This New Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon Combines the Best of Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee
Jamaican rums aged in peaty Scotch casks, bourbon finished in ice wine casks, and rye whiskey finished in Martinique rhum, sherry, and apricot brandy barrels. Since its founding in 2013, Barrell Craft Spirits (BCS) has proved that experimental blending and cask finishing can create spirits greater than the sum of their parts.
For the brand’s latest Red Label Series release, though, it embarked on a slightly less adventurous — but no less delicious — endeavor to craft a 12-year-old bourbon blend finished in slow-toasted American oak barrels.
Courtesy Barrell Craft Spirits
To create this limited-edition release, the BCS team hand-picked barrels of bourbon ranging from 12 to 15 years in age from distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. (The brand discloses only the states and countries of its sourced liquor, but not the specific distilleries that made it.) After carefully combining the different whiskeys, BCS aged the blend in slow-toasted American oak casks. Most barrels used by whiskey makers are more heavily charred. By toasting the cask, BCS is able to add an additional and subtle layer of flavor complexity.
“Red Label bourbons offer a twist on our classics, paying homage to our origins and to some of our favorite products,” said BCS founder Joe Beatrice. “Slow-toasted American oak lends a luxurious depth to this mature bourbon, accentuating its natural sweetness and complexity while preserving its refined structure.”
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To be clear, BCS isn’t a distillery. Instead, the brand operates purely as an independent blender and bottler, sourcing whiskeys and rums from around the world before blending, barrel aging, and ultimately bottling them in Louisville, Kentucky.
Barrell Craft Spirits 12-Year Bourbon Finished in Toasted American Oak Casks Tasting Notes
According to the brand, the new BCS 12-year bourbon opens with intricate aromas of cinnamon rolls, maple syrup, and strawberry jam with herbaceous undertones of licorice, cloves, and baking spices. The palate leads with woodsy notes of tobacco, campfire ash, and earl grey tea followed by accents of ginger, mint, and melted chocolate. These decadent flavors carry over to the finish, which is balanced by a subtle, bright wisp of lychee berries.
Since the bourbon blend was bottled at cask strength (like nearly all BCS products), the brand recommends enjoying it with a small splash of spring water, which will unlock top notes of orange peel, pecan pie, black cherry soda, and hot cocoa with fresh undercurrents of papaya and honeydew.
Barrell Craft Spirits 12-Year Bourbon Finished in Toasted American Oak Casks Price & Availability
The BCS 12-Year Bourbon Finished in Toasted American Oak Casks was bottled at 113.4 proof (56.7 percent ABV). It’s available now through the brand’s website and at select retailers nationwide and for a suggested retail price of $160 per 750 ml bottle.