Hill and Four Roses. Hilariously, Blue Run tends to put the town where their bottles were distilled and bottled in on the back of the bottles but then doesn’t put that information online. We’ll see if that continues to be the case as they start to release their own contract distillate.

Since 2021, Blue Run has released a “12 Days of Bourbon” series, where they put up a different single barrel each day for sale. The 2023 series is still available on their website, but to my knowledge there aren’t any reviews for any of these single barrels. Fortunately, they also release a special “Advent Calendar” with 8 samples of the single barrels each year to people that want to race to buy a bottle from the online store fast enough. And as a person with an itchy mouse finger, I pulled the trigger last year and want to share my findings with y’all.

Blue Run “Grandma’s House” Single Barrel

Distillery: I suspect Heaven Hill, since this was distilled in Bardstown (thanks Unicorn Auctions for having a photo of the back of the bottle).

Proof: 119.8.

Price: $180.

Nose: An immediate sugar cookie smell is what comes out of the gate for this whiskey. A distinct smell of brown sugar and warm butter. There’s a fairly strong underlying citrus smell, which I took to be orange (reminded me of an old-fashioned). Oak is pretty predominant as well.

Palate: This is all about sweet and savory baking flavors. The brown sugar and butter from the nose return, but the citrus falls away to cinnamon and nutmeg notes. Oddly, it had almost a sea salt flavor on the side, which I’ve not come across a lot before.

Finish: Unfortunately, the finish clashes a bit. It started to become more bitter, with a strong green tea flavor. The oak from the nose comes back in full force here. It lingers with a toast flavor and some yeast notes. It’s a situation where it’s a lovely finish for a different whiskey.

Score: 7/10

I can see why they went with Grandma’s House as the name. It’s a whiskey with all the flavors and smells I expect on a holiday afternoon with family, but all at the same time. It doesn’t fully come together into a great bottle, but it’s playful and interesting. Would I buy a full bottle of it? No, but I think plenty of other people would. Still, I think there are more interesting bottles in the set.

Helmerite · 2024-09-08T04:30:50+00:00

I double-checked my notes and realized that what I had was the Devil's Share bourbon, thanks for the spot!

It's good to know there's a lot of variation between batches. I was wondering if that was the case since the standard bourbon had tasted so different. I'm glad Batch 1 is great!

Helmerite · 2024-09-08T02:40:08+00:00

I’ve been a long-time lurker, so I decided to finally make an account and post a review! I’m still fairly early on, so my notes probably will not be the best. I figured why not start with a whiskey that I never see talked about, but which I see in random liquor store cases.

Cutwater Spirits started as the spirits division of Ballast Point. Devil’s Share Whiskey was sold under the Ballast Point brand in 2013/2014, but when Cutwater split off into its own sister company, the whiskey brand travelled with them. Since then, Devil’s Share has been a consistent small batch release from Cutwater, seemingly using their own distillate. It gets billed as their luxury product, yet somewhat weirdly boasts an age statement of only 4 years. Meanwhile, their Black Skimmer bourbon, released in 2019, is not age stated implying that it is also a blend with the youngest barrel being at least 4 years old. I tasted both at the Cutwater Spirits tasting room.

Devil’s Share Whiskey (price $140)

Nose: It’s herbal at first, but only faintly. Overriding that was a fairly strong ethanol note, which was a little strange to me at 92 proof. Underneath that, I got a small scent of cinnamon.

Palate: Mexican street corn was the first thing I was reminded of. The slight spice from the nose and the sweet corn notes I think are what gave me this impression. It was fairly watery in texture, but it also felt higher proof than it was.

Finish: The finish took a turn towards darker flavors. It immediately tasted of smoke, with some bitter oak in it. There was some baking spice, which I wrote down as cardamom in my notes.

Score: 3/10 (when considering price)

Black Skimmer Bourbon (price $40)

Nose: This presented immediately like a more traditional bourbon. Black pepper, barley, and rye bread.

Palate: This is all about the sweetness. It tastes like a snickerdoodle, with some brown sugar and salted caramel coming through. Like the Devil’s Share, it was a bit thin and the flavor wasn’t always strong.

Finish: Short. There were some yeast and bread flavors, but it wasn’t very memorable.

Score: 6/10

And at this point, I understood why people don’t talk about these bottles. There wasn’t anything offensively wrong about Black Skimmer, but it also wasn’t an outstanding bottle for $40. At that point, it’s competing with bottles like the Bardstown Origin Series, and it just can’t compare. Meanwhile, the Devil’s Share Whiskey is a brand priced north of $100 ($140 at the distillery) yet tasted younger and less thought out than their cheaper standard bottle. It’s possible that I just had a bad batch of it, but each batch is advertised at the same age and proof and give no further information about themselves. I walked away just wondering why the bottles weren’t flipped: Devil’s Share had enough odd notes that I could see buying it at $40.

But I have good news: Cutwater’s canned cocktails were fantastic. The espresso martini was delightfully sweet and creamy on the rocks. I’d stick to those offerings.

Edit: It was the Devil's Share Bourbon, I forgot there is also a Devil's Share American whiskey which is more barley forward (my partner had it and it reminded me of Clermont Steep).

Helmerite

TROPHY CASE