Blanton's Original

Single Barrels are very common nowadays. But it was Colonel Albert B Blanton of the Buffalo Trace Distillery that first released a single barrel bourbon less than a century ago. The marketing fellows will have you believe that the best casks mature in the middle of Warehouse H and that those are thus carefully selected to be bottled as single barrels. This is barrel #147.

Clean and surprisingly fresh nose on oranges and lime juice, caramel and vanilla, but also something that reminds me of red fruit. Some cinnamon and aniseed. Milk chocolate.

It could do with a little more body. Candy-sweet! Think parma violet, but with spices. Cloves, nutmeg and vanilla. The fruit cannot compete against the caramel and candied sugar. Very sweet.

The finish is medium long and – after an initial burst of spices – offers some more citrus fruit.

Pleasant bourbon is a beautiful bottle (but very hard to pour from).

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