Barrell Bourbon....anyone know what this is?

[shoshani]

I have no idea where this belongs, but I'm guessing that this is positioned as an upmarket product with a price tag to match, so I'm starting it off in Premium/Specialty.

On Facebook this morning, I found a promotional ad for Barrell (sic) Bourbon. There was an invitation to like the page, which none of my other SB friends on Facebook had done at the time. Their premise seems to be brokering individual barrels of bourbon from wherever they can source them, and bottling one barrel at a time at barrel strength. On the surface, this doesn't sound like a horrible idea; many really good whiskeys from Scotland are sold in this fashion.

The link to their first batch is http://www.barrellbourbon.com/barrell-batches/ . Judging from the mashbill and its TN distillation/KY aging, I'd tend to think it's Dickel juice. Doesn't say on the page and may not on the bottle; wouldn't surprise me if NDAs are involved in any sourcing they do.

Anyone know anything about this? It looks decent in theory; I'm always skeptical of new NDP offerings, though.

[VAGentleman]

Not Dickel as the mashbill doesn't match. I think there was speculation earlier that it could be Corsair or Prichard's? Don't think anything definitive was figured out

[squire]

$70.00 is a bit steep even for this 'unique' opportunity.

[mbroo5880i]

It seems like it would be worth a try at $25 to $30. Of course, if they would share where it was distilled, mashbill, and age, it may be worth $35 to $40.

[squire]

I can see that appeal mbroo but my perspective is $30.00 is still twice the price of J.W. Dant BIB which is 100 proof, at least 4 years old and made on a proven mash bill. Does an additional 10% of alcohol alone justify doubling the price? And what about this single barrel business. Their web page lists a lot of stores where their whisky is offered for sale, far too many for this to be the product of one barrel so they must be bottling more than one. Are each and every one of those single barrels exactly 121.6 proof? Hah, the chances of that being true are highly suspect. Do they mean a single 53 gallon barrel (there is no oversight, nobody's watching) or a big ole 500 gallon barrel with the dump of ten ordinary barrels of different mash bills with the average of the grain percentages given out as if all of the whisky started with the unique 70-25-5.

Nor am I enthused by a cockeyed mashbill touted as if it's something special when it's just an experiment or an intentional move to market something different which does not necessarily mean something better.

[mbroo5880i]

I understand. I am still game for new offerings provided the price isn't outrageous. I agree that Dant and most BIBs are a much better value. I guess I "assume" that they will always be available. I don't mind "slightly" overpaying for something provided I am not getting totally ripped off and I have some idea what it is. My assumption about BIBs is something that I should be more cautious about.

I know I can get a cheeseburger that I enjoy for $1.29 at McDonalds. I can get a great cheeseburger for $8.99 at a local restaurant but I can get an even better cheeseburger for $10.99 at a place where I enjoy the wait staff and the food. They all fit in my budget depending on the time of the month.

[squire]

Quite true, I just have a low tolerance level toward someone winding me up. I believe most of these producers are a money grubbing lot who laugh at customers being dumb enough to pay their inflated prices.

[mbroo5880i]

Haha....my tolerance for getting ripped off is pretty low too! :cool: I am more likely to pick up the bottle, read the label, put it back on the shelf and then pick up something that I know and like.

[risenc]

FWIW, we discussed Barrell a few months ago: http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?21887-anyone-heard-of-Barrel-Bourbon&highlight=barrell. Still wondering what it is, though ...

[kjbeggs]

And from that old discussion:

According to Sku, it comes from Strong Spirits in Bardstown, KY. They are a bottler. The distiller could be a TN distiller or MGP.

[TunnelTiger]

If and when the 'bourbon craze" slows down there will be more bottles from NDP, bottler's, etc on the shelves than actual distillers.

Oh and none of them will be bottom shelf pricing either.

[cowdery]

A sleuth commenting on one of my blog posts put together the following, which I think is pretty solid.

"A new five year-old bourbon going by the name of Barrell Bourbon is being sold in New York. It has the somewhat unusual mashbill of 70% corn, 25% rye, and 5% malted barley. It advertises that it was distilled in Tennessee but aged in Kentucky.

"Coincidentally, we had a new straight whiskey released in TN (my home state) last year, called Cumberland Cask. It states it is distilled and aged in Tennessee and is composed of 6.5 and 8.5 year old whiskey. It was not put through the Lincoln County Process. This left me wondering about the identity of the producer. I figured it could only be one of three possibilities: Dickel, Prichard's, or Jack Daniel's. It has the same mash bill as the Barrell Bourbon described above, so once I heard about Barrell Bourbon, it seems a sure thing that Dickel makes both products. Interesting to me is the fact that no Lincoln County Process is involved, at least with the Cumberland Cask. (Barrell Bourbon doesn't say one way or the other on their website.)"

It came out through a TN ABC enforcement action that Diageo has been making whiskey at the Dickel Distillery in Tennessee and aging it at Stitzel-Weller in Kentucky, contrary to Tennessee law. In their response, Diageo said the whiskey is not intended to be used for George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey. What then? They haven't said but this appears to be the answer.

This should also be considered in light of the fact that Bulleit Bourbon is no longer being distilled at Four Roses. For years, Diageo has been buying new make from Brown-Forman and others and aging it at Stitzel-Weller, but they'd rather make whiskey at their own facility. Again, that's an open secret Diageo won't confirm, but they're selling bourbon around the world and they have to be getting it from somewhere. They can make bourbon in Tennessee. They can't call it Kentucky bourbon, but that may not matter so much in the overall scheme of things. They're trying to get the Tennessee law requiring them age in Tennessee everything they distill in Tennessee thrown out so in the meantime they are flouting it.

I don't know what Dickel's production capacity is, but the bottleneck there may very well be space in the rackhouses. Diageo has plenty of rackhouse space at SW, so it makes sense. Maybe they'll keep using the Kentucky-made bought distillate for Bulleit, but are trying out some new product ideas using this made-in-TN, aged-in-KY liquid. It should be noted that Dickel Master Distiller John Lunn is in charge of both facilities.

Edited May 16, 2014 by cowdery

[sutton]

Chuck, did I get that right? The law in TN says you can't distill in TN unless you age in TN? I didn't know that ... I just thought you had to do both to call it TN whiskey.

[cowdery]

The law defining TN whiskey is just a year old. The law requiring everything distilled in TN to be aged in TN goes back to 1939. It initially required it to be aged in the same county as where it was distilled, but that was changed last year to include counties adjacent to the one where it was distilled.

[sutton]

Wow. Thanks - did not realize that.