When was Kentucky Spirit first bottled?

[Wade]

I'm sure the answer is here somewhere but my searches didn't find it.

I have an open bottle from 2001 and a sealed one from 1997. Just curious as to when this was first bottled.

Wade

[cowdery]

1994.

[Wade]

Chuck,

Thanks for the response.

I was just going to post that I found the answer in Jackson's "Whiskey : The Definitive World Guide" book. He states 1995 in the book but that's probably when it first hit the shelves.

For some reason I was thinking it showed up earlier in the 90's.

Wade

[BarItemsPlus1]

I have a bottle from barrel No.2 hmm and four and I have an open bottle from barrel No.2

[kbuzbee]

I think you'll see the labels reads something like

barrel #2 rick #7 warehouse H.

It isn't likely to be the SECOND bottle they did but an identifier of which barrel it came from.

Ken

[BarItemsPlus1]

It isn't likely to be the SECOND bottle they did but an identifier of which barrel it came from.

Hmm I musn't have made it clear enough in my previuos post...

I have a bottle from <font color="blue">BARREL </font> No. 2 and <font color="blue">BARREL </font> No. 4

[TNbourbon]

Each batch has a "Barrel #1". It's simply the first barrel pulled for that particular bottling run.

I, too, have a Barrel #1, but it's from 2001.

[BarItemsPlus1]

There was a discussion on the bourbon that goes into 'single' barrel products only a sort time ago, I just tried to find it but I can't....

I was under the assumption that a single barrel whisky was just that, not a batching or vatting if you will.

I believe Ken wrote somewhere that a single barrel is bottled and the remaining that doesn't fill the next bottle goes into a vatting.

Back to the WT...would WT not barrel only once a year or more only a particular time say or a week or two, their single barrel products?

If this was the case then

I, too, have a Barrel #1, but it's from 2001.

would you not indeed have a bottle from Barrel#1 but from 2001...

My point or question rather would be you and maybe 300 others have a bottle from Barrel#1 bottled in 2001 but no one else can have a product from this Barrel or date??

If WT started bottling their Kentucky Spirit in 94'then would there not only be 300 bottles from Barrel#(whatever) made in 94' and so on....

So what I am saying is I have a bottle from Barrel#2 bottled in 94'. Does this make this bottle one of the first 300-600 bottles WT made of this product - I am under the impression that it is.

[TNbourbon]

...I was under the assumption that a single barrel whisky was just that, not a batching or vatting if you will...

True enough -- when I referred to a 'batch' (confusing, admittedly), I meant to imply a group of barrels from which they bottled each individually. I assume -- perhaps erroneously -- that distillers don't bottle even single-barrel bourbons only one barrel at a time, but rather several at once.

[BarItemsPlus1]

Tim I do have to admit that I am somewhat a little confused on the single barrel topic...I have read many different methods, possibly each distillery has infact their own 'single barrel' interpretation??

I see it more economical to bottle a number of barrels at once rather than taking each barrel and bottling that.

I do know for a fact that in the Scotch industry if it says on the label a single barrel(cask) then indeed it is.

Can someone here clear this up??

[TNbourbon]

Again, I appear not to be making myself clear. I do not mean to imply 'single-barrel' is anything but exactly that. I only am suggesting that perhaps they bottle more than one barrel (not blended together, but separately) at a time.

[TNbourbon]

It also crosses my mind (maybe I'm just too tired!) that perhaps 'Barrel #1" only means the barrel came from the end of a row, and was in the #1 position.

[BarItemsPlus1]

Ah Ha..yes I did think that's what you meant Tim...

I would no doubt assume that they would bottle more than one barrel at a time.

I have seen pics of small bottling lines and they do more than one barrel at a time.

Ok then, now I think I am clear about what you are saying...

Let's take your bottle for example....

You have a bottle from the first barrels bottled on a particular day in 01'??

But I have trouble with this...it doesn't seem logical to me.

[barturtle]

Let's take your bottle for example....

You have a bottle from the first barrels bottled on a particular day in 01'??

But I have trouble with this...it doesn't seem logical to me.

Actually keep in mind here the Barrel-Rick-Warehouse numbers. They could bottle these barrels in any order, that is just the location of the barrel in the warehouse.

Going back to your bottles from 94 they are likely from the first "batch" of barrels that were bottled as KY Spirit. It seems just as likely that the #4 barrel could be the first one that was bottled as the #2 barrel or the #1 barrel.

On a side note, the barrel selection for those first barrels was probably spectacular. Having had chances to talk to Jimmy, and knowing how much that place is his and not the owners, when they asked him to do that the first time he probably scanned more barrels and was pickier. Not to say that he would have slacked off as time goes by, but more that he might have been more likely to show off his whiskey with that first batch.

[kbuzbee]

It also crosses my mind (maybe I'm just too tired!) that perhaps 'Barrel #1" only means the barrel came from the end of a row, and was in the #1 position.

That was how I always interpreted it, Tim. So to my original reply. You could have a barrel #1, rick #7 Warehouse H and a barrel #1 rick 3 Warehouse E. Don't know for sure but the label made me think this was the case.

Of course, how that would play against barrel rotation (does WT still rotate? ) is a whole different question.

Ken